How EFTPOS Air’s tap-to-pay app helped this mobile business owner get sales moving

One large dog with a huge appetite prompted Emma Maskell to set up a local market stall business selling tasty pet treats.

With the help of Westpac EFTPOS Air app, she’s now ringing up dollars that more than foot Muttley’s food bill.

What we'll cover:

• How Mutt's Munchies started as a successful mobile business
• The importance of choosing the right mobile payments platform
• The advantages of EFTPOS Air as a payments solution for mobile businesses

 

How to save nearly $4,000 a year was the challenge that led Emma Maskell to establish a small market stall business selling dog food and treats, with a little help taking payments from Westpac's EFTPOS Air app.

 

“I wanted a Dogue de Bordeaux and I knew he was going to cost a fortune to feed,” says the owner of Mutt’s Munchies in regional Victoria.

 

“Even as a puppy, Muttley’s paw was as big as my hand and today he’s 65kg and eats 1.5kg of food a day. So, I started looking locally for a supplier of meat to dehydrate into nutritious treats.”

 

Animal lover Maskell also has two chihuahuas, Bear and Dozer, and a cat called Wombat, so her pet food bill is meaty.

 

Today using Westpac’s EFTPOS Air app for 75 per cent of transactions, she sells wet food and treats at farmers’ markets in towns around the NSW-Victoria border and supplies five local stores.

 

The mobile business owner loves that there’s no need for additional hardware. She also appreciates same-day settlement to maximise cash flow, and the convenience of a payments process that allows her dog-mad customers to securely pay.

 

In this Q&A Maskell shares some useful takeouts from her mobile business experience, including how she landed on the right payment solutions.

How did making dog treats become a successful mobile business?

Friends asked me if I’d be interested in having a local market stall.

 

I already had a couple of small dehydrators and I dried beef heart, tongue, liver and kidney, as well as chicken feet and necks – so I put everything into three different sized bags for $6, $15 and $30, and went to my first market last November.

 

I sold out in two and a half hours and made $500. I was over the moon.

 

Now I have about 15 different lines, including fresh and frozen food as well as cooked mixed packs, bones and big biscuits, and I’ll be selling them at 12 local markets.

What’s the vibe around your mobile business?

I drive my ute up to 140 km to get to markets – and Muttley comes too.

 

My customers are all mad doggie people and they bring their dogs over to meet him.

 

Lots of people have never seen a dog his size. I have a gazebo and a fence around it to keep kids out and Muttley in.

 

I let peoples’ dogs try the treats before they buy them and I get involved in long chats explaining how everything is made, and about dogs, of course.

Why is it so important to choose the right mobile payments platform?

I started out just taking cash, but people asked if I had EFTPOS to accept credit card payments. It seemed a pain because I’m not tech savvy and I was wary of online scams.

 

Then I enquired about a couple of markets where I couldn’t attend unless I could accept card payments.

I contacted Westpac and found out about EFTPOS Air, it was what I needed to process card payments.

Payment data is encrypted in the same way as it is for payments made on an EFTPOS machine and I have the app on my phone so it’s accessible at any time.

 

I’ve been in a caravan park, pulled out my phone and made a debit card sale with tap-to-pay.

What are the advantages of Westpac EFTPOS Air as a payment solution?

I’m a sole trader and, as long as you have a Westpac business bank account to settle into you can apply for EFTPOS Air online.

 

Downloading the app was easy and I’ve customised it, so everything is preloaded ease of product selection.

 

When customers are ready to pay, I just select the product and price I have preloaded. I can also send invoices and receipts.

 

I can even recover the full cost of the payment processing fee – there’s a section in the app that asks if you want to do that and customers don’t mind paying a few extra cents.

 

The point of sale functionality means, I can see which items were bestsellers at the end of each market.

 

Most customers now pay using a card but EFTPOS Air can also record cash transactions too, so I can give customers a few options.

What does a typical week look like for your mobile business?

I work five afternoons a week in a dairy, so I have to get things done for Mutt’s Munchies in the morning.

 

I spend 25 hours preparing stock weekly. That includes everything from picking up raw ingredients to making up tubs of wet food, mince patties or biscuits and dehydrating treats.

 

I have a commercial slicer and four dehydrators that are going 24/7. And I have an 800-litre freezer and a 60-litre car fridge.

Where do you see your business going with EFTPOS Air?

People want healthy food for their dogs now but if you look online raw, natural dehydrated treats are really expensive.

 

(It’s estimated the dog treat market in Australia is worth about $342 million a year and total dog food spend is around $2.44 billion.)

 

I sell 1kg of wet food for $10 a tub. My only overheads are materials and electricity so I can afford to be competitive and my packaging is just snap lock bags with a business card stapled to them.

 

I’m not in business to make a million bucks but, if it pays for my own dogs’ food, with a little extra, that has its own benefits and I’m happy.