Get posted on Kickstarter; raise a few thousand dollars; and you’re sorted, right?

Rob Ward, co-founder of Annex products, isn’t so sure. And he’s someone who should know: his company successfully raised double what it needed in July 2011; to launch the Opena, an iPhone case which doubles as a bottle opener.

“If you Google Kickstarter, all the articles are focused on doing a successful campaign,” says Ward.

“One thing I’ve found is that there is not enough information on how to turn a Kickstarter success into a business success.”

Ward has written a number of useful blog posts on how to set up a Kickstarter page for those outside of the US, but says the success of Annex comes down to turning success on the platform into a strong online store, and now a retail product (Annex is stocked in Myer, David Jones and on Amazon).

Ward says the markup of big name retailers can be as high as 70%, meaning something you can sell online and make a profit, may not be sustainable with bricks and mortar retail.

While it can be hard to translate a product that is profitable online into one profitable in stores, Ward says the marketing and publicity from a wacky idea can still be helpful.

“Everyone loves the idea. We said to retailers we’ve got 30,000 people on Facebook and if you buy it (the Opena), we’ll give you a plug.”

The pricing demands meant the team looked elsewhere for production. Ward said it was simply expensive to make the products in Australia.

“All our products are made in China from where they are shipped to warehouses in Melbourne, LA, Hong Kong and the UK.”

The Opena: an iPhone case which doubles as a bottle opener (image: Annex Products)

Annex uses ShipWire, an order fulfillment and logistics service, to manage inventory and shipping. It’s something, Ward says, Annex couldn’t have survived without.

“That’s been a big part of our success. In just six months, we were supplying more than 70 countries. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without it.”

ShipWire interfaces directly with the award-winning Annex Shopify store. For example, if someone in Sydney orders an iPod Opena through the online store, ShipWire will determine the customer’s proximity to its warehouses around the world.

It then provides shipping options from the closest warehouse — in this case Melbourne — listing costs for express post through to regular snail mail.

“You need to plan for success. Put the systems in place before you need them.”

On getting into your big retailers: Ward says the recent decision to recruit a dedicated US sales agent has paid off.

“They already had connections and could move quickly. We had signed with a big sales company, but we’re used to building real fast, and they move really slowly.

Annex plans to be a $3 million company in the next 12 months, although it may even surpass its own goal. The goal this year was to turnover $1 million by the end of the year; a target the business met a few months’ back.

Ward’s tips for building a successful retail business:

• Think big. Get your processes and systems sorted before you need to. This will help you scale quickly and can actually be the catalyst for scaling;
• Offer more than one product. Ward says it can be hard getting stocked if you’re a one-product company;
• Make sure your production costs are competitive. Otherwise, Ward says, you’ll get stuck when you try to sell to retailers. The markup can be close to 70% with some of the bigger retailers;
• Get your customer service sorted. Turning a bad experience for a customer into a positive one will get you social media hits and is a better marketing spend; and
• Find a good sales agent. Ward says startups often make the mistake of looking for a big company to distribute their product. Smaller can be better as it’s more likely they’ll sell your product.