No Pong stands out as a leading natural deodorant brand in Australia. Since its inception on WooCommerce in 2015, it has expanded from a single product to a global enterprise with over 200 SKUs in three key markets.
Their rise to prominence was aided by strategic enhancements to their ecommerce framework, such as changing hosts and adding resources as required — a flexibility not offered by software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms.
We recently had a conversation with Melanie McVean and Chris Caley, the co-founders of No Pong, to delve deeper into their business and achievements.
- They manage 200+ active SKUs, including simple products, bundles, subscriptions, and wholesale items, with regular product additions or updates.
- Their customer experience (CX), logistics, and marketing are supported by a combination of Marketplace and custom extensions.
- They cater to customers in Australia, Canada, and the US.
The journey began in 2015 when Melanie, who had been creating her own deodorant, shared it with her husband, Chris, for a surf event. Impressed by the homemade product’s effectiveness, they decided then and there to transform it into a business.
Shortly after, they launched on WooCommerce with a single product available individually or as a subscription. They now operate from their own warehouse in Australia, offer 11 distinct products (with over 200 active SKUs), and serve both direct-to-consumer and wholesale clients with a team of 20.
No Pong has become a well-known brand in Australia, achieving 63% brand awareness among deodorant users based on a recent YouGov survey.* Their products are widely accessible across Australia via D2C ecommerce, online marketplaces, and third-party retailers. Additionally, they manufacture in Canada to cater to the North American market.
*All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov. Total sample size was 1,000 adults. Field work was undertaken between December 12th and 16th of 2025. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all Australian adults (aged 18+).
No Pong has leveraged WooCommerce’s adaptability, versatility, and scalability to their advantage. They started small and upgraded resources and capabilities as required, benefiting both financially and in terms of customer experience.
In 2015, No Pong opted for WooCommerce to quickly launch their site (“literally 24 hours”) at a low cost to validate their business concept.
As they expanded, they stuck with WooCommerce due to its modular nature.
“WooCommerce has given us significant flexibility with our tech stack. It supports all major ecommerce integrations, as well as the logistics, fulfillment, and inventory management integrations we utilize,” Melanie explained.
“If we ever need to connect something more custom, we always find a solution. We haven’t encountered a hard ‘computer says no’ compatibility issue yet, which is a major advantage in terms of flexibility.”
“With WooCommerce, literally anything is possible.”
— Melanie McVean, Co-founder, No Pong
Growth challenges arose swiftly, and SaaS wasn’t the solution
By 2017, they had outgrown their initial setup. In 2018, they expanded to Canada and contemplated switching to other platforms to support their growth.
After assessing Shopify and BigCommerce over two years, they crossed paths with Saucal, a certified Woo Agency Partner — a turning point in their business journey.”
“We invested a significant amount of time, money, and resources in evaluating Shopify and BigCommerce, only to circle back to WooCommerce,” Melanie shared.
“We found the other platforms highly restrictive and expensive, with cart and checkout experiences that we didn’t feel were best-in-class.”
— Chris Caley, Co-founder, No Pong
Chris and Melanie were deterred by the substantially higher costs on SaaS platforms for features like shipping tables and subscriptions. For businesses selling low-cost items, the percentage fee per order is unsustainable.
Instead of switching platforms, they migrated their hosting to Kinsta in 2019. The additional resources immediately provided smoother scalability and improved site stability.
In 2021, No Pong underwent a complete site redesign to enhance speed and performance, followed by a migration to WordPress VIP hosting in 2022 for even better speed, performance, and scalability.
Chris and Melanie credit much of their success to a steadfast commitment to quality. They opted to keep many business functions in-house rather than outsourcing to third parties to maintain high quality.
“Relying on a third party introduces the risk that if they falter, we all suffer the consequences,” Chris pointed out. “Bringing some of those functions in-house has not only raised the bar but also given us more control over the outcomes we desire.”
From a technical standpoint, the benefits of flexible, high-quality hosting and infrastructure are evident.
“Our initial site versions were hosted on inexpensive, shared hosting services ill-suited for scaling order volumes and databases. Our sites now reside on WordPress VIP and can effortlessly handle anything we or our customers throw at them.”
The flexibility provided by WooCommerce allows No Pong to adapt as needed — crucial for financial and technical sustainability during periods of growth. “We’re constantly reviewing and refreshing our processes. Each time we scale by an order of magnitude, we essentially need to revamp all our systems and processes and find new ones.”
The team continuously works to ensure their website remains a destination customers revisit. In 2026, they are focusing on another site redesign to enhance the mobile experience, restructuring the site for improved conversion rates, and incorporating engaging UI/UX features that incentivize user engagement.
Now and always, No Pong’s priority is creating products that resonate with their customers while delivering exceptional customer service throughout the journey.
Feeling stuck with your ecommerce solution? Let’s talk.
Vanessa has spent her career writing helpful things for people across the tech space. Outside of work, she enjoys training for triathlon, rotating through hobbies, and exploring new places both urban and natural. She has two fluffy cats, maintains a few succulents, and has far too many books on her TBR shelf.
