Learn how hair care brand, Hairburst, has leveraged ShipBob’s global fulfilment network to save both time and money.
Customer Profile
Based in Leeds, UK, Hairburst is a science-backed supplement and hair care brand that offers a variety of products that are aimed at stimulating hair growth and creating healthy hair. Hairburst is 100% British-made and manufactured and has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Mail, and more.
Key metrics
- 2 ShipBob fulfilment centres in 2 countries
- 12% cost savings by switching to ShipBob
- 82% reduction in B2B order fulfilment time
50+ international wholesale and distribution retailers - 100% green manufacturing facilities
About Hairburst
Founded in the UK over a decade ago, Hairburst has become a staple in the hair care and beauty supplement world. They started with just one product aimed at boosting hair growth: their hair vitamins. Now, the brand now offers a full range of supplements, hair treatments, and hair accessories.
Hairburst’s science-backed formulas set them apart from other competitors in the space. Their products are created by chemists who blend proven, active ingredients together to promote hair growth and resilience.
With increasing demand from their global customer base, Hairburst needed a fulfilment partner that could keep up with their growing order volumes while supporting the brand’s high standards for customer experience and brand presentation. Learn how Hairburst selected ShipBob as their fulfilment solution and how they’ve grown as a result of their partnership.
Pivoting from multiple 3PLs in different countries to ShipBob, and experiencing cost-savings
As told to ShipBob by Callum Jones, Director of Operations & Marketplace, and Rachel Hicks, Operations Manager at Hairburst.
After Brexit, we were using several different 3PLs in the UK and in Europe. We weren’t receiving the level of fulfilment we needed, and managing multiple providers was difficult. We decided to vet a new fulfilment partner that could offer us an elevated service level, better pricing, and more support all around.
During our search for a new fulfilment partner, one of our founders was recommended to ShipBob. We began researching their solution and it became evident that ShipBob was a great fit and met all of the criteria we were looking for. The pricing aligned with our budget across geographies, so we have been able to standardize our fulfilment across the UK and EU (and eventually other countries they are in). As a result of switching our European fulfilment to ShipBob, we’ve experienced 12% cost savings.
The service we receive from ShipBob is excellent. We get really, really great rates. On top of that, ShipBob’s tech and integrations are top-notch. For example, we’re using Fulfil as our ERP and that native integration between Fulfil and ShipBob is making the process so much easier.
ShipBob’s analytics and reports are so much more advanced than any other fulfilment solution we’ve used. We use ShipBob’s reports on trade calls and in meetings with our wider team. We’re able to show our on-time fulfilment rate and prove that we’re hitting our SLAs. Our finance team can access invoices and reports much easier, which has been incredibly helpful for working cross-functionally with other teams at Hairburst.
Gaining a proactive fulfilment partner that finds creative solutions to problems and is like an extension of our team
We’ve been with ShipBob for several years now and we’ve built great relationships with the team, who really understands Hairburst, our products, and how we work across operations, finance, and customer service teams. They know how we expect things to be done. For example, warehousing can get dusty, so the ShipBob team will wipe down our products before packing and shipping them so customers are receiving them the way we intended.
“We can tell that ShipBob really does care about their brands. Even though ShipBob isn’t directly part of the Hairburst team, they truly feel like members of our team. They bring ideas to the table and help us solve problems.”
Callum Jones, Director of Operations & Marketplace, and Rachel Hicks, Operations Manager at Hairburst
For example, we needed to find a way to do a ‘buy one, get one’ on TikTok Shop since TikTok wasn’t adding the free products to orders. Our Merchant Success Manager, Carlos, found a workaround to do it in under 48 hours.
He set up a middleware called Despatch Cloud that connected our TikTok Shop to ShipBob. He set it up and cross-checked it so all we had to do was press a button, and off it went. ShipBob has helped us solve problems we didn’t know we had.
Every time we’re at the fulfilment centre, we’re blown away. The sites are very impressive, and everyone knows what they’re doing since ShipBob has set up their fulfilment centres to be very tech and process-driven.
Reducing B2B order fulfilment time by over 82% with ShipBob
Our 3 big channels are DTC, marketplaces like Amazon and TikTok, and B2B across the UK and across Europe. We work with over 50 B2B retailers, including ASOS, Boots, and Druni.
“ShipBob handles our freight, as well as DTC and B2B fulfilment. We have our entire logistics and fulfilment operation under one roof and not split up across different companies. Having a partner that can do it all has been really beneficial for our business.”
Callum Jones, Director of Operations & Marketplace, and Rachel Hicks, Operations Manager at Hairburst
We’ve been growing with ShipBob consistently and we trust ShipBob so much. One of our prior European 3PLs was not hitting service level requirements for some of our channels, and that’s never been an issue for ShipBob.
