How Cali’s Books Made Multi-Channel Easy
“Piecing together multiple 3PLs for B2C and B2B shipping was a logistics nightmare.
The Cahoot full-service solution simplifies our operations and upgrades our delivery experience at the same time.”
~ Michael P., COO, Cali’s Books
100%
On-time Shipments
90%
YoY Growth
40 hrs / week
Management time saved
Bringing Cherished Stories to Life
Growth is a good problem to have – but how do you make sure it doesn’t bury you?
Cali’s Books creates and sells innovative children’s books that bring stories to life with interactive sounds and songs. What started as a dedicated mom working out of her garage has grown to an organization of colleagues around the world producing hundreds of unique books and fulfilling tens of thousands of orders each month.
Cali’s growth has taken off in diverse channels: Amazon, their Shopify store, and retailers like Nordstrom. Before Cahoot, they relied on a complex fulfillment strategy with multiple different partners to try to fulfill orders across their different channels.
For Amazon, they primarily used FBA, and switched to FBM when stock got low. They replenished their FBA from a 3PL in Los Angeles, and that 3PL also handled their B2B orders. Finally, they used Deliverr for orders from their Shopify site and for FBM, but they were frustrated by reliability issues and poor customer service.
The ‘to each their own’ fulfillment strategy sounds good in theory, but in practice none of their providers measured up. Amazon FBA’s receiving delays and constant changes to inventory limits created frequent stockouts. Their FBM and Shopify orders, fulfilled by the 3PL and Deliverr, lost sales due to slow and unreliable delivery. Worst of all, none of their solutions worked seamlessly with one another, creating persistent logistical headaches. Behind the scenes, operations were strained, and top-line growth boomed one month but dropped the next in a frustrating “sawtooth” pattern.
They needed a provider who could help fuel their multi-channel growth without creating as many issues as they solved.
“There are a lot of companies that do 3PL for ecommerce, B2C, but they were on the longer side of delivery times. They weren’t flexible enough to be able to handle B2B. For the larger companies, very few of them were able to work with Amazon FBA and SFP.”
Cahoot’s Solution
Cahoot had an answer for every one of their needs – a true one-stop-shop.
DTC: Our Shopify fulfillment services power affordable fast & free shipping for their webstore, boosting on-site conversion.
FBM: We did Cali’s one better and enabled Seller Fulfilled Prime – so in a time when FBA is throwing up barriers to growth, they can keep the Prime badge and smash through them.
FBA Replenishment: FBA is a chore for sellers, so Cahoot took it off of Cali’s plate.
B2B: We carefully manage where Cali’s inventory is stored to minimize wholesale replenishment costs.
Strategic Inventory Placements: Nationwide inventory distribution minimizes shipping costs, and seamless transfers make inventory management a breeze.
We forward deployed Cali’s inventory at six Cahoot locations strategically selected to support Cali’s need for fast yet affordable delivery. Cahoot’s full-service solution improves the DTC delivery experience, overcomes Amazon limitations, and optimizes B2B fulfillment costs. Best of all, Cali’s knows that as they grow and add new channels, Cahoot’s flexible network is ready and available to meet their needs. Cahoot’s future-proof solution and personalized customer service is fueling their present growth and gives them operational peace of mind.
“There are a lot of companies that do 3PL for ecommerce, B2C, but they were on the longer side of delivery times. They weren’t flexible enough to be able to handle B2B. For the larger companies, very few of them were able to work with Amazon FBA and SFP.”
Impact
After switching to Cahoot, fulfillment has changed from a growth limiter to a growth enabler for Cali’s.
Fast and free shipping for DTC customers boosts webstore performance, while strategically placed inventory ensures that they never pay more than ground rates – reducing cost. On the back-end, they’ve been able to free up an entire employee’s worth of time thanks to the simplicity of working with just one fulfillment provider combined with Cahoot’s powerful technology.
On top of benefits to distinct channels, working with a full-service fulfillment provider creates a solution that is more than the sum of its parts. Since all of Cali’s inventory is with Cahoot, they enjoy economies of scale from fulfilling orders from all channels from the same inventory pool. This enables sellers to shift capital away from inventory and towards growth-boosting activities, which further improves results.
We’re thrilled to have a fellow innovator in Cali’s as a client, and we look forward to helping them reach new heights.
“The thing that stands out is that everybody understands what we’re doing. They understand it from the tech side, they understand it from the fulfillment side, down to what it actually means to pick & pack. We don’t have long conversations with people just to understand the problem, and as a result it gets solved quicker.”
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