From ‘clicks to bricks’: leading Aussie dot-com opens superstore in South Melbourne

Bad Backs (badbacks.com.au), Australia’s number one destination for therapeutic back and joint pain products and resources, has opened its first Melbourne-based retail superstore at 486 City Road, South Melbourne, following a growing need for customers to ‘touch and feel’ their products.

Bad Backs (badbacks.com.au), Australia’s number one destination for therapeutic back and joint pain products and resources, has opened its first Melbourne-based retail superstore at 486 City Road, South Melbourne, following a growing need for customers to ‘touch and feel’ their products.

While the trend for online shopping continues to sweep the nation, the established dot-com is reversing the trend, and has in recent years opened shopfronts in Brisbane and Sydney, with more scheduled for 2008.  

Previous to its South Melbourne home, Bad Backs had a small retail offering at its warehouse in Port Melbourne, however the larger City Road premises gives Melbourne customers their first chance to access their 500+ catalogue range, from posture supports to ergonomic office equipment.

The comprehensive retail outlet is open Monday to Saturday, and offers 200 square metres of retail space and onsite free customer car parking.

“It was never part of our original business plan to open ‘bricks and mortar’ retail outlets, however customer service is a large part of our offering and through dialogue with our customers, we uncovered a growing need to ‘touch and feel’ the merchandise”, says Felicity Wood director of Bad Backs.

“More so than other online sellers, I believe that the nature of our products creates a need for a more tactile experience.  In addition some of our older customers are less confident with online shopping and need a little more reassurance before they buy”, explains Felicity. 

As a frustrated chronic back pain sufferer for 30 years, Felicity Wood identified a gap in the market for products and resources for back pain and seven years ago started badbacks.com.au, offering a combination of products and objective specialist information and research from multidisciplinary healthcare professionals.  With over 80% of the population experiencing back pain at one time or another, Felicity found that people increasingly were turning to the internet for answers. 

Since its inception in 2001, Bad Backs has gone from strength to strength, growing to become Australia’s number one destination for back pain relief resources and products.  Phenomenal growth in Australia led to international expansion, with the December 2006 launch of www.badbackstore.com in the US.

Bad Backs Melbourne Retail Store:                                  

486 City Rd
South Melbourne VIC 3205
(Melways Ref: 1C B10)

Freecall 1800-615-666

*High-res images of retail store available upon request*

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For further information please contact:

Rebecca Camilleri
PR Consultant to Bad Backs
Contact via email
Mobile: 0407 832 093