“ShipBob has been smashing B2B SLAs. It took our previous provider 2 weeks to fulfil B2B orders. ShipBob is fulfilling our B2B orders in just 2.5 days. That has helped us build better relationships with our suppliers and retailers who get a lot faster turnarounds, which means we’re getting products into our customers’ hands sooner.”
Callum Jones, Director of Operations & Marketplace, and Rachel Hicks, Operations Manager at Hairburst
We can do faster shipments to B2B retailers in different countries and not have to worry about orders taking a while to get there. We’re able to get more orders out the door quickly, which makes us and our customers happy.
Using ShipBob’s technology, we’re able to optimise fulfilment processes and have business-critical information in one place. Any little nuance that could happen for B2B orders can be tracked through the work order in the ShipBob dashboard. For example, ShipBob adds photos of the pallets being packed and then another once it’s added to the vehicle. Those photos are then uploaded into the order, so if there are any issues with how the pallets arrive, we have documentation and can track it in the dashboard for quality control.
Some of our products are categorized as dangerous goods, so fulfilment and shipping can be a challenge for any channel, but B2B especially. Our previous 3PLs really struggled with handling and shipping our B2B orders with dangerous goods. ShipBob has done a significantly better job getting our B2B dangerous goods shipped via air, sea, and road, as well as getting the complicated documentation completed properly.
“A lot of fulfilment providers say they can do B2B, but they’re really after your DTC business. They piggyback on the B2B business and don’t actually know what they’re doing and there are a lot of mistakes. ShipBob has been able to deliver on both aspects of our business, beat SLAs, and work closely with us so our orders are going out exactly how we want them to. Our fulfilment is in a really good place.”
Callum Jones, Director of Operations & Marketplace, and Rachel Hicks, Operations Manager at Hairburst
Source: Hairburst
Getting DTC and B2B kitting projects completed in 3 days or less
We use ShipBob’s kitting capabilities for DTC and B2B orders. We have separate SKUs for case picks and single picks. So for DTC, we’ll use single picks and B2B we’ll use case picks, which can be set up in the ShipBob dashboard.
We request a lot of kitting through ShipBob to help us break down case-packed SKUs for DTC orders to get ahead of best-before dates. For example, if best-by dates are getting closer to the expiration for our B2B cases, we’ll kit them down into case picks for DTC orders because they turn over more quickly. Those kitting projects have an SLA of 2 or 3 days and they’re always completed on time. It’s really easy to use and allows us to strategically use our products in ways that best suit our business needs.
ShipBob’s kitting and bundling capabilities are very in-depth. We’re able to get very specific with how we’d like our products to be kitted or arranged. We can even upload photos or documentation to showcase exactly how we want bundles to be put together.
“We have a close relationship with our Merchant Success Manager and the ShipBob team within the fulfilment centre. If we ever need something to go out to an influencer or brand owner, they’ll pack the orders themselves to make them extra pretty with our custom packaging and fancy paper. They give those orders the extra little touch that makes a huge impact.”
Callum Jones, Director of Operations & Marketplace, and Rachel Hicks, Operations Manager at Hairburst
Plus, there are dedicated areas in the warehouse just for kitting, so that when the ShipBob team is assembling our kits, nothing is messed up and everything is perfect.
Source: Hairburst
Using ShipBob’s inventory management tools to virtually track lot products with batch numbers and best-by dates with ease
Because many of our products have batch and best-before dates, we have to register our batch number in international countries. With our old 3PL, we couldn’t track our batch and best-before numbers very well. It was a very manual process and leaving something that important up to analog counts wasn’t something we were comfortable with. We would have to pack the order while the product was getting registered, so we didn’t lose stock of that batch and kept accurate inventory counts.
However, with ShipBob all of that is done virtually and we see everything in the dashboard. The ShipBob team even does regular checks on the floor for us and spot checks when needed, but we can rest assured that everything is tracked and accounted for digitally. Their system and processes can easily trace our batch numbers, so if something comes in as a return, it’ll go into quarantine where they’ll determine if items can be restocked or not.
It makes the sales team’s lives a lot easier by just reserving batches virtually. We can monitor our batches and see how much inventory we have in stock so we aren’t wasting time, taking up storage space in the fulfilment centre, and spending money on purchasing more products before it’s necessary. And if any orders change or are edited in the future, we can update it online. ShipBob’s Warehouse Receiving Order (WRO) system is easy and has all of the batch and best-before information listed so it’s all very traceable. That has been very helpful for us.
What’s next for Hairburst
Hairburst is in a big growth phase at the moment. We also have a lot of new products on the way and expanding into new markets and channels. We have a lot going on behind the scenes, so we’re glad we have ShipBob’s support through it all.
Hairburst’s team at ShipBob
Sam Ford
Sam is the Account Executive who helped Hairburst get started with ShipBob.
Carlos Cardo Alcalde
Carlos is the Implementation Specialist who onboarded Hairburst to ShipBob.
Sergio Estevez
Sergio is the Merchant Success Manager who supports Hairburst.
Get started with ShipBob
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