Learn how plant care and gardening tools brand TopBuxus leveraged ShipBob’s global fulfilment centre network to unlock international sales, expand into retail, and drive top Trustpilot scores.
Customer Profile
Founded in 1987, the family-owned tree nursery has planted more than 12 million boxwood plants across the Netherlands. With the spread of Boxwood Blight in the early 2000s. TopBuxus team of experts developed a solution for both garden centres and home gardeners worldwide. Today TopBuxus sells a wide range of plant care and gardening tools, helping gardeners across the world care for and enjoy their Boxwood plants.
Key metrics
- 3 ShipBob fulfilment centres
- 10x sales volume in the first 4 months with ShipBob
- Over 30,000 orders shipped per month
- 85% 5-star reviews on Trustpilot
About TopBuxus
Founded in the Netherlands in 1987 as a family business in the tree nursery sector, TopBuxus has grown into a successful brand that’s sold over 12 million box plants to garden centres across the world.
The spread of Boxwood Blight in the early 2000s led the Dutch government to call upon TopBuxus’ expertise. The brand worked to develop a solution available to both garden centres and home gardeners, and ended up pivoting to focus entirely on this new plant care market.
We sat down with TopBuxus’ International Business Manager, Kevin Lammers, to learn more about how the brand leverages ShipBob’s global fulfilment network to scale globally and deliver a top-notch customer experience.
Finding a UK fulfilment partner to unlock global sales
As told to ShipBob by Kevin Lammers, International Sales Manager at TopBuxus.
Before we partnered with ShipBob, we fulfilled orders for UK shoppers from our own fulfilment centre in the Netherlands – but Brexit customs delays and additional taxes put a stop to that. Then we tried working with another 3PL in the UK, but they weren’t the right fit for our business, and their technology and Amazon integration was messy.
We started looking for an alternative solution – one that wouldn’t just take care of our UK fulfilment, but also help us expand globally. We always wanted a fulfilment partner that was global. We needed to be in the UK, the USA, and beyond. I wanted that one partner to help us achieve that.
ShipBob has been that partner for us. They have a global network of fulfilment centres, including locations in the UK, Europe, and dozens across the US, all of which make it really easy and cost-effective to reach local and international customers.
“ShipBob not only has fulfilment centres in the right locations but is also able to serve our customers wherever they shop. B2B is just as important for us as direct-to-consumer. Whether shoppers are buying through our website, Amazon, or via retailers, being able to serve all those shoppers is key.”
Kevin Lammers, International Business Manager at TopBuxus
Leveraging next-day delivery to delight customers and scale rapidly
Because of the nature of our product, we had very specific requirements for a fulfilment partner.
Our product is very seasonal, with strong peaks around early spring and late summer each year. We needed a partner that could scale and flex to match those changes. ShipBob is able to handle spikes in demand and process a ton of orders in a short period of time.
Delivery speed is of huge importance for us. ShipBob not only delivers quickly but also delivers across the UK the next day.
Customers love the delivery experience we’ve built with ShipBob, and it shows. When we first launched with ShipBob in the UK, we had a relatively conservative order volume estimate of a few thousand orders per month. But within just 4 months, we were receiving over 30,000 orders per month. It all just worked seamlessly.
“Our Trustpilot reviews are a testament to ShipBob’s speed. They’ve proven to us that ShipBob can easily scale to match large fluctuations in demand and still maintain high-quality service. They’ve really helped us unlock our UK growth.”
Kevin Lammers, International Business Manager at TopBuxus
Delivering the right combination of people & technology
My favorite thing about ShipBob is definitely the personnel. We appreciate the whole team, but we particularly love our Merchant Success Manager, Carlos. He’s super knowledgeable, always prompt, and able to answer any questions. We’ve found a real partnership together.
The ShipBob dashboard is also so much more user-friendly than those of other fulfilment providers. Clearly, ShipBob is at the top of their field when it comes to technology. The ability to view everything from a high level and also zoom in on individual orders is key for both me and our team. Having that information always on-hand is crucial to our business.
Unlocking clear and transparent pricing
ShipBob’s transparent pricing is a huge plus. Parcels will always get damaged in transit on occasion, no matter how well packaged they are, but the fact that ShipBob’s pricing includes management of courier claims for lost and damaged packages has us covered. Plus, we don’t have to deal with time-consuming courier claims directly, which is another bonus.
“I would definitely recommend ShipBob to anyone looking for a fulfilment partner. There are other fulfilment options out there, but we don’t make our decisions based on potentially saving a few pennies or cents here or there. ShipBob has proven themselves to be worth it.”
Kevin Lammers, International Business Manager at TopBuxus
What’s next for TopBuxus
We recently started using ShipBob in the US. In the first few weeks alone, sales started to pick up quickly. It’s a very big potential market for us. With ShipBob, we’re able to fulfil orders from all of our channels – including our direct-to-consumer sales, Amazon sales, and retail sales – so I’m expecting big things.
We’re also just expanded into Canada with ShipBob. Having fulfilment centres in these international markets is key for us, and we couldn’t scale this quickly or effectively by simply shipping cross-border. It’s great to know that I can continue to grow and expand with ShipBob.
Topbuxus’s team at ShipBob
Carlos Cardo Alcalde
Carlos is the Merchant Success Manager at ShipBob who supports TopBuxus.
Sergio Estevez
Sergio is the Senior Implementation Specialist who onboarded TopBuxus to ShipBob.
Get started with ShipBob
Want to improve your ecommerce fulfilment strategy and scale your business? Discover if ShipBob is the right fit for your brand and request a fulfilment quote below.
