Table of Contents
** Minutes
Going from garage to professional fulfillment partner
Learn how menstrual disc brand Hey Zomi has leveraged ShipBob to fulfill an ever-scaling order volume and reclaim their time.
Customer Profile
Sisters Mika Koelma and Zoe Fehlberg co-founded Australian-made and owned Hey Zomi with a vision to give menstruators the power to have periods on their terms. Their eco-friendly, reusable menstrual discs are easier to use than traditional menstrual cups and become thinner than a tampon when you squeeze the sides of the disc to insert it and use a patent-protected handle that makes removal a breeze. Made of 100% medical grade silicone, the Hey Zomi disc is soft, smooth, and flexible, and you can leave it in all day for convenient, mess-free period care that is simple and extremely comfortable. They also give 5% of every menstrual disc sold, to fight against period poverty in Australia.
Key metrics
- 0.5 day of work reclaimed each day by handing off fulfillment
- 3x order volume from December ‘23 to January ‘24
- 200% growth projected in the next 6 months
NSW-based sisters Mika Koelma and Zoe Fehlberg come from an entrepreneurial family and had always wanted to start a business together. They set out to solve their own period woes and founded Hey Zomi, creating exceptional menstrual products that make it feel like you’re not even having your period.
Hey Zomi uses innovative femtech design and is the only menstrual disc that is owned and made in Australia. Having worked with silicon engineers in Melbourne, their suction-free menstrual disc holds more fluid than menstrual cups and can be semi-emptied without fully removing it, preventing leaks while feeling undetectable.
It’s also a much more sustainable alternative to single-use period care products, as one Hey Zomi Disc can be used for over five years.
We sat down with Hey Zomi co-founder, Mika Koelma, to learn more about how this Aussie brand has grown so quickly in just 17 months of business in part by partnering with ShipBob for order fulfillment.
Going from garage to professional fulfillment partner
As told to ShipBob by Mika Koelma, co-founder of Hey Zomi.
We launched Hey Zomi December 2022. In those early days, we were kitting and packing products in our garage and running to Australia Post with 30-40 orders per day. We started doubling and then tripling our order volume month after month, and it was hard to keep up.
More importantly, we knew we wanted to continue to grow so we began talking to global distributors and 3PLs in Australia. But we quickly discovered many companies were not willing to work with us.
It was very hard to find a partner that would back us in our early stage of growth, despite our promising projections. We were told ‘no’ many times since we were still too small for their requirements.
Then we found ShipBob.
“We feel really lucky to have ShipBob as our foundation – and that they get founders’ pain points, are there for us, and allowed us to grow so much faster by kitting our products and fulfilling our orders. We have peace of mind now.”
– Mika Koelma, co-founder of Hey Zomi
The quantity and volume ShipBob can ship is so impressive. I never wanted to employ a team to kit and pack, and I don’t have to manage them. ShipBob are the professionals, not me, so it’s a huge relief off my shoulders.
Getting best-in-class support and intuitive technology
ShipBob is the first fulfillment company we’ve worked with. What I thought would be intimidating ended up being a great experience.
The ShipBob dashboard is very user-friendly, but the amazing part of learning everything was someone was holding our hands throughout the first month or more during onboarding, helping us connect our Shopify store, create our first warehouse receiving orders, and helping us learn the ins and outs of the system.
I was never made to feel dumb when I asked so many repetitive questions. I could go to one person who would take us through everything, and I was never in the dark at any stage.
ShipBob’s technology is really easy to use, and I never feel lost. It kind of reminds me of Google Drive, where everything is all in the right spot, you intuitively know where it is, and never have to update software and refigure out where anything is.
“ShipBob took fulfillment entirely off my hands. It used to consume half my day. On top of doing all the things I do as a founder, I don’t have to worry about fulfillment anymore.”
– Mika Koelma, co-founder of Hey Zomi
ShipBob support is very responsive and quick. They are so good at customer care and genuinely take customer feedback to heart. ShipBob wants to learn from and hear from us – it’s a big mark in my book. Plus, we have one person to go to and talk through growth plans and receive recommendations on how to optimally expand.
What’s next for Hey Zomi
Hey Zomi is a 100% Australian owned and made brand – after founding, manufacturing, designing, and launching in Australia, we continue to be intentional with choosing our business partners.
Across our supply chain, all of our partnerships have taught us the importance of having someone who will help you grow from a startup but also at your own pace.
Our vision is to be able to make Hey Zomi accessible all over the world. ShipBob has already allowed us to grow, and with so many warehouses across the world, we can continue to do so – we can become more omnichannel and go from shipping from Sydney to Holland so much easier.
In February of this year, we launched a new product, and it was seamless to go to this massive warehouse to drop off product, to then 2 days later having ShipBob fulfilling those orders.
We have a couple more products coming out in the next six months, and we know as soon as it’s available, ShipBob is right behind us to send our products to customers.
Because we have the support to scale, we’re now doubling our inventory, investing more in marketing and getting in front of more customers.
I’m really proud to see how far we’ve come – for a first-time ecomm business that’s fully bootstrapped and homegrown, to where we are today – I’m so glad to have the right partners in place.
“I’m so proud of how far we have come on our own as a startup. But it couldn’t have happened without exceptional partnerships, like we have with ShipBob. These great working relationships have been key for growth and the success of Hey Zomi. The fact that we’re at this stage – with a projected growth of 200% in the next 6 months – I’m so excited to keep going and see where it takes us!”
– Mika Koelma, co-founder of Hey Zomi
Hey Zomi’s team at ShipBob
Winston Song
Winston is the Account Executive who worked with the Hey Zomi team to get started with ShipBob.
Sarthak Shetty
Sarthak Shetty is the Implementation Specialist who onboarded Hey Zomi to ShipBob.
Drew Lucas
Drew is the Merchant Success Manager at ShipBob who supports Hey Zomi.
Get started with ShipBob
Looking into switching fulfillment partners or outsourcing fulfillment for the first time? Request a quote from ShipBob to get started.
