Learn how Ecoy switched from a small 3PL to ShipBob and reduced mis-picks, gained transparent billing, and more.
Customer Profile
Ecoy started when best mates James and Sam searched for the best bedding fabric that suited the hot Australian climate, felt comfy, and was eco-friendly. Creating products out of bamboo — which grows without pesticides or harmful chemicals, requires limited water, and feels incredibly soft to the touch once turned into bed linen — led to Ecoy’s success. Ecoy donates 1% of its revenue to support Australian charities focused on protecting native wildlife and habitats.
Key metrics
- 1.5 years in business selling bed linens
- 99.99% order accuracy rate with ShipBob
We spend about a third of our lives in bed.
Sleeping in comfort is no doubt a priority for many, but it can also be expensive.
Imagine a material that’s as soft as silk and keeps you cool at night, without the steep price tag.
The team behind Aussie-founded Ecoy did just that, upon discovering that bamboo could be made into bedding.
Best mates since grade three, co-founders James and Sam have always had entrepreneurial minds.
With an interest in optimising sleep and nighttime routines, they started exploring the magic of bamboo’s temperature-regulating properties — perfect for the Australian climate — during the COVID pandemic.
By the end of 2021, they launched Ecoy bed linens.
We sat down with James Hodson, co-founder and Director at Ecoy, to hear how he and his best friend Sam run Ecoy, and partner with companies like ShipBob to fulfil orders.
Getting started with the wrong 3PL
As told to ShipBob by James Hodson, co-founder and Director at Ecoy.
When we started Ecoy, we did what most bootstrapping founders do — fill the house with as much inventory as possible and ship orders from Australia Post ourselves.
At the time, we also had a bigger warehouse, where we stored the bulk of our inventory and replenished supply from frequently.
It didn’t take us long to realise we wanted to focus on what we were good at: marketing. We didn’t have logistics experience, and realised it was not worth our time to pick and pack orders ourselves. So we decided to outsource.
There was one 3PL we worked with prior to ShipBob, and the experience was horrible. We wish we started with ShipBob, but we didn’t know what a great 3PL should be before them.
Within two months of spending a lot of money with the old 3PL, they kicked us out of their warehouse, giving us a month’s notice. They ended up shutting down their 3PL business entirely.
We went back to shopping around — this time, evaluating a lot more 3PLs.
Switching to an established 3PL to avoid risks of a small company
After our initial experience with our prior 3PL, we still looked at some smaller companies, but we were pretty sure we wanted to go with a larger 3PL.
There were several reasons that ultimately led us to choosing ShipBob.
Intuitive software
We liked that ShipBob’s software was developed in house, as a lot of other 3PLs buy someone else’s software, which makes it a lot more rigid and less flexible for brands.
Our previous 3PL’s software was rudimentary at best. It didn’t enable us to see our orders, and it was overall very clunky. ShipBob’s interface is very easy to use and works well with our tech stack, including Shopify, Klaviyo, and Gorgias.
Fulfilment experience
When I was evaluating 3PLs, I didn’t want to risk partnering with a smaller company again. ShipBob has thousands of customers, and everything — from their professional onboarding process to their seamless customer support experience —is very easy to manage.
ShipBob also had a much more professional setup overall, and I liked the potential to scale internationally with ShipBob using their fulfilment centres in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Order accuracy
The biggest thing that we appreciate about ShipBob is that there is a very low percentage of pick errors. With our other 3PL, we were finding 3-4% of orders were incorrectly picked (maybe more!).
When this happens, we have to invest more in customer support. Since partnering with ShipBob last year, we’ve only had 2 mis-picks ever across the thousands of orders they’ve fulfiled for us. We understand there will be errors — we’re all human — but with ShipBob, we’ve seen great improvements in accuracy.
Billing transparency
There are a lot of benefits with ShipBob that seem like small things but are actually incredibly valuable, such as being able to see billing in the dashboard with more transparency around fulfilment costs.
On the final day with our old 3PL when our truck was ready to pick up our goods, we received an invoice with a single line item for two months worth of work. No details, and no way to even try to understand what all was being charged.
ShipBob’s transparency around billing makes it clear how much every transaction and order costs — and any time we have questions, we can simply contact support and get replies and resolutions.
What’s next for Ecoy
Our biggest challenge right now is staying in stock. Our bamboo sheets are the most popular item we sell, and they have an extremely low return rate. For a hero product, we’re very proud of that, as it’s what our customers love the most.
We’re very customer-centric and constantly strive to survey customers and talk to them. We always take their feedback seriously and improve our products that way.
For example, when customers complained about the sheets pulling off beds early on, we made them deeper and added an elastic band. We’re also currently expanding our colours.
Making these changes and seeing the positive response from our customers is very gratifying.
It’s pretty cool how I can be based in Brisbane with my co-founder Sam in London, and we’re able to run this company ourselves while partnering with ShipBob’s Melbourne fulfilment centre.
As we grow, we have a vision of becoming a more holistic sleep brand and will continue to lean into the space. I’m glad we have the right partners like ShipBob to help us get there.
Ecoy’s team at ShipBob
Winston Song
Winston is the Account Executive who helped bring Ecoy onboard with ShipBob.
Raymond Neruwana
Ray is the Sr. Implementation Manager who helped Ecoy get started with ShipBob.
Mandira Das
Mandira is a ShipBob’s Sr. Merchant Success Specialist and helps support the Ecoy team.
Get started with ShipBob
If ShipBob sounds like the right fulfilment partner for your business, request a quote to connect with our team.
