How Revant Cosmetics Decreased Shipping Times By 20% While Reducing Costs

The Results

Challenges

Spending More Time On Order Fulfillment Than Focusing on Company Growth

Previously, Revant was filling every one of their ecommerce orders by hand – including picking, packing, and printing their own shipping labels from home. Once the company reached over 1,000 orders a month, packing every order themselves became unfeasible; more time was spent filling orders than focusing on growing the business.

Revant knew they needed a new solution if they wanted to achieve their growth goals. They knew that they could choose to focus on either fulfillment operations or growing the business, but not both. Revant decided they wanted to avoid managing fulfillment in-house as it would require them to build and hire their own team – an expensive alternative that also meant finding warehouse space and all the operational overhead that came with it. Revant recognized that they wanted a partner who could become familiar with their operations and scale with their goals, all while offering competitive pricing.

Complicated Fulfillment Process With High Shipping Prices and Long Shipping Times

Along with picking and packing each order, Revant was manually dropping off packages to a courier on a weekly basis. The lack of scheduled courier pick-ups increased order shipping times, and not being able to negotiate with couriers led to high shipping costs. Their in-house fulfillment process had worked when Revant was just starting out, but simply wasn’t optimized for the increase in order volume they were experiencing – and there was no way to scale.

Difficulty Navigating Complex 3PL Pricing While Comparing Vendors With Hidden Costs and Opaque Pricing

Based on their criteria, Revant Cosmetics decided that the best fulfillment solution for their business was to partner with a Third Party Logistics (3PL) company. Having never partnered with a 3PL, they worried about hidden or unexpected costs. They soon discovered that many 3PL providers have complex pricing models, with hidden fees and charges that would result in vastly different fulfillment costs to what was being presented. Revant was also struggling with how to compare the costs of different providers due to the convoluted and varied pricing models and structures. It was important to understand what their actual monthly costs would look like, but benchmarking and comparing proposals was difficult.

Solutions

Outsourcing Fulfillment to Shipfusion, Freeing Revant to Focus on Growing the Business

After an extensive search, Revant selected Shipfusion as their order fulfillment partner. They were initially attracted by the competitive fulfillment and shipping rates, as well as the technology capabilities Shipfusion offered as a tech company. However, it was Shipfusion’s proven track record over the course of a decade in the industry, glowing reputation amongst customers, and dedicated account management, that sealed the deal. By outsourcing their order fulfillment to Shipfusion, Revant had peace of mind that orders were going to be fulfilled on-time, accurately, and without having to worry – all while reducing costs.

Scaling Order Fulfillment During Peak Seasons

With Revant’s products flying off the shelf and plans to further grow the business, the cosmetics company needed to find a fulfillment solution that would provide them more time to focus on growing their business. They also needed a partner that could scale operations as their business grew and accommodate expected increases in order volume.

Dedicated In-House Support That Understands Revant’s Business

Revant meets regularly with their dedicated Account Manager to discuss logistics and business operations. Issues, concerns, or ideas can be brought up during these meetings to talk through solutions or new processes that can be implemented. Even with lower order volumes at the beginning of their partnership, Revant’s Account Manager was dedicated to understanding their business and the unique fulfillment needs of the cosmetics industry. According to Revant, “Having access to someone who is familiar with the business can really help to unlock that growth.”

A recent challenge that Revant faced was finding a new third-party freight forwarder and broker to bring their products into the US.

Revant contacted their dedicated Account Manager, who used Shipfusion’s industry contacts to find a reliable freight forwarder and obtain quotes for the cosmetics company. This successful outcome demonstrated to Revant that Shipfusion truly is an industry expert and could offer a hand with all aspects of logistics.

For Revant, having a dedicated in-warehouse Account Manager set Shipfusion apart from other 3PL providers. When facing fulfillment issues, other 3PLs require their clients to submit a ticket and wait for a representative to contact them. Since other 3PLs often outsource their account managers and customer support, these wait times can severely fluctuate, especially during high volume and peak seasons. Typically, account managers from other 3PLs rarely see a client’s product since they aren’t present in the actual warehouse, meaning they aren’t able to spot or solve problems firsthand. Shipfusion’s client-dedicated account managers are not only in-house; they are also on-site in the same warehouse as the client’s product. With Revant Cosmetic’s 3PL team only steps from their products, the company can obtain answers in minutes.

"We can’t emphasize enough what a difference it makes having access to a dedicated Account Manager." - Revant Cosmetics

Leveraging Strategic Warehouse Locations and Carrier Partnerships to Improve Delivery Times and Costs

With a time-consuming and expensive shipping process, Revant needed a solution that would lower their shipping times and costs.

Shipfusion’s multiple warehouses across the US and Canada stood out to Revant. They knew utilizing multiple warehouse locations would allow them to serve a broader customer base while reducing delivery times and costs. Now Revant ships from multiple Shipfusion locations and uses real-time inventory tracking within different warehouses to manage their inventory efficiently. As a result, Revant’s average order transit times to customers have improved by 20%.

Previously, Revant did not have the shipping volume needed to negotiate discounts directly with shipping carriers and paid premiums on shipping orders across the US and Canada. Revant now leverages Shipfusion’s industry relationships with major carriers to access better shipping rates on all orders. Revant further optimized costs by utilizing Shipfusion’s packing and shipping processes, which always use appropriate-sized packaging.

Seamlessly Integrating With Revant’s Shopify Ecommerce Platform

Revant Cosmetics has always used Shopify as its ecommerce platform. During their onboarding process, Shipfusion seamlessly integrated with Revant’s Shopify store to synchronize all order and fulfillment data. The rest of Revant’s onboarding was very hands-off, with Shipfusion handling most of it. Since Revant ships from multiple warehouses, Shipfusion developed a system during onboarding to direct orders to each warehouse depending on the customer’s location, ensuring optimal shipping routes each time. Shipfusion easily set up a system for creating bundles of Revant’s products for more efficient fulfillment when customers ordered different item combinations.

Understanding Shipfusion’s Transparent Pricing Model

Pricing was an important factor when Revant was deciding which 3PL to partner with. Many of the 3PLs Revant considered had convoluted pricing models with little transparency and many hidden fees. This made it difficult to understand the breakdown of costs per order and the additional fees associated with ecommerce fulfillment.

"Not only was [Shipfusion’s pricing] competitive in terms of picking, packing, shipping, and freight, it was also very easy to understand and transparent." - Revant Cosmetics

Using Customized Dashboards to Coordinate Inventory Levels

Revant works closely with Shipfusion’s analytics and reporting tools to track live inventory weekly across the multiple warehouse locations that Revant products ship from. Using Shipfusion’s user-friendly technology, Revant can access dashboards to instantly look into their inventory, stock levels, shipment updates, back orders, and more. Access to easy-to-understand reports and analytics tools like inventory forecasting allows Revant to plan accordingly and understand when to send more inventory and to which warehouse.

Results

Since partnering with Shipfusion, Revant Cosmetics has seen their delivery times decrease by 20%, reduced shipping costs substantially, and increased order volume by 40% year-over-year. Revant has found a long-term fulfillment partner who scales with them and gives them back the time they need to focus on growing their business. Both companies are confident in their future together and look forward to expanding the partnership.