Table of Contents
** Minutes
Platformz is solving the problem with how distribution has historically worked
Building the tech stack that can go everywhere
Why we partnered with ShipBob for global fulfilment
How we went live with Chewy in 7 weeks, instead of the usual year
Scaling to 15 marketplaces and 2 countries, and continuing to grow
Customer Profile
FUR4 is a premium pet products brand built from the ground up to prove an idea: that an ecommerce brand could sell everywhere, ship everywhere, and do it profitably. Behind that brand is Platformz, a custom commerce development company that built the entire operating infrastructure, from catalogue management to automated invoicing, to a global dealer portal. ShipBob is the fulfilment backbone.
Together, FUR4 and Platformz went live on 15 marketplaces across the US, Canada, and Europe, activated three US fulfilment centres and 2 in Canada, and completed a Chewy 3P/1P hybrid EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) integration in seven weeks.
Key metrics
- 15 marketplaces live, 90 in the pipeline
- 5 ShipBob fulfilment centres, 2 more in the pipeline
- 7 weeks to complete a Chewy 3P/1P hybrid EDI integration (vs. an industry average of approximately one year)
- 100% automated dropshipping success rate through ShipBob
- 20-product catalogue expansion underway
About FUR4
FUR4 is a St. Louis-based pet products brand on a mission to make shedding manageable for dog and cat owners everywhere.
FUR4 was founded by David Porter, who invented and launched the original FURminator deShedding Tool and created the modern pet deShedding category. While David is no longer affiliated with FURminator, FUR4 is the next chapter of that work.
The flagship product, FUR4 deShedding Tool, features four PolyCarboMax™ composite carbon fiber edges and patented SafetyNubs™ technology, giving pets 300% more deShedding surface area compared to single-edge tools. The result is up to 95% reduction in shedding without the scraping or irritation that other tools cause.
FUR4 launched with four hero SKUs covering long-hair and short-hair variants for both dogs and cats, all priced uniformly at $49.95 with free shipping. The brand also operates a fully automated dealer and referral portal, making it easy for wholesale buyers and partners to place orders and track commissions in real time.
But FUR4 isn’t just an ecommerce brand. It’s the proof-of-concept for Platformz, the custom commerce infrastructure company that built and runs the operating layer underneath it. Every system FUR4 runs on, from catalogue to fulfilment to tax compliance, is designed to scale to any brand in the Platformz ecosystem.
About Platformz
Platformz is a custom commerce development company that builds the operating infrastructure that growing ecommerce brands actually need: custom portals, omnichannel integrations, automated workflows, and global distribution systems. Their work isn’t off-the-shelf software. It’s purpose-built infrastructure designed around how a business actually runs.
Platformz coined the term distribution infrastructure as a service, or DIaaS, a model that treats omnichannel reach as a managed system, not a manual effort. With 35 full-time developers and deep experience across EDI, ERP, catalogue management, and logistics automation, Platformz builds what most brands assume is impossible to build quickly.
The idea behind DIaaS is straightforward: adding a new marketplace, retailer, or country shouldn’t force a company to rebuild its operating system. It should just connect to the one that already exists.
FUR4 is Platformz’s flagship proof-of-concept: a live brand running in production on the full Platformz stack, with ShipBob at the centre of its fulfilment operations.
Platformz’s capabilities are what make FUR4’s rapid expansion possible. Because of DIaaS, FUR4’s 15 marketplaces didn’t require 15 different systems. Instead, they all run through the same infrastructure Platformz built from day one, with ShipBob handling the physical fulfilment underneath it.
Platformz is solving the problem with how distribution has historically worked
As told to ShipBob by Timothy Roberts, CEO of Platformz & COO/CTO of FUR4.*
I’ve been in ecommerce since I was 14. I’ve seen how the old model worked: you signed with a distributor, they took 60% of your margins, and you barely made money. That model is broken now, and retailers know it.
Today, retail buyers don’t want to hold your inventory. They want you to validate online first. Every major retailer is launching their own marketplace because they want to see sell-through before they commit. That’s a fundamental shift, and most brands aren’t built for it.
What we set out to build with FUR4 was a business designed around the most profitable model for this new reality: third-party marketplaces first, then wholesale clubs, then retail. Not the other way around. The platform had to be built to support that strategy from day one.
Most brands treat omnichannel as an aspiration, but Platformz built the infrastructure to make it operational.
Building the tech stack that can go everywhere
When I talk about what Platformz built for FUR4, I want to be clear: this is an enterprise-class, global platform.
We use Salsify for product information management (PIM), Brandfolder for digital asset management (DAM), NetSuite for enterprise resource planning (ERP), and Patchett as our orchestration layer. Everything lives in Magento because it’s the only place we could do custom coding at the level we needed.
We integrated with Rithum, Channel Engine, and SPS Commerce for channel connectivity, and we’re connector-agnostic, which means we can work with whoever brings us the right marketplace at the right time.
We registered tax and VAT (value added tax) compliance globally through Avalara. We automated our invoicing with Chewy through SPS, completely hands-off. We built our own GS1 catalogue automation that generates barcodes across multiple packaging levels in every language path. That last piece alone, our engineering team described as one of the most valuable things we’ve built. The reason is simple: catalogue errors are expensive. We automated our way out of them.
