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Learn how sunglass brand Rainbow OPTX increased their order volume 2.5 times by partnering with ShipBob for ecommerce fulfilment.
Customer Profile
Rainbow OPTX sells mood-boosting, chakra-focused colour therapy sunglasses. All lenses are UV400 protective and come in 10 unique colours to make the world beautiful, offering a colourful alternative to traditional black lenses.
Key metrics:
- 115% growth since transitioning to ShipBob
- 24% increase in average order value by offering ShipBob’s 2-Day Express shipping
- 2.5 times more order volume since partnering with ShipBob
- 20 hours spent packing boxes every day pre-ShipBob
Rainbow OPTX are not normal sunglasses. Their stylish colour lenses can instantly change your mood. Where traditional sunglasses use dark lenses that turn everything grey, Rainbow OPTX’s unique colour lenses can lift your spirits and improve your wellness.
If you read through any of their thousands of 5-star reviews, you’ll hear from people who claim these chic glasses have helped with everything from depression and anxiety to migraines. One thing becomes very clear — customers love this product.
Each colour comes with a different affirmation and focus to help shift your perspective based on what you need more of in your life, such as blue glasses to cool your system and relax or a yellow pair to bolster feelings of happiness and optimism.
From the beach or music festival to everyday life, you can see the world in a certain colour connected to a specific colour, mood, and energy.
Experiencing rapid growth and trying to keep afloat
As told to ShipBob by Noel Churchill, Owner and CEO of Rainbow OPTX.
I founded Rainbow OPTX in early 2014. Early on, I focused on diffraction lenses before pivoting to colour therapy glasses, an area no one was really focusing on at the time.
Using all the spare money I had, I placed a wholesale order for colour lens glasses. I ran ads on Facebook and reinvested any revenue I generated back into the business.
After a year of selling these mood-boosting glasses as a side project, I left my job to pursue it full-time. The business was still very small and I was focused on making small improvements to the product.
Then, in 2017, we had a breakout year with massive success. It was a very exciting time because of the incredible growth, but it also became very stressful, as I was working nonstop packing and shipping hundreds of orders every day and hiring friends to help.
“It felt like all I did in the busy season was eat, sleep, and pack orders. It was my entire life. I even had 2 other people helping, each working 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. I had reached my limit. I had to make a transition in order to scale.”
Noel Churchill, Owner and CEO of Rainbow OPTX
We were operating out of my garage, which was filled exclusively with inventory. I bought racks and organised all of the products. My garage was at maximum capacity — we couldn’t even fit another person in there.
I knew I had to make a transition in order to scale. I could lease a warehouse somewhere and grow into the new space, but with how cyclical our business is, I would have to hire people to scale up over the summer and let them go in the fall. Having to do that every single year didn’t appeal to me.
With the seasonal nature of our business, meaning we’d have to scale up our fulfilment and workforce every year, I knew I had to find a 3PL partner. I kept hearing very good things about ShipBob and decided to go with them.
Before I got started in ShipBob’s LA facility, I toured a different 3PL’s warehouse near me in San Diego. While I thought it would have been easier to work with a 3PL so close to me, my gut instinct told me that they weren’t the right choice for us.
ShipBob’s fulfilment centre gave me a much better feeling. The energy of everyone working there was very positive, and people seemed to be friends and having a good time working together.
They were also experiencing a lot of growth and funding for new opportunities for expanding their fulfilment centres and software.
Growing 115% with ShipBob
In order to transition to ShipBob, I had to ship my inventory to Los Angeles. Right before I planned to do this, I received a ton of inventory to my home and had nowhere to put it. I ended up with huge piles of inventory sitting outside of my house.
I didn’t realise how much space it would take up. The UPS truck that came to pick it up didn’t even have room for all of it. After a few truckloads, I handed all of my inventory over to ShipBob, and it just worked!
“It was kind of like magic — my orders were imported into ShipBob from my Shopify Plus website and started getting fulfiled right away. I didn’t have to do anything. And since then, we’ve grown 115% and experienced 2.5 times more order volume — all fulfiled by ShipBob.”
Noel Churchill, Owner and CEO of Rainbow OPTX
I was so used to doing so much packing and shipping, and then suddenly I was done fulfiling orders myself. It was pretty awesome. I had time to read through customer feedback, make sure customers are happy, go through our Facebook mentions, personally respond to messages, work on our brand direction and media planning, and keep a pulse on the business.
ShipBob takes really good care of their customers. Every ecommerce brand will experience inevitable fulfilment errors, but it’s how your 3PL responds to it that makes all the difference. I feel really good about the way ShipBob is diligent in solving problems. They’ve always stepped up and worked hard to resolve any issues. Everything has been really great.
ShipBob is also not complacent — their software is always improving and the fulfilment services are always advancing, like expanding 2-day shipping coverage. In fact, with ShipBob’s 2-Day Express program, we’ve seen a 24% increase in our average order value for qualifying orders placed on our Shopify Plus store.
The company has ambition for growth and they keep developing in very real ways.
Looking ahead
For now, our main focus is direct-to-consumer sales. Looking forward, we have some boutique retail store owners who want to sell our product, and we’d love to expand globally.
I am glad to have ShipBob by our side to help us grow even more and carry out our mission to improve people’s wellness and make the world a brighter, more beautiful place with colour.
Learn more
Looking for a 3PL to handle your ecommerce fulfilment? Download “ShipBob’s 2-Day Express Shipping: How to Drive Revenue Through Ecommerce Fulfilment” or get in touch with ShipBob and learn how you can grow your brand while enhancing your logistics.
