Rugs, hugs and UX love: how a personal touch delivered a new mum an award-winning E-Commerce brand

A near-obsessive focus on the user experience and cracking the delivery code with the help of a friendly local courier has helped a new mum weave an award-winning and fast-growing baby rug brand – all from her pint-sized Bondi apartment.

Rugabub, a bespoke E-Commerce brand that delivers unique playmats that look like designer rugs to parents across the country, has soared from a pipedream to one of Australia’s top homegrown baby rug startups, thanks to owner Dana Weil’s unique business model. In the first full year of business, Rugabub had a year-on-year turnover of 700,000.

A year later in 2022, this figure had more than doubled, surpassing $1,400,000. Rugabub was also awarded an Australian Good Design Award in 2022, 1st Place and Editor’s Choice in the Baby Accessories Category of the Clean & Conscious Awards 2023, and a 2023 Parent & Baby Award.

Dana says the Rugabub model places user experience (UX) at the heart – an experience she says starts from the moment an order is placed, through to the parcel arriving in top condition on time to the customer’s doorstep. She insists it has not only helped her standout from a crowded baby mat market but has seen the mumpreneur make lifelong friends with some of her customers.

For Dana, the Rugabub journey began in Sydney in 2020 just weeks after COVID-19 led to global shutdowns, with borders closing and everyday life griding to a halt. Spurred to action after her husband lost his job as a helicopter pilot to the pandemic – when their baby was only two months old – the new mum launched the E-Commerce start-up that she says was born from a market gap and the inside scoop on what mums really want.

While a top UX experience isn’t necessarily always part of the E-Commerce business model, especially when you have low profit margins like we do – for us it has remained paramount.

For Dana, the biggest hurdle to creating the perfect business model quickly became delivery partners, admitting she worked her way through just about every parcel and courier company in the country before finding one that was reliable and aligned with her own business model.

Dana says she’s even become friends with her local courier Russell and is able to directly call his mobile for second pickups.

CouriersPlease is Australia’s fastest growing franchised courier service and provides shipping solutions for E-Commerce retailers. CEO Richard Thame says being a vital part of an inspiring startup journey like Rugabub’s remains one of the best parts of his job and is fundamentally why the franchise is continuing to expand so exponentially.