Navigating the Canadian Shipping Landscape: Best Practices for E-commerce Merchants

Shipping to Canadian shoppers can