Marine Outdoors was founded in 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. It's part of a larger indoor and outdoor experience provider, Kikkapakka, established in 1999 and operates across southern Finland.
Customers can experience the waters of the capital by booking tours and renting out kayaks, canoes, and SUP boards. Marine Outdoors' goal is to reinforce the idea of being one with nature without the help of motors.
"We want to get people to appreciate the fact that you can experience and enjoy nature to the fullest without using motorized vehicles," says Jali, the founder of Marine Outdoors.
After three years of operations in Helsinki, Marine Outdoors found their old way of doing things to be outdated. Before, all bookings were accepted by phone and manually logged onto a piece of paper. Marine Outdoors wanted to find a modern, scalable solution that would streamline everyday life at the shop.
On average, we used up a whole A4 piece of paper taking bookings. With the current volumes we have now, it would be impossible to manage bookings and inventory using only the pen and paper method
In addition to the three employees, Marine Outdoors also has seasonal workers during busier times, which means that the platform would have to be straightforward and easy to use. This way, their focus could stay on providing a great customer experience and further developing the business rather than learning how to use a tool.
After taking Twice into use, Marine Outdoors has found it to be an irreplaceable tool. Business kept growing even during COVID-19, during which Twice proved to be a huge help in being able to operate smoothly and safely.
Twice works as a great "secretary" — it provides us with information and data, helps avoid double bookings, and takes care of the financial side of running a rental business.
In addition to being a great inventory management tool, Jali pointed out how smooth the onboarding was and how easy it was to train the other employees to use the software.
As an entrepreneur you can't be afraid of change, so making the leap and digitalizing our processes wasn't intimidating. Twice has been great in showing all inventory-related information in real-time, it’s easy to use, and the customers have been happy
With a second location recently opened in Porvoo, we're looking forward to continuing our journey and growing together with Marine Outdoors.
Photo credit: Marine Outdoors.