Quality Bearings Online, an award-winning online supplier of engineering spares and bearings, has doubled its turnover for the third successive year, largely due to its flourishing export programme.

Established in 2002, the company began by targeting the UK market and saw slow initial growth. In 2015, it began to take advantage of a number of international opportunities which transformed its sales strategy.

With support from the Department for International Trade, Quality Bearings Online undertook a three-month research project, evaluating potential growth countries and market accessibility as well as analysing website traffic, competitors and pricing overseas.

Simon Riley, co-founder, explained: “This really helped give us focus, and we highlighted several key regions which we thought were accessible, and had growth potential.

“Our next step was then to develop the existing website, improving the user journey, giving customers in target countries a more tailored experience.

“This improved website conversion ratios and average order values almost overnight but as the orders began to grow, other challenges emerged.

“An early investment in integrated e-commerce software, stock control and accounting has really helped to keep our order handling costs down, whilst improving delivery times and accuracy.
“This system is fully scalable, giving us several years of growth without the need for further investment.

“All of this investment has paid off. Our team members don’t want to leave as they enjoy what they do, and we’re consistently coming up with new improvements, all generated by a bright, passionate and enthusiastic team.

“Maintaining our e-commerce edge is key, so we have our own dedicated website manager, Mark Harrison, who regularly checks how we perform against the best in industry.
He continues: “Exporting has revolutionised our business, allowing us to expand in a way we never thought possible.

“We now count some of the world’s largest companies as regular customers, and export every week to over 107 countries.”

“Having a clear vision and brand values is very important for future direction. Working with our team, we developed our vision several years ago.

“Everything we do now builds upon these values and our mission statement: Never Competing, Always Exceeding.”

The business has this year been shortlisted for Exporter of the Year in Lloyds Bank National Business Awards; and predicts it will double its turnover again in 2018/2019, with plans to expand further in both UK and export markets.