Jun 14, 2018 | Blog
Nashua Nutrition began humbly in 2003, in a 350 square foot nutrition store inside a local gym. Today, it is a booming, multimillion dollar company housed in a 15,000 square foot facility. We sat down with owner Eric Godshall to discuss their success
- How did Nashua Nutrition get where it is today?
Nashua Nutrition’s core customers were gym members who liked the convenience of purchasing reasonably-priced, nutritional products at the gym. While running the small store, our founder Glenda Godshall worked hand-in-hand with a nutritionist at the gym to help people improve their eating habits and lose weight. She used a line of medical-grade food products as part of the nutritional regime, which allowed clients to eat regularly while reducing their caloric intake and speeding up their metabolism. As Glenda continued to counsel those seeking to lose weight, she realized how many individuals were misinformed or uneducated about safe, sustainable weight loss.
So, she decided to build a website to advertise these high-protein, medical-grade products to those struggling to lose weight. It wasn’t long before the website was generating substantial traffic, and people from all over the country were purchasing the products online. As business grew, Glenda brought in several more lines of medical-grade nutritional products, as well as bariatric-specific vitamins, which enabled Nashua Nutrition to become a “one stop shop” for weight loss and bariatric needs.
- How have you approached marketing and growing sales?
In our early stages, we relied heavily on PPC ads (Google, Bing, etc.). It also helped that we focused on providing the lowest price and superior customer service! Additionally, to remain competitive in our rapidly growing market, we have started adding value to our customers’ experience through social media, informational blogs, and loyalty programs. By implementing these programs, we are becoming a weight loss and bariatric resource for information as much as an ecommerce store. When a customer comes to our site to receive valuable information, they are more apt to purchase from us. We want our customers to be loyal to us as much as we are loyal to them.
- What have been your challenges, and how did you adapt as Nashua Nutrition grew?
As I imagine is typical of any small business, we’ve had our fair share of challenges and obstacles. They’ve ranged anywhere from restrictive vendor policies to not having adequate space for expansion. When we started to outgrow our warehouse, we would try to minimize the floor space needed. This was done by staggering our ordering, optimizing our box deliveries, and getting creative on stock picking locations. When we would hit an obstacle, we always found a way to adapt to the situation. Constant monitoring of our industry, it’s trends and competition, have allowed us to keep in touch with our customers’ needs and fulfill them to the best of our ability.
- Have you noticed any change in customer expectations when it comes to shipping orders over the past several years?
Absolutely. With the invention of Amazon Prime, customers are expecting to get free shipping and 2 day delivery. In order to try to compete in the Amazon world, we have lowered our free shipping minimums and use expedited shipping methods when it makes sense.
- You recently moved and now have a new warehouse along with a store. What made you choose Shiphero?
We realized that the systems we were using were antiquated and were not allowing us to work efficiently. Since we moved to a much larger location, we knew that our existing methods and software wouldn’t work. We were looking for a single system that could handle all aspects of our warehouse and order fulfillment. After much research we came across ShipHero which turned out to be the perfect fit for our company.
- Is there a particular ShipHero feature that has been especially helpful for you?
There are 3 core features that have greatly increased our efficiencies and savings:
- Shopify Integration for Live Inventory: Previously, we had disparate systems that didn’t “talk to each other.” This required us to constantly monitor inventory levels manually. If we saw something was running low, we would have to put a counter on an item in an effort to prevent overselling. This was a time consuming and often inaccurate process. Now that we have ShipHero, our inventory is live so there is no longer a need to manually add counters to our inventory. And, with the new reserve functionality, we have a buffer to prevent any potential backorders.
