Table of Contents
** Minutes
Launching into DIY at-home fulfillment
From local 3PL to seamless onboarding with ShipBob
Taking advantage of time savings to curate an authentic brand
Utilizing ShipBob’s impressive analytics to optimize business growth
Creating a personal connection on social media as a tool for growth
What’s next for Slime by Nichole Jacklyne
Learn how viral influencer Nichole Jacklyn quickly onboarded with ShipBob to save time to put back in her business.
Customer Profile
Slime by Nichole Jacklyne is a toy brand that sells slime, fidgets, and other variations of popper toys and accessories. The brand’s namesake, Nichole, is a viral influencer and entrepreneur who creates homemade slime and showcases fidget toys on her social media platforms and has countless options available for purchase on her website.
Key metrics
- Nearly 3 million followers (across all social media platforms)
- 9 days to start shipping with ShipBob
- 12.5x growth in order volume YoY
When Nichole Jacklyne began creating YouTube videos in 2013, it wasn’t the most popular social media platform for teenagers. Despite its lacking cool factor, Nichole continued to make videos of trendy clothes and fashion hauls.
Over time, Nichole’s videos morphed from fashion-forward to do-it-yourself – a niche that felt better suited for her interests, given her love of crafting and design. This change in genre paid off. Nichole’s page quickly catapulted in popularity and she gained thousands of subscribers on YouTube, amounting to over 10,000.
Then in 2017, slime — think: Silly Putty, but brightly colored, scented, and more fun — was the internet’s hottest trend. Nichole saw it as an opportunity. Noticing a void in the slime-making tutorial realm, she began concocting her own slime for the world to see – step-by-step.
Followers fell in love with Nichole’s personality and her unique slime creations.
Almost a decade after posting her initial videos, Nichole is one of the most popular creators in this space, boasting a verified check mark next to her name and millions of followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Learn how Nichole Jacklyne got her shop off the ground, utilized social media to create her personal brand, and how ShipBob has given her time back that she can dedicate to her business instead of on ecommerce fulfillment.
Launching into DIY at-home fulfillment
As told to ShipBob by Nichole Jacklyne, Founder of Slime by Nichole Jacklyne.
A few months into posting my videos to YouTube, I started seeing a lot of comments saying, “You should start an online business.” I was going to school for broadcast journalism and multimedia — I had no history of business.
I decided to take the plunge and dive in head first. In the beginning, I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to figure out how to buy jars, source supplies, and just dip my toes in.
When I finally launched my slime shop on Etsy, people couldn’t get enough. I didn’t know what to do or how to balance it, but I thought, “Sure, we’ll get these orders out… whatever that means – we’ll figure it out!”
The business continued to grow, and in 2019 I rented space in a warehouse and hired someone to help me package orders. In August 2020, things were up in the air because of COVID so I decided to move fulfillment back into my house. Shortly after moving back to at-home fulfillment, we added fidgets in the store to keep up with trends.
At that point, it was just too much to do by myself and I was completely in over my head. I didn’t have time to create content or work on other parts of the business — only the behind-the-scenes stuff like shipping. I knew I needed professional help with fulfillment.
From local 3PL to seamless onboarding with ShipBob
Prior to ShipBob, I used a local fulfillment center in Nashville. My business was scaling really quickly and I realized that I was outgrowing it. They only had one location and had a really small team. They are great at what they do, but I needed to step away to a more robust solution to achieve the growth I wanted.
I had been scoping out ShipBob for a few months before I officially made the call to get onboarded. I wanted to take a break after the holidays to reflect on my goals for the business and regroup in the new year to see how sales were doing. The more I thought about it, and the more I saw my current situation play out, I knew I wanted to make the switch to ShipBob.
When I initially had the call with ShipBob, I said I wanted to get going as soon as possible. Based on our conversations, I knew they were the fulfillment company that could make that happen. Everyone was so helpful with steps on what to do next.
ShipBob’s onboarding process was so fast and efficient. It was important to me that things went well and the transition was quick. I didn’t want the process of getting inventory in the fulfillment center to take a whole month.
Every meeting I had with ShipBob, whether it was with my account manager, or when I went to officially drop product off at the fulfillment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, everyone was so professional. I thought, “This is how a business should be run.”
“In switching fulfillment companies, ShipBob made the transition process very professional and seamless. I really valued how structured it was — ShipBob made everything so incredibly easy! I know that I need that type of structure if I’m going to sustain this level of growth. In total, it only took me about 9 days to get started.”
– Nichole Jacklyne, Founder of Slime by Nichole Jacklyne
I’d moved my fulfillment operation from apartment to apartment and to different warehouses, so when I saw my products in the ShipBob fulfillment center, it was like my wildest dreams were being realized.
Our order volume has increased by 1,150% in the past year! I’m incredibly grateful to have found a partner in ShipBob, knowing they can sustain my growth versus holding me back.
Taking advantage of time savings to curate an authentic brand
Since moving to ShipBob, I’ve been able to focus on creating content and thinking of ways to push sales. I’ve found myself to be way more inspired now that I can focus on different aspects of the business. Now I’m able to brainstorm unique ways to show slime and fidgets that haven’t been done before.
I’ve also had more time for critical thinking moments. I have time to really think about how I want to present the products and not just, “How can I get this out as fast as possible?” I can spend more time on the creative process.
I am still a part of the slime-making process. In the past, I had someone help me but now that I have ShipBob, I can structure my time to film content on certain days and make and package slime on other days.
This balance gives me an opportunity to keep certain aspects of being a small business. I think it’s a unique thing that I can still package the slime and put a sticker on it. If people know that Nichole created and packaged this, they are more likely to make a purchase.
I try to show the process whenever I can, because that makes such a difference. People like being a part of the process. With ShipBob, I have the time to share that with my followers and customers.
“It’s been really great to know that no matter what I do on the weekend to push sales, come Monday, orders will get shipped by ShipBob. Having that peace of mind, and knowing that there’s structure in place to keep that process going, allows me to sleep better at night. It’s an amazing feeling.”
– Nichole Jacklyne, Founder of Slime by Nichole Jacklyne
Utilizing ShipBob’s impressive analytics to optimize business growth
When I found ShipBob, I was so taken back by how thorough everything was. I’m obsessed with the dashboard – everything I need to know is there. If I want to know shipping analytics or shipping prices, it’s all right there and so transparent.
I love ShipBob’s analytics tool. I like being able to look at the last seven days of shipping costs. It’s so nice to see exactly what the average shipping cost is and make sure the number that my Shopify store has customers paying matches what’s in the ShipBob dashboard.
Having those kinds of metrics on hand at any point is incredible. I’ve never experienced that before. It’s great to know that whenever I’m interested in checking data, I can log on right away without having to email anybody for answers.
“As I grow my business, I’ve realized how important little details like analytics and insights are. If I can’t go in and see that information like I can in ShipBob, it’s going to hinder my ability to grow the business. Ultimately, we left our old small fulfillment center because everything ShipBob offered blew them out of the water.”
– Nichole Jacklyne, Founder of Slime by Nichole Jacklyne
Creating a personal connection on social media as a tool for growth
I had a bunch of viral TikToks around Black Friday last year, which consistently brought in a lot of new customers. The numbers we had before and after Black Friday are substantially different from there on.
Social media can be amazing. It really helps give customers a little taste of who you are. That approach has worked for me because I always try to stay on camera and make sure my viewers know who Nichole is. As they grow older, they’re going to remember me and my passion more than the slime or fidgets.
It’s easier to take yourself out of the equation and just make content about the product, but when I think about myself as a consumer, I am always going to buy from someone if I know their backstory. I want to always try to keep things really normal and authentic.
Embracing who you are is really important because people are gonna follow you for your unique personality, and not just for the content in general. I realized that viewers want to know you versus just seeing slime and fidgets.
What’s next for Slime by Nichole Jacklyne
Now that we have shipping and processing under control, I’m able to focus on really growing the business through new channels. I actually have my slime in Target right now. I’m working with a company called Compound Kings and we have a variety pack that is a rendition of my four best sellers, which I still make in my slime shop. I also have some slime in Meijer stores.
I plan on growing and exploring new opportunities, whether that’s on the content side or working on more collabs. I also want to focus on more outside projects with TikTok and growing my online presence. Down the road, I might offer best sellers internationally. I’m thankful to have that capability and support from ShipBob, while focusing on those aspects of the business and sustaining our growth.
Nichole Jacklyne’s team at ShipBob
Brian Totten
Brian is the Account Executive who helped Nichole get onboarded with ShipBob.
Prishita Khurana
Prishita is a Merchant Success Specialist at ShipBob and helps support Nichole.
Get started with ShipBob
Looking into switching fulfillment partners or outsourcing fulfillment for the first time? Request a quote from ShipBob to get started.
