No Pong is likely one of the hottest pure deodorant manufacturers in Australia. They launched on WooCommerce in 2015, and have since grown from a single product to a global enterprise with over 200 SKUs throughout three core markets.
Their progress in recognition was supported by pivotal adjustments to their ecommerce infrastructure, switching hosts and including assets as they have been wanted — a profit that SaaS platforms can’t present.
We not too long ago chatted with Melanie McVean and Chris Caley, co-founders of No Pong, to be taught extra concerning the enterprise and their success.
- 200+ lively SKUs that embrace easy merchandise, bundles, subscriptions, and wholesale merchandise; add or replace merchandise each few months.
- Use a mixture of market and customized extensions for CX, logistics, and advertising and marketing.
- Promote to Australia, Canada, and the US.
The corporate started in 2015 when Melanie, who had been making her personal deodorant, gave some to her husband, Chris, for a surf competitors. Impressed by how effectively the do-it-yourself product labored, Chris and Melanie determined, then and there, to show it right into a enterprise.
Not lengthy after, they launched on WooCommerce with one product bought in singles or as a subscription. They now have their very own warehouse in Australia, supply 11 completely different merchandise (with 200+ lively SKUs), and help each their D2C and wholesale prospects with a group of 20.
No Pong has develop into a family identify in Australia, having achieved 63% model consciousness amongst deodorant customers primarily based on a current YouGov survey.* No Pong is extensively accessible round Australia by way of D2C ecommerce, on-line marketplaces, and third-party retail. Additionally they manufacture in Canada for the North American market.
*All figures, until in any other case acknowledged, are from YouGov. Whole pattern dimension was 1000 adults. Subject work was undertaken between December twelfth and sixteenth of 2025. The figures have been weighted and are consultant of all Australian adults (aged 18+).
No Pong has made full use of WooCommerce’s versatility, flexibility, and scalability. They began small after which upgraded assets and capabilities as wanted — a boon to each financials and the client expertise.
No Pong selected WooCommerce in 2015 as a result of they may get their website up and operating shortly (“actually 24 hours”) at a really low price with a view to validate whether or not they had a viable enterprise concept.
Because the enterprise grew, they stayed with WooCommerce attributable to its composable nature.
“WooCommerce has afforded us quite a lot of flexibility with our tech stack. Each main ecommerce integration is supported, as are all the logistics, success, and stock administration integrations we use,” stated Melanie.
“Within the uncommon occasion we have to join one thing that’s a bit extra customized, we’ve at all times been capable of finding a manner. We’ve but to hit a tough ‘laptop says no’ compatibility difficulty which is certainly a serious profit by way of flexibility.”
“With WooCommerce, actually something is feasible.”
— Chris Caley, Co-founder, No Pong
Development challenges got here shortly, and SaaS wasn’t the reply
By 2017, they’d outgrown their preliminary setup. In 2018, they launched in Canada, and thought of migrating to different platforms to help their progress.
After evaluating each Shopify and BigCommerce over a two-year interval, they met Saucal, a licensed Woo Company Associate — and “one of many really transformational factors in our business trip.”
“We spent an enormous period of time, cash, and assets doing due diligence on Shopify and BigCommerce, solely to search out ourselves again at WooCommerce,” Melanie shared.
“We discovered the opposite platforms extremely restrictive and costly, with cart and checkout experiences that we didn’t really feel have been best-in-class.”
— Chris Caley, Co-founder, No Pong
Chris and Melanie have been additionally delay by the SaaS platforms’ considerably larger price for options like transport tables and subscriptions. For companies promoting low-cost merchandise, the proportion price per order is untenable.
Slightly than migrating platforms, they switched their internet hosting to Kinsta in 2019. The extra assets instantly gave them smoother scalability and higher website stability.
In 2021, No Pong accomplished a full website redesign to enhance pace and efficiency, after which migrated to WordPress VIP internet hosting in 2022 for even higher pace, efficiency, and scalability.
Chris and Melanie attribute a lot of their success to a persistent give attention to high quality. They’ve saved many enterprise capabilities in-house somewhat than outsourcing to 3rd events to make sure high quality remained excessive.
“Any time you will have a dependency on a 3rd celebration, there’s a danger that once they go down, all of us go down collectively,” Chris famous. “Bringing a few of these capabilities in-house has allowed us to not solely elevate the bar, but in addition to boost our stage of management over the outcomes we’re aiming for.”
On the technical aspect, the advantages of versatile, high-quality internet hosting and infrastructure are clear.
“The primary variations of our website have been hosted on low-cost, shared internet hosting companies that basically weren’t suited to a scaling order volumes and databases. Our websites at the moment are hosted on WordPress VIP, and might completely take something we, or our prospects, throw at them.”
The pliability WooCommerce has supplied signifies that No Pong might be versatile too — which is essential for monetary and technical viability by way of intervals of progress. “We’re always revising and renewing our processes. The easy cause is that each time you scale by an order of magnitude, you mainly should throw out all of your methods and processes and discover new ones.”
The group is constantly working to make sure that their web site is a vacation spot that prospects return to. In 2026, they’re engaged on one other website redesign to enhance the cellular expertise, restructuring the positioning to enhance conversion charges, and constructing some enjoyable UI/UX options that reward consumer conduct.
Now and at all times, No Pong focuses on making merchandise that their prospects love whereas offering distinctive customer support alongside the way in which.
“Having that belief, credibility, and help from our prospects is likely one of the methods we really feel we will future-proof ourselves towards the inevitable tide of change.”
Vanessa has spent her profession writing useful issues for folks throughout the tech area. Exterior of labor, she enjoys coaching for triathlon, rotating by way of hobbies, and exploring new locations each city and pure. She has two fluffy cats, maintains just a few succulents, and has far too many books on her TBR shelf.