- Picking Efficiencies: Before ShipHero, we were using a server-based WMS system and used our point-of-sale to scan our products out of inventory. Our pickers had to pick orders individually (which involved walking throughout the warehouse to pick a single order). Now, with Shiphero we are batch picking 8 orders at a time; using iPads and Socket Scanners; and snaking through the warehouse just once. Our picking errors have dropped dramatically, and the pick rate has increased substantially. Before ShipHero, we were able to ship about 325 orders in a day. Since using ShipHero, we are easily shipping 475 a day – with time to spare. We estimate that with our current resources, we will ship 600-700 orders in a day.
- Shipping Rate/Carrier Shopping: Before ShipHero, we almost exclusively used FedEx for all shipments over 1lb. USPS was only used for Priority Mail items under 1lb, which was only a few packages a day. Since implementing ShipHero, we are utilizing the “Cheapest” rate functionality to save on shipping charges. Now, we are sending approximately half of our order via USPS and saving money on each shipment.
- What’s your vision for the next 2 years? How will you expand your business?
To continue expanding our product offerings as well as our sales channels. We see some major shifts in the weight management industry and we plan on being on the forefront of these changes.
- What advice would you give ecommerce merchants that want to scale their businesses?
Keep up with current technologies. By using newer technology such as ShipHero, we have been able to greatly increase our efficiencies and cost savings.
Eric & Glenda Godshall combined their skill sets and founded Nashua Nutrition. Both Eric and Glenda have a strong interest in fitness, weight management and exercise in addition to Business Management degrees. With Eric’s prior IT experience and Glenda’s nutritional counseling experience, the husband and wife team built Nashua Nutrition into a market leader in the weight loss and bariatric consumer segment.
May 8, 2018 | Best Practices, Blog
Originally posted on Home Business Magazine
Small business owners are faced with a difficult decision when it comes to reaching a larger audience online: either they can invest valuable resources in marketing in order to drive customers to their ecommerce store, or they can opt to sell on marketplaces where customers go already.
There are several marketplaces that retailers can utilize in order to reach new customers and increase their online sales. These range from targeted niche platforms such as Jane or Etsy, to all-encompassing behemoths such as Amazon, Walmart and even Ebay. While most of us are aware of Amazon and Walmart’s online presence, Amazon undeniably dominates ecommerce. However, Walmart has been investing millions to improve it’s online marketplace and is the most likely outlet to compete for Amazon’s clients. Still, many retailers default to using the Amazon marketplace without considering Walmart as a viable option to sell their goods.
However, there are several downsides to going this route. Amazon not only charges the retailer to list the items (unless the seller plans to post fewer than 40 listings), but they also take a percentage from every sale made. These costs can quickly add up, especially if a seller lists a large number of products on the site.
Another drawback is the issue of returns. Amazon makes a profit just from the items being listed and sold, so if a customer returns an item, it is at no cost or loss to Amazon. Amazon has built an experience aimed at the customer, not the seller, making it difficult for sellers to manage customer expectations, even when it comes to a returns policy that favors the customer. This means that customers are able to return items months after they purchased them – sometimes for no discernible reason – at the expense of the seller.
Many retailers have also encountered cutthroat competitors on Amazon, who often resort to a myriad of unscrupulous practices in order to derail others successfully selling similar products. These range from posting bogus negative reviews to undercutting a competitor on price by offering counterfeit items. These practices run rampant largely because Amazon has such a low barrier to entry into it’s marketplace. Sellers don’t go through any kind of screening process in order to participate, needing merely to sign up prior to listing their products.
These are just a few reasons that many retailers have started to look elsewhere to post their listings – and one viable platform is the revamped Walmart.com. Walmart.com is the third largest internet retailer and it’s ecommerce sales are projected to surge 40% this year. The retailing giant has also spent billions on ecommerce fulfillment centers and boasts over 110 million unique visits a month. And, many retailers will find that the Walmart marketplace is simply a better place to sell their products. Here’s why:
- Walmart doesn’t charge a listing fee. Amazon charges $39.99 a month just for retailers to list items (individual seller listing less than 4 items accrue this charge, however) Both marketplaces do charge ” referral fees” for each item sold, averaging around 15% depending on the item.
