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Pivoting our launch strategy during the coronavirus pandemic
Learn how supplement brand EnduroSport partnered with ShipBob to launch their brand during the COVID-19 pandemic and got started with fulfillment quickly.
Customer Profile
EnduroSport provides pre-activity supplements that are stimulant-free, NSF Certified for Sport, and formulated with high-quality patented ingredients. Their mission is to bridge the gap between athletic and outdoor communities by bringing together men and women from diverse cultures and sports around the world into one family.
Key metrics:
- 9 days to start shipping
- 3 ShipBob fulfillment centers used
- 1 partner gained in ShipBob
Based in northern Idaho, EnduroSport was founded from a love of outdoor sports and a lack of great supplements for people who participated in them. From mountain biking and snowmobiling to skiing and fishing — the brand is built around the outdoor community.
When you’re participating in these sports, you’re spending the entire day outside. Getting good nutrition that lasts this long can be hard. While other companies have marketed their products as supplements, most are just full of caffeine and sugar.
The EnduroSport team set out to create something with high-quality ingredients to fuel people with the energy they need to do what they love all day. They partnered with world-class athletes alongside the greatest minds in nutrition to develop their premium supplements for athletes.
The end result? Supplements that are tested and proven to increase energy levels, sharpen mental focus, boost strength and endurance, reduce fatigue, and decrease recovery time of athletes and active lifestyle enthusiasts.
Committed to precise, high quality, and top-notch manufacturing, all of EnduroSport’s products are made in the United States in FDA certified, facilities in compliance with the highest of all standards.
We sat down with Tim Fink, Co-Founder of EnduroSport, to learn about the company’s story and how they’ve adapted their launch amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pivoting our launch strategy during the coronavirus pandemic
As told to ShipBob by Tim Fink, Co-Founder of EnduroSport.
I’ve consulted for ecommerce brands in the past, but EnduroSport is the first brand I’ve been involved in directly where we formulated the product ourselves and everything is from scratch.
So far, it’s been a great journey, but it doesn’t come without some setbacks. With the launch of any company, you’ll face uncertainty and this was definitely no different.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, we pushed out our launch. We’ve opened our product up to certain individuals, but we’re not running ads or our influencer marketing yet.
We didn’t want to push this hard in the midst of a crisis that has affected so many people. We can’t ignore this or make light of a situation where people are struggling. We decided we would turn this crisis into a situation where we can help out, so we are donating nearly all profits to support those on the frontlines fighting COVID-19.
Finding calm amidst the storm
We knew finding the right fulfillment partner was critical even before we launched.
We wanted to be hands-off when it came to shipping orders, so we could spend our time talking to customers, responding to them, and getting them what they want. Instead of being involved in operations, we wanted a streamlined and automated way of handling order fulfillment.
We looked at several fulfillment companies, and ShipBob hands down had the best customer service. They answered all of my questions quickly, walked me through the solution to get started and how the partnership could evolve in the future, and proactively proposed more considerations for us to think through that related to our business and plans.
They broke down all the fulfillment center locations, gave transparent prices, and shared data points I needed to make a good decision. I didn’t receive this data from any other 3PLs. With ShipBob, I knew exactly what I was getting.
Especially during the Coronavirus, this made a big difference.
“From day one, I felt like ShipBob was a partner on our team. With other 3PLs, it never felt like a partnership. I could trust that ShipBob would help us launch our company successfully.”
Tim Fink, Co-Founder of EnduroSport
For our website, we built it on Shopify, as we are very comfortable with them. Shopify and ShipBob work very well together. All I had to do was click a couple buttons and they were connected. The integration and visibility of the two systems keeps everything very simple. I really like ShipBob’s dashboard. It’s our backend logistics that keeps us up-to-date on everything that’s happening.
Getting started with scalability in mind
We want the customer experience of purchasing on our website to be similar to Amazon Prime. This is possible with ShipBob, without inflating the shipping cost to an insane level.
To do this, we strategically place products around the country. We are storing inventory in three of ShipBob’s fulfillment centers: Moreno Valley, California; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Dallas, Texas.
These locations map out nicely with our customer base as we have a large group in the South and also get coverage on the West Coast and in the Midwest.
“Having confidence in scaling fulfillment is hypercritical for us. With ShipBob, we find comfort in knowing we can scale and have orders fulfilled in a quick manner.”
Tim Fink, Co-Founder of EnduroSport
Our Implementation Specialist walked us through everything we needed to do to get ready. It was a pretty smooth process. We were basically ready to go in an hour or less.
Sending inventory to ShipBob was also easy to do. Our first batch of inventory was received by ShipBob and ready to be shipped the next day. It was a very similar pattern for the other facilities, and this was just as states were shutting down from Coronavirus.
“Nine days after we got started with ShipBob’s implementation team, we were shipping orders.”
Tim Fink, Co-Founder of EnduroSport
Pushing forward
We’re excited to officially launch and see where the brand can go. We built it in hopes of giving back to the community through our products and information.
With our customers, influencers, and partners, we’re creating an environment where they’re giving us feedback on products, brand image, and other input. We’re here to listen — it’s a family, and we’re all a part of it.
We’ve had a really good experience with ShipBob so far. Their fulfillment solution is a really good fit for us, and they were by far the best 3PL we evaluated. We’re excited for a long-term partnership and look forward to scaling.
Learn more
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