Melbourne’s Personally Picked raked in $280k over one month of lockdown

In one month this Melbourne duo raked in $280,000 as things went a “bit crazy” with the pandemic and they want to tackle one pet hate of customers.

Kezia Hallam and Samantha Lynn would have never believed that a worldwide pandemic would cause their business to take off, but with cards that offered this simple message: “Sorry things are a bit sh*t right now”, it summed up the national mood.

The Melbourne women, who met at university while studying marketing, had always wanted to own a business.

When they moved into together in their third year at uni, they used to throw around ideas with everything from bliss balls – which they decided they didn’t have the nutritional background to do – and even an email marketing platform that wasn’t budget friendly.

But with a love of gifting, they landed on an idea they thought would be a winner.

“There wasn’t anyone in Australia doing gifts where you could build your own gift boxes, instead the gift boxes or hampers were generic or all the same items,” Ms Hallam told news.com.au.

“We thought we could do something different and create a cool online area.”

In April 2019, their business called PersonallyPicked, was launched on the back of their savings, a credit card and a $5000 loan from Ms Hallam’s dad.

Over the last 12 months, PersonallyPicked has seen a 250 per cent increase in sales, with the online gifting trend seeing no sign of slowing down. Picture: Supplied

The focus was on providing gift options that would support local business and Ms Lynn even scoured markets for ideas.

“When we launched we had about 60 products and we thought that was a pretty amazing offering as it was still one of the larger inventories in the gifting game,” Ms Hallam said. “But we have a brand new website coming in November and are going to launch a bunch of new products so we will extend to over 200 products.”

Gift options range from alcohol to food to homewares and books, as well as games, eye masks, scrunchies, beauty products, candles, socks and toys.

Initially, the duo would pack the gift boxes from a spare bedroom in a place Ms Lynn was renting and their side hustle was slow going, Ms Hallam admitted, mainly picking up around special occasions like Mother’s and Father’s Day and Christmas

But the pandemic has seen the business boom with orders increasing from 10 to over 50 a day.

In August alone, they made $280,000 in just one month. The female-founded company is now on track to hit their first seven figure revenue year, in only their third year of operating.

PersonallyPicked says that over 95 per cent of their customers choose to build their own personalised gift box. Picture: Supplied

During “lockdown spikes” in Sydney and Melbourne, ‘’just because’’ gifts were making up 30 per cent of the company’s total customer sales, seeing a growth of 99.3 per cent in the last seven months.

There was also over $150,000 worth of corporate sales dedicated to businesses taking the time to lift their staff’s spirits while working from home.

Some of the most popular gift items included drinks such as Melbourne Martini cocktails in a jar, Just a Glass Wines and T2 teas.

Chocolate is also a popular addition, including honeycomb and rocky road, while Glasshouse candles are also a regular pick, said Ms Hallam.

For those more indecisive or in need of a little gifting inspo there are also ready-made gift boxes for a quick solution.

Their beauty wellness products include the Aunty Honey Heat Packs, Lapcos Face Masks and Huxter Bath Salts. Picture: Supplied

The women, aged 27 and 26, have also gone full time with the business and secured a bigger warehouse.

“Every time Melbourne would go into lockdown it was getting busier and busier and it wasn’t one peak, it was substantially growing as time went on,” said Ms Hallam.

“It was all a bit crazy and we were meeting every night to pack boxes and we were both still working full time.

“So we were meeting at the warehouse to pack boxes and meeting on the weekends as well and trying to cram as much work on the admin and business side too.”

The pandemic has also created more competition in the space but Ms Hallam said they are not worried.

“We have seen new companies pop up but it’s all about being aesthetically pleasing and they seem to have a niche focus on pastel pinks, which is a very specific target market,” she said.

“We are a company that caters to everyone for everything.”

Puzzles, quiz games and cocktail recipe books are also part of the range. Picture: Supplied

Now their “biggest dream” is to offer a service that can do same day delivery and tackle people’s pet hate in general on waiting times for online orders.

“We can do same day delivery for Melbourne metro and that’s one of most popular selections from people,” she explained.

“So we would love to get to a point where we could grow enough to cater to all of the capital cities in Australia and expand where we could offer that service.

“As we know how useful it is for a various range of reasons to make sure people can send love on specific days such as birthdays, but also for a need to cater to timeliness and time sensitive occasions like the death of loved ones or if they are thinking of you, it’s important for them send their love quickly.”

Originally published as Melbourne’s Personally Picked raked in $280k over one month of lockdown