- Less competition. Walmart has a drastically smaller product selection compared to the “Everything Store,” which also means that sellers can enjoy a less crowded marketplace with fewer competitors. In fact, retailers with products in less popular categories find that they sometimes have the room to themselves – a luxury tat.
- Their screening process ensures reputable sellers. While it is infinitely easier to sign up and sell on Amazon’s marketplace, Walmart’s more involved admission process also helps weed out any of those cutthroat sellers who resort to unethical practices in order to derail their competition. Admittedly, the screening process takes time and effort, but the payoff is worth it for those who want to sell alongside creditable retailers.
- Retailers have more control over returns. While Amazon favors the customer and requires sellers to adhere to certain guidelines when handling returns, Walmart allows retailers to determine how they want to deal with product returns. This allows sellers the opportunity to resolve the issue and to reduce the number of returns resulting from fickle or unnecessary customer whims. While Amazon will require retailers to issue a full refund without gathering any information from the customer and doesn’t require the buyer to return the item, Walmart allows sellers to ask the customer to return the product prior to offering a refund, or to resolve the issue in other ways.
Admittedly, the Walmart audience doesn’t entirely overlap with Amazon’s. Depending on your product, this can be the determining factor for whether or not you use Amazon’s marketplace to sell your items or opt for affiliating with Walmart. However, retailers whose products are buried under thousands of competing products will find the newcomer’s space amenable to increased sales and reduced competition.
Apr 17, 2018 | Blog
ShipHero has distributed teams that are located in the US and Argentina. As we’ve grown, we’ve also evolved how we communicate and track tasks.
We share some of our tools and practices with the team at Daxx as we discuss how our teams stay connected and productive.
Apr 17, 2018 | Best Practices, Blog, Fulfillment
Originally featured on Startup Nation
Although it may seem like ages ago, many of us remember what an ordeal it was to order products that were unavailable in our local stores. Back then, free shipping wasn’t a thing. Two-day shipping was exorbitantly expensive and reserved for nearly-forgotten birthday presents for the notoriously hard-to-please grandma. And if we needed pedestrian items like lightbulbs or toothbrushes, we would pencil in an immediate trip to Walmart.
Fast forward years later, and we are not only ordering these items online, but Amazon Prime members can expect to receive them in two days with no shipping charge. With Prime, it seems that we can order nearly anything and have these items land on our doorsteps in two days or less. As a result, most of us are guilty of abandoning our carts on other sites after discovering that a) shipping isn’t free and b) it could take five to seven days to receive our orders. Why would we want to pay extra and wait when we can just click on our Amazon app and receive the same product within two days?
This common consumer behavior is supported by the fact that sites offering “free shipping” reduce abandoned carts by 36 percent.
And this means that it is now essential for e-commerce startups to offer free, fast shipping. But while this seemingly unreasonable demand may strike some as an insurmountable challenge, there are several things that entrepreneurs can do to get their orders out quickly and at low cost.
Businesses need to minimize the time between the order received and the shipping label on the box. When dealing with higher volume orders, it’s important to:
Influence the customer’s perception of speed
As soon as an order is shipped, the email with tracking information should be in the recipient’s inbox. Even if the order itself doesn’t arrive in two days, the knowledge that the product was shipped immediately will influence the shopper’s perception of shipping speed. The positive experience of knowing the order was shipped and the expectation of when the order will arrive increases the possibility of the customer returning for further purchases.
Get a shipping rate quote for each order
Shipping costs can vary widely among the different carriers, so it benefits business owners to search for the best price. If shipping many orders that are similar, then you may benefit from group shipping methods based on the order type. If handling orders that have a variance of line items, manually rate quoting each order can be time-consuming, which in turn causes orders to become backlogged. Instead, you should choose an optimized platform or program to quickly determine the cheapest option without holding up the order fulfillment process.
