For many business owners, the new normal that came with the pandemic meant that business models suddenly needed to pivot to stay afloat. Suddenly, eCommerce grew exponentially, while foot traffic was reduced or cut off entirely because of lockdowns and local regulations. Many retailers made the transition into becoming predominantly online stores. What that meant, though, was changing the standard operating practices of their businesses in a significant way. MyWorks has become the go-to for streamlining that process for some companies in transition. We sat down with the owner of Seaflora Skincare, a WooCommerce skincare store, to find out how MyWorks software made his experience of going digital a more pleasant one.

Seaflora Skincare is a second-generation family-owned manufacturing company based on Vancouver Island, in British Colombia, Canada. The business was started in 1995 by Adam Butcher’s parents, who “never envisioned that the company would be as successful as it is and still running to this day.” Butcher and his partner, Chantelle, took over the business in 2015. They supply “338 individual skincare and cosmetic products that are sold online, on [their] own website, and exported to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China as well as the US.” They also supply their products to “spas, hotels, salons and retail stores across Canada, coast to coast.” When Butcher took over, he recognized that “ the internet was where they needed to be.” Though still primarily doing business through traditional retail and wholesale methods, the team decided to create an eCommerce store to “put a bigger focus on digital, on automation and new products.” “We’ve had an eCommerce store since 2010, but it was kind of in the background,” says Butcher. This was partly due to some of their partners and wholesale customers threatening to retract their business if Seaflora started selling their unique products directly. “That started to change in about 2014,” Butcher says. “It was around then that global companies started to open up their direct-to-consumer websites.”

“I am very thankful that we established an eCommerce store then,” says Butcher, “because when COVID hit, it was our website that saved this company.” The Seaflora team had a head start by already creating a website, allowing them to stand apart from their competitors in a time of global upheaval. “We were fortunate that we had already been focusing on eCommerce for three years, and then Covid hit,” observes Butcher. Everyone was scrambling. We had already been there, continuing to improve.” That’s not to say their business model didn’t change, though. Butcher says that when Covid hit, they lost 99% of their b2b business, and at the same time, their online sales doubled overnight.

“The one consistent through our site over the years has been WooCommerce,” says Butcher. “I don’t have a tech background. I am not a web developer, but it’s been great.” The Seaflora team also uses QuickBooks for all of their accounting and data management. “The orders come in, and the sales receipts are built and printed. They go to our fulfillment center here at our manufacturing plant,” and then they’re shipped. At the onset of the pandemic, however, Butcher had to reduce the staffing hours in his business and therefore had to take over a lot of the manual data transfer from their WooCommerce store into their QuickBooks. “I’d print off a stack of the orders every day,” he says, “and sit at the computer with QuickBooks open and type type type.” He realized just how monotonous and time-consuming manual data entry can be. “I thought, ‘this is nuts. This cannot go on. This isn’t sustainable. I can’t believe I’m paying somebody to do this.’ ” And so, Butcher chose to integrate MyWorks into the Seaflora system. “For too long, it was all manual,” Butcher says. “It’s kinda like putting a weight around your ankle and trying to go swimming. MyWorks QuickBooks Sync for WooCommerce solved all of that.”

Since installing MyWorks, the new Seaflora eCommerce workflow has been a breeze. “It saves at least an hour a day for someone,” Butcher says. “That’s at least an hour a day that they have to do something else that pushes our company forwards.” The freeing up of time spent doing boring, manual work has also been great for company morale. The Seaflora team’s “personal enlightenment” has drastically improved “now that they don’t have to sit there and do drudgery and data entry on our orders.” Butcher explains that “it takes a toll on your motivation and your enjoyment in what you’re doing” if you’re not interested in your work. Through MyWorks, Butcher decided to “limit the time that the team was spending on these redundant activities and increase the time generating new business and building new products and new systems.”

As for setting up MyWorks Sync, Butcher tells us it was “pretty straightforward.” “I handled the setup process,” he says. Apart from initially having to reach out to the MyWorks support team for “some assistance around different currencies,” Seaflora’s integration and experience with MyWorks in the last year has “been very smooth.” Butcher says they “haven’t encountered any issues that [they] haven’t been able to fix or overcome.”

Seaflora’s method of adjusting to fit the new normal is undoubtedly an experience that most business owners who operated through 2020 can identify with. What’s essential in this adjustment, though, is that your business maintains its strengths and values and stays a great place to work. MyWorks can help you make that happen. We couldn’t put it better than Adam Butcher when he says:

“We want to feel good about our jobs, rather than just being a robot. Let’s let the robots do the robot work.”

Schedule a demo to find out what our “robots” can do for you!