Shipwire helps an expanding international company maintain service and delivery standards among its original customer base while focusing on larger markets.
When the makers of GURU energy drink amped up their U.S. marketing in 2007 by opening sales offices on both coasts, the company was careful not to leave behind the Canadian consumer base that made its drinks a success.
Sales and service couldn’t slip in Canada as GURU Beverage Co. executives turned their focus on a U.S. energy drink market worth $3 billion. They needed a shipping partner that understood customer sales and service, and would maintain GURU’s reputation for speed and accuracy in fulfilling e-commerce orders for its Canada market. They offer free shipping on all orders so shipping costs had to be contained.
By creating an all-natural, organic drink and marketing to people interested in health and fitness, GURU staked out a valuable lifestyle niche in the competitive energy drink business. Next, it reached out to young consumers by creating advertising campaigns on social media sites and using colorful, eco-friendly trucks to distribute free samples in trendy neighborhoods.
Using Shipwire is like putting your fulfillment channel on auto-pilot while saving on overhead.
Consumers are zestful, athletic, invigorated. Limit-pushers with a long agenda and frenetic pace. Lethargy is not in GURU’s lexicon, in marketing or in shipping.
Enter Shipwire, the leader in internet-delivered storage and shipping services, which operates five warehouses on two continents, including two in Canada.
GURU uses Shipwire’s Toronto fulfillment center for Canadian e-commerce.
“Shipwire helped our expanding sales in Canada while we concentrated on opening up the U.S. market,” says logistics expert Spyro Papaspyrou, who is GURU’s director of operations and consumer relations, Internet Division. “Shipwire made the transition seamless.”
Orders flow to Shipwire from GURU’s ZenCart store. (Shipwire integrates with more than 50 ecommerce tools like ZenCart, and all work with the Shipwire free trial, helping you eliminate setup costs and get started quickly.)
Plus, using the Toronto fulfillment center improved shipping time and cut costs, allowing GURU to absorb the cost of free shipping throughout Canada.
Shipwire finds the cheapest shipping rates
“I like that you have a tool that selects the cheapest rate to a destination,” Papaspyrou says. “Sometimes we ship to rural parts of Canada, and Canada Post is not the cheapest rate, so we are happy that Shipwire automatically chooses between all the available options.”
With Shipwire’s scalable pricing plans and new analytics panel, GURU generates a myriad of reports that help identify trends and track costs — critical information when you’re going against soft drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
“Our alliance with Shipwire means we don’t have to micro- manage our Canadian e-commerce sales, saving us time and money that is better spent developing other markets,” Papaspyrou says.
“As we look to expand into new markets globally, I know that I can look to Shipwire to make the shipping and logistics one of the easiest parts of the expansion. Shipwire is a great partner,” Papaspyrou says.
