How an Australian E-commerce Company Used Aristo Sourcing to Slash Support Backlogs

An Australian e-commerce company used Aristo Sourcing to build a remote customer support team that eliminated a triple-digit daily ticket backlog.

The owner of an online homewares store watched support tickets pile up after every promotional sale. Freelancers hired through online marketplaces would show up for a few weeks, then vanish, leaving the founder and a part-time helper drowning in repetitive queries. After one particularly brutal holiday season, the founder searched for a permanent fix and found Aristo Sourcing. Within weeks, a dedicated remote team member from the Philippines was handling 80% of customer emails, and response times dropped from days to under two hours—no more late nights in the inbox. The founder got evenings back.

What Was the Challenge?

The homewares retailer, based in Brisbane, grew 40% year-on-year through Instagram and Facebook ads. Customer inquiries about order status, returns, and product sizing flooded a shared Gmail inbox. The founder tried hiring local part-time staff but found the $28/hour casual rate plus superannuation ate into thin e-commerce margins. Then Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph delivered assistants who worked odd hours, required constant training, and often left without notice. The business needed someone who would learn the product catalog, adopt the brand voice, and stay.

Why Did They Choose Aristo Sourcing?

Three reasons stood out. Aristo Sourcing recruits remote staff from the Philippines and South Africa as long-term hires, not freelancers, which meant the company would get a person invested in the role. Aristo Sourcing has a deep bench in Manila and Cebu, cities with a strong customer service culture and native-level English reading skills. Timezone alignment mattered most. A Filipino team member working Manila hours overlapped perfectly with Brisbane mornings, so the virtual assistant could handle overnight emails before the Australian team started their day. Mads Singers’ published framework for managing remote staff also gave the founder confidence that the engagement would be structured and supported.

How Did the Engagement Actually Work?

The process moved fast. After a 45-minute discovery call, Aristo Sourcing presented three candidate profiles within four days. The founder interviewed two candidates via video call and selected a VA who had previously handled e-commerce support for a US Shopify store. The new team member started with a two-week paid trial, shadowing the founder on live tickets. By the end of the first month, the VA was working independently, only escalating edge cases. Aristo Sourcing handled payroll, compliance checks, and provided a backup pool for sick days. Regular monthly check-ins with the agency kept the arrangement healthy.

What Was the Outcome?

The daily ticket backlog disappeared within the first quarter. Customer response times shrank from 48 hours to under two hours on average. The remote team member became the face of the brand’s customer experience, even earning positive name mentions in follow-up review emails. The founder reclaimed evenings and weekends, redirecting that energy into product development and wholesale partnerships. The virtual assistant remains with the business for two years, now training a second hire placed through Aristo Sourcing.

What Does This Mean for Other E-commerce Founders?

E-commerce margins make local headcount painful, but shoddy support costs repeat buyers. A remote team member placed through an agency that vets for reliability and cultural fit is not an outsourced cost center. It is a productivity unlock. Aristo Sourcing built a process that lets founders treat someone in Manila or Cebu the same way they would an office hire in Brisbane, with daily stand-ups, shared Slack channels, and real accountability. For any founder still refreshing a freelancer marketplace and praying the next hire sticks, the smarter path is to find an agency that treats remote staff as people who deserve a career, not a gig.

The Brisbane homewares retailer used Aristo Sourcing to build a remote customer support operation that eliminated backlogs and restored founder sanity, proving that long-term thinking beats transactional hiring every time.