Vertical
3D EyewearIntegration
Shopify PlusRegion
GlobalEmployees
11-50
In 2017, a rare and exciting total solar eclipse event launched American Paper Optics eclipse glasses order volume from less than 50 daily orders to nearly 14,000 per day! When faced with the enormous spike in orders, their fulfillment operations were “completely underwater,” according to CMO Jason Lewin.
As the world’s leading manufacturer and seller of 3D eyewear and eclipse glasses, the multi-channel seller regularly managed seasonal peaks and huge, event-specific spikes in orders from three different ecommerce storefronts, plus B2B sales and Amazon.
In 2023, because of the upcoming April 2024 total solar eclipse event, leaders decided to stop relying on their backend system’s limited shipping capabilities and make a change. It was time to find a scalable ecommerce shipping solution better suited to the company’s complex fulfillment needs.
High-Priority Shipping Problems
Time-consuming manual tasks and limited shipping automation capabilities were already causing a struggle to fulfill lower daily order volumes. As you can imagine, when event-based order volume spikes hit, the situation escalated from struggling to crisis mode.
Time-Consuming Manual Tasks
Manual tasks in the shipping workflow posed an important problem because inefficient processes required the company to increase costs, tripling warehouse staff to keep up with peak order volumes. The urgency of meeting customer expectations and delivering orders on time for their events made the time-consuming tasks an even bigger challenge.
Limited Automation Capabilities
Without robust shipping automation rules, the company had to spend valuable time manually creating shipping labels, managing tracking information, and reporting. As a result, when order volumes and fulfillment complexity spiked, leaders were spending way too much time putting out fires, such as dealing with the missing tracking numbers of frustrated customers.
American Paper Optics Wins at Ecommerce Shipping
The company’s leaders hypothesized that the right technology could increase fulfillment speed and accuracy, keeping customers happy and coming back for repeat purchases. They tested the hypothesis by rolling out Descartes ShipRush™ seamlessly integrated with Shopify to the Eclipse Glasses ecommerce site. How did it go?
“Frankly, we were looking for a shipping solution that seemed too good to be true in terms of ease of use and a simple plug-in to all our sales channels but, within an hour, Descartes ShipRush was up and running—like magic! Now we’re able to handle extreme daily shipping volumes and meet customer expectations without missing a beat, or having to triple our warehouse staff like in the past, while simultaneously keeping shipping costs in check.”
Jason Lewin, CMO, American Paper Optics
Lewin went on to share, “The deployment was super simple and required minimal training, so we quickly rolled out Descartes ShipRush to our other ecommerce sites and marketplaces in the following weeks. The automated shipping workflow—including labeling, tracking info, and reporting—is fast, easy, and accurate; it just works. And if we ever have questions, the online chat support is a click away.”
“In the lead up to the April eclipse, we’ve been regularly shipping 1,000-1,500 orders per day. And the software will scale easily to manage even greater volumes to come without any costly hiccups,” Lewin added. “Plus, with automated order data flow between Shopify and Descartes ShipRush, we’ve increased fulfillment accuracy and speed to keep customers happy and coming back for repeat purchases.”
Tools for success: Descartes ShipRush, Shopify Integration, Amazon Integration, shipping automation
Biggest Wins
- Scalable operations for peak season shipping, easily handling high order volumes
- Shipping cost savings up to 89% via discounted shipping rates and reduced labor costs
- Faster order fulfillment to ensure that customers get the right order, on time, every time
Threats Avoided
- Unhappy customers, bad reviews, loss of repeat business
- Human errors and missing tracking numbers
- High labor costs from tripling warehouse staff during peaks
Need Help with a Similar Shipping Problem?
No one should have to deal with ecommerce shipping problems, especially while trying to grow your business. If these problems sound all too familiar, we hope you will do yourself a favor and make a change. Let technology do the tedious, repetitive work so you can fulfill orders more efficiently.
Descartes offers free 1:1 live support for all customers. Try Descartes ShipRush for free and contact us to help configure your setup and solve your shipping problems today.
