Learn how I Heart Keenwah co-founders Sarah Chalos and Ravi Jolly scaled operations and saved time by partnering with ShipBob.
Customer Profile
I Heart Keenwah makes quinoa more accessible through delicious quinoa snacks and staples. They support small-holder Bolivian farmers producing heirloom quinoa. Their products are organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, and vegan-friendly.
Challenge
I Heart Keenwah began with the goal of making it easier for people to work quinoa into their everyday lives. Sarah and Ravi got started by selling at farmers’ markets before quickly gaining traction and selling both in stores and online.
I Heart Keenwah is now in 4,500 stores across the country and has a strong e-commerce presence on both their own website and Amazon.
This rapid growth came with some challenges for the I Heart Keenwah team. When they first started selling online, Sarah and Ravi shipped orders out of Sarah’s house.
As a small company with only three employees, fulfillment began to take up a significant amount of time. Sarah realized that in order to focus on other aspects of growing the company, they needed to free up their resources.
Decision-making process
Sarah knew she needed to find a third party to handle online order shipping, but wasn’t sure where to start. Another small business owner told Sarah about ShipBob.
“I hadn’t come across anybody else who did what ShipBob does,” says Sarah.
I Heart Keenwah needed a platform that would integrate easily with their Shopify store, as well as offer a way to view and manage inventory. “I’m always impressed by the technology, which not too many other people have,” says Sarah.
Results
Since I Heart Keenwah outsourced order fulfillment to ShipBob, they have saved hours every week that were previously spent packing and shipping orders. In addition, I Heart Keenwah no longer has to keep a wide variety of packing materials on-hand, since ShipBob provides all the boxes and packing supplies they need at no extra cost.
“ShipBob can process things more quickly than we could in-house and at scale. These time savings translate into cost savings as well,” says Sarah. Working with ShipBob has given Sarah more time to focus on growing her business and increasing sales. She recommends ShipBob to other small businesses that spend too much valuable time picking and packing orders.
A ShipBob client for several years, Sarah has watched ShipBob grow and scale alongside I Heart Keenwah.
“I can see the technology continuously evolving and getting better, continuously incorporating customer feedback.”
Sarah Chalos, Co-Founder and President, I Heart Keenwah
ShipBob’s technology continues to evolve to meet the needs of customers like I Heart Keenwah, and will continue to do so as ShipBob — and its clients — grow and scale.
Learn more
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