Build shipping costs into the order
It’s even possible to make money using this tactic, especially if the cheapest option among shipping carriers was chosen. Business owners can also review reports on how much was charged for shipping versus how much was actually paid. Typically, most WMS (warehouse management system) solutions provide these shipment reports that chart the historical performance of orders that were shipped out.
Reduce the steps required to fulfill orders
Entrepreneurs tend to use paper pick lists to manually fulfill orders. However, this can be a slow and error-prone process, especially if the warehouse is disorganized or pickers are unfamiliar with the warehouse layout. Instead of paper pick lists, go digital. The best way to improve order fulfillment speed is to incorporate barcodes. Barcodes eliminate the guesswork involved in picking and packing orders and drastically reduce fulfillment errors.
If a company has a wide selection of products in a warehouse that has aisles and shelves, it’s extremely important to organize inventory (and if possible) use technology to optimize picking routes. This reduces walk time, and again further eliminates potential mistakes when picking items for orders.
Use pre-calculated weights to simplify the packing process
Generally, the cost of shipment is determined by either the weight or the package it’s shipped in (or both, depending on what the order is and where it’s going). While using scales at the time of packing seems like a logical step to determine the weight of the order, there are solutions that allow you to set the weight according to the product’s SKU or the weight and shipping method of each type of shipping container. This method, combined with a rate quote comparison for each shipment, will allow you to achieve a more efficient shipment cost per order when weight needs to be accounted for.
Create magic when a customer receives their order with surprise and delight
It’s definitely a challenge to beat Amazon’s speed and free shipping; and even if an entrepreneur is running a very efficient operation, it will still be a benchmark to reach. So, what else can a growing e-commerce startup do to compete?
They can add an additional element of experience for customers by personalizing the order. If the owner is using Shopify as the e-commerce store, it’s possible to determine if the customer is a first time customer or has ordered before. Some WMS solutions provide automation rules to set personalized notes or even to add a free product to the order based on what is contained in the order, or the profile of the customer. This personal touch makes a big impact on the customer, and is often more valuable than the expected shipment that arrives a little bit earlier.
Nov 19, 2017 | Blog
After coming up empty handed when searching online for affordable, stylish clothes in a range of sizes, stay-at-home mom Leslie Hall decided to create her own boutique. Shortly after she started filling a 10×10 room in her home with choice inventory, demand for her products quickly soared.
Turned out, countless women just like Hall were eager to find the exact same thing.
In less than four years, ZigZag Stripe exploded and now boasts a proper warehouse facility, three brick-and-mortar stores, and fifty employees. Still family owned and operated, the now-multimillion dollar company has gained a reputation for its fashionable, American-made pieces that flatter a variety of body types.
Of course, it’s due to this reputation that ZigZag’s customers are regular and avid shoppers, many purchasing products multiple times a week. Initially, the growing business had difficulty tracking these orders and often sent them out individually. Using paper print-outs, different warehouse staff would sift through the stock – much of which would be dwindling quickly due to the high demand – and ship each item separately to the same customer’s home. The result, of course, was wasted time and money.
After a particularly harrowing period when the warehouse team struggled to fulfill a huge influx of unexpected orders, ZigZag Stripe decided to use the ShipHero platform. The first day that they used it, they got 200 additional orders out the door. And within the first month, they no longer had the usual fifty or so erroneous orders that resulted from typical human error.
But, the feature that really sealed the deal was the “merge” function.
Now, when customers placed multiple orders in a short timeframe, ShipHero merged them into one. All warehouse staff had access to real-time status of all these orders, so no extraneous shipments were made. And, the warehouse team were able to find the lowest shipping rate for one shipment instead of multiple. As the manager of operations, noted: for a company with a “cult-like following,” the merge function “has made a world of difference.”
The merge function is just one of the many groundbreaking features that ShipHero uses to help growing businesses fulfill orders and save money on shipments. To learn more about how our platform can address your e-commerce company’s unique needs, please contact us.
