Bathorium Saves 70% on Shipping Costs As They Increase Delivery Speed & Expand in the US [Case Study]

Discover how Canadian luxury bath brand Bathorium broke into the US market and saved thousands of dollars in shipping costs with improved speed by partnering with ShipBob and Shopify to fulfil orders.

Key metrics:

• 12,000 units sold on Good Morning America fulfiled in 3 days
• 20% growth in the US
• 70% reduction in US shipping costs

While visiting Italy in 2014, Greg MacDonald took notice of the bath products at the home he stayed at in Amalfi.

As a self-proclaimed “bath guy” who takes 3-4 baths a week, he was inspired to recreate the experience he had and shortly thereafter founded Bathorium.

As the CEO of Bathorium, he’s led the company to become Canada’s premium luxury bath bomb provider.

While Greg is a full-time entrepreneur, he also has another full-time job:

He is a Customer Success Manager for fast-growing brands at Shopify.

Running his own business and working with Shopify merchants gives Greg a unique understanding of a wide array of challenges in ecommerce.

So who does a Shopify expert turn to for ecommerce fulfilment?

Greg shares his journey of growing the Bathorium brand by partnering with ShipBob.

Breaking into the US market with ease

As told to ShipBob by Greg MacDonald, founder and CEO of Bathorium.

We started looking for a 3PL with a strong US presence earlier this year. Our greatest barrier was how expensive it was to ship from Canada, costing about 50% of our average order value. We spent anywhere from $18 to $25 for a one-pound shipment, and it would take a minimum of 7-10 business days to reach the destination.

With customers today expecting free shipping and a fast turnaround, we knew this level of service wouldn’t fly — especially around the holidays.

We partnered with ShipBob to scale up operations in the United States.

We’ve seen a reduction of 70% on shipping costs in the US, which helps keep conversions high. When we joined ShipBob, only 20% of our customers were in the US. By the end of the year, that number will be around 40%.

Greg MacDonald, CEO & Founder of Bathorium

As we look to continue our strong growth in Canada and the US, we’ll continue to optimise our cash flow to scale our product, purchasing, and packaging. To support this, we have been able to work with solutions like Clearbanc to partner with us on our cash flow needs, while ShipBob allows us to outsource the shipping and fulfilment issues we were experiencing, especially while scaling in the United States.

Predictable shipping costs and reduced time in transit

Speeding up deliveries and keeping them affordable for customers is a top concern for us. With ShipBob, we can comfortably assign a shipping cost to each order by pinpointing the product weight and destination postcode.

In comparison to shipping products to the US from Canada, which can be extremely variable in cost, fulfilment by ShipBob is much easier to estimate because we know the true fulfilment cost.

“It makes it a lot easier to spend marketing dollars when we know exactly what shipping costs are going to be.”

Greg MacDonald, CEO & Founder of Bathorium

Reliable fulfilment for Good Morning America appearance

Bathorium was featured on Good Morning America (GMA) in 2018, where we sold 12,000 units across 4,800 orders.

While this event helped us expand into the US, it was daunting to prepare for and know exactly what to expect.

Having ShipBob there to support our volume and be able to process orders with a quick turnaround was the key to having everything shipped out on time.

We were able to ship everything in less than three days. That would not have been possible without ShipBob.

Alignment with Shopify

Unsurprisingly, we use Shopify as our ecommerce platform. Paired with ShipBob’s intuitive, clean software, our team has all the tools we need to manage orders, payments, shipments, and more. The seamless integration between the two systems has made it very easy to do everything from manage inventory to create prepaid orders.

Working with major brands at Shopify in addition to my own company, I’m very familiar with the need for faster, cheaper shipping options and long-term scalability. Because ShipBob can meet those needs, I even recommend ShipBob to my customers who need a reliable and scalable fulfilment provider.

“ShipBob was the obvious solution for us. They align very well with Shopify and don’t have older, archaic technology like other 3PLs.”

Greg MacDonald, CEO & Founder of Bathorium

Dedicated account management is a game changer

I feel particularly aligned with the account management I receive through ShipBob, as it’s on par with the world-class service that my Shopify colleagues and I strive to provide to our customers.

My team at Bathorium also values not having to deal with support lines or work through an email and instead be able to talk to a human. The speed at which the ShipBob team works when any issues arise has proven to be another valuable aspect of our partnership.

“I can talk directly to my account manager who personally makes sure that everything is running smoothly and works with me to solve any issues. This level of support is something that no other 3PLs could match, especially at our volume and scale.”

Greg MacDonald, CEO & Founder of Bathorium

Scalable for continued growth and complexity

In addition to gaining traction in a major market, we also value working with a 3PL that can handle the demand from Black Friday or Mother’s Day sales and can scale and provide nationwide distribution.

Since working with ShipBob, we’ve also had more time to focus on larger partnerships. Bathorium products are already sold in Anthropologie and more than 100 retail locations globally, and we can continue to work on more strategic relationships without having to worry about order fulfilment.

We also have private-label and personalised products — from bath mists and essential oils to soap lines — coming to luxury hotels like Ritz-Carlton.

Learn more

Discover a better ecommerce fulfilment method and grow your business. Get started with ShipBob now.