Discover how apparel brand iloveplum increased their sales and average order value by partnering with ShipBob for order fulfilment and 2-day shipping.
Customer Profile
Based in NYC, iloveplum is an apparel brand inspired by what little girls want in real life. They believe in creating the new essentials: easy-to-wear tutus and extras that take you from the playground to the party.
Key metrics:
- 267% increase in sales in just under a year with new fulfilment infrastructure in place
- 97% increase in average order value for orders that qualify for 2-Day Express Shipping
- 6 hours spent each day packing boxes and preparing orders before ShipBob
Iloveplum started with the idea of creating something simple and easy-to-wear for young kids. Their flagship tutu dresses are quick to throw on and can be worn to the park or to a party. Along with other clothing and accessories, they are known for their “no frills, just chill” mantra.
Worn by celebrity children and seen on the Instagrams of Serena Williams, Chrissy Teigen, Khloe Kardashian, and Tia Mowry, iloveplum’s products have generated a lot of buzz and brand awareness in a short amount of time.
In just under two years, this team of 10 has accomplished a lot. We sat down with Ryan Casas, COO of iloveplum, to hear how they ramped up their efforts and achieved success through both ecommerce and wholesale channels.
Partnering with the right 3PL to elevate operations
As told to ShipBob by Ryan Casas, COO of iloveplum.
When I started with iloveplum almost a year ago, one of my first tasks was to evaluate our logistics infrastructure and determine how we were going to scale efficiently. We were handling fulfilment in-house, and it was time-intensive and costly.
At the time, we were getting hundreds of orders each month, and our fulfilment team worked 5-6 hours every day preparing orders to be shipped out. These hours added up to be a massive time sink, taking up scarce staff resources.
I knew we had to outsource fulfilment to a third-party provider with the backbone to support the volume we wanted to achieve. That’s why we partnered with ShipBob.
As someone who oversees all departments and focuses on the day-to-day operations of iloveplum, I can see what a difference it has made to have a strong 3PL in place.
Upper management now has time to dive into marketing efforts, improve our creative, get into R&D mode, make our way into new product categories, manage new hires and teams, go after new accounts, and keep an overall pulse on the business while strategically looking to the future.
ShipBob’s operations aren’t the only value they provide. Their technology is also key in helping manage logistics in ways we never could before.
“One of the reasons we chose ShipBob was because of the tech integration with Shopify Plus websites. A lot of other 3PLs claimed they were fully integrated with Shopify, but they’re not. ShipBob’s dashboard is also very clean compared to other fulfilment technologies.”
Ryan Casas, COO of iloveplum
Managing and forecasting inventory with ease
One of the greatest features of ShipBob’s software is the inventory management functionality, which lets us track inventory change and velocity over time. Being able to monitor which styles are selling quickly helps us always keep our best sellers in stock.
Additionally, our B2C and B2B order volume changes month to month. Between shipping new collections for wholesale earlier in the year and Q4 madness for direct-to-consumer sales, we’ve been able to get through our heaviest seasons while staying ahead of production using ShipBob’s inventory forecasting tools — even as our order volume more than quadrupled in less than a year.
“Since partnering with ShipBob, we’ve been able to scale our business from $300,000 in sales per year to over $1.1 million due to infrastructure, technology, and scalability improvements.”
Ryan Casas, COO of iloveplum
Doubling average order value by offering free 2-day shipping
ShipBob has fulfilment centres all over the US so we’re not limited to shipping from one location. Even though we’re located near their fulfilment centre in NYC, it’s actually more advantageous for us to ship from elsewhere.
After analising our order history, we chose to store inventory in ShipBob’s centrally-located Dallas fulfilment centre to efficiently reach the majority of where our orders are shipped to: the midwest, south, and east coast.
The Dallas location serves us well because shipping rates from there are decent across the US. If we kept shipping only from New York, it would be expensive to ship to the west coast. Dallas also has great coverage for ShipBob’s 2-Day Express Shipping Program, which lets us offers a guaranteed but low-cost 2-day shipping option on qualifying orders.
By encouraging customers to meet a spend threshold for free 2-day shipping, we’ve seen great results without harming our margins.
“Our customers who live within ShipBob’s 2-Day Express coverage zone have been taking advantage of fast delivery times. Offering this shipping option has increased our average order value in these zones from $75 to $148.”
Ryan Casas, COO of iloveplum
Expanding and scaling further
Finishing up our second year in business with a 267% increase in sales this year has been incredible — it usually takes a while for brands to hit this level of growth. Looking forward, we will continue to focus on building our brand and utilising our customers’ amazing user-generated content.
Some of our biggest points of distribution include Nordstrom, The Tot, Eloise at The Plaza Hotel, and Petit Amie. They’ve been great outlets for us, and we plan to partner with even more retailers. Additionally, we already have a presence in 12 countries but will ramp up our distribution internationally next year.
Iloveplum will keep creating new styles using new fabrics, colours, and designs, while expanding into other product categories, all of which will tie back to our brand ethos of easy-to-wear and simple apparel made from high-quality materials.
Having ShipBob as a strategic partner for warehousing, infrastructure, tech, and fulfilment has helped us scale and will continue to take us where we want to go.
Learn more
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Download “ShipBob’s 2-Day Express Shipping: How to Drive Revenue Through Ecommerce Fulfilment” or request a quote below to get in touch with ShipBob. Learn how you can scale your business while enhancing the customer experience.