We also built an AI-driven control tower for executives, a single admin interface that surfaces predictive alerts, inventory imbalances, and cash flow projections without requiring anyone to log into 35 different portals. The goal is to go from reactive to proactive and eventually, to not have to think about it at all.
ShipBob is one of the core data sources feeding that system.
On top of this, our dealer portal is live and fully automated. Wholesale buyers can place orders, track commissions, and receive 1099 tax documents without any manual intervention on our side. Those orders ship through ShipBob. The referral portal works the same way: automated payouts, real-time analytics, zero headcount required to run it.
Why we partnered with ShipBob for global fulfilment
I’ll give credit where it’s due. Dave Haran, our Solutions Manager, was the reason we went with ShipBob.
“I had a steep learning curve. I was building an enterprise-class omnichannel system and asking questions that probably seemed unusual for a typical Shopify merchant. Dave was patient and spent real time educating me. That kind of relationship matters when you’re making a long-term infrastructure decision.”
Timothy Roberts, CEO of Platformz & COO/CTO of FUR4
I was initially nervous about going with a single fulfilment partner. We’re omnichannel and we need coverage in as many locations as possible. But ShipBob’s network, combined with our use of Pipe17 for LMS (logistics management systems) routing for regions ShipBob doesn’t cover, gave us the architecture we needed.
The responsiveness of ShipBob’s team has been consistent. I know their support team by name at this point. It always feels like a real partnership, not a vendor relationship.
Platformz decides where an order should go. ShipBob gets it there.
How we went live with Chewy in 7 weeks, instead of the usual year
The Chewy integration is the one I’m most proud of. We set up as a 3P/1P hybrid, which means full EDI for both dropship and first-party orders.
ShipBob handles the dropship side. The integration involved FUR4, ShipBob, SPS Commerce, Chewy, and Rithum’s DSCO platform.
I took charge. I documented every dependency, gave clear instructions to every team, and pushed hard on timeline. We completed it in seven weeks. I’ve since been told the average implementation time for a 3P hybrid is around a year or more.
ShipBob got their piece done quickly and effectively. Any glitches we encountered came from other parts of the ecosystem, not from ShipBob.
“In the end, the automated invoicing we built on top of that integration means we don’t touch a single Chewy transaction manually. It runs itself. Orders move without anyone touching them, and the only time an order reaches a person is because it’s an exception.
This is the standard we hold everything to. If it’s not automated, it’s not done.”
Timothy Roberts, CEO of Platformz & COO/CTO of FUR4
Scaling to 15 marketplaces and 2 countries, and continuing to grow
FUR4 is currently live on 15 marketplaces, including Amazon, Chewy, TikTok Shop, JCPenney, Lowe’s, and others. We have 90 more in the pipeline. The technical work for all 90 is already complete. The blocker right now is KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance, which requires manual identity verification for each marketplace, but we’re working through it.
On the fulfilment side, we have three active ShipBob fulfilment centres in the US and two in Canada. Soon, we’ll add the Netherlands and the UK. Then, we’ll have seven locations running.
We’re also expanding the FUR4 catalogue to 20 products, with localised packaging in each market’s language. That gets us to roughly 1,000 SKUs when you account for product variants, packaging levels, and language paths. ShipBob is able to scale with us as our catalogue grows.
“Our strategy is to build the infrastructure before we need it, then activate it the moment approvals come through. Once a country’s tax registration clears, we don’t start a new technology project. We just turn the market on. ShipBob has been instrumental as we’ve scaled this strategy.”
Timothy Roberts, CEO of Platformz & COO/CTO of FUR4
What we’ve learned about building for omnichannel
Omnichannel isn’t about having accounts on every marketplace. It’s about having a catalogue built for omnichannel.
Every marketplace sends you their own specification format. Every region uses different standards for HS codes, GTINs, and packaging requirements. If your catalogue isn’t set up to handle that variation from day one, you’ll spend years fixing it instead of growing.
We automated the catalogue layer before we went live anywhere. That’s what made it possible to activate 15 marketplaces in the time we did.
“The same logic applies to fulfilment. You need a partner who can handle B2C dropshipping, B2B wholesale orders, and international expansion without requiring you to rebuild your architecture every time you add a channel. ShipBob gives us that foundation. We route everything through them, and we’ve built the automation so that a new order type or a new marketplace doesn’t create new manual work.”
Timothy Roberts, CEO of Platformz & COO/CTO of FUR4
The goal was a self-healing, auto-reporting operation. We’re very close to that. And ShipBob is a core part of how we get there.
What’s next
Platformz isn’t stopping at FUR4. Next up is an AI-powered tool that turns a company’s requirements straight into a software blueprint and a project quote, cutting out months of discovery meetings and manual estimating. After that comes a fully autonomous software factory, built to take a plain-language description of a business and turn it into working software, no code required.
FUR4 is the proof that the model works in production today. As Platformz builds toward what’s next, ShipBob stays the fulfilment layer underneath it.
*The metrics in this case study were supplied by the merchant. ShipBob makes no representations regarding their accuracy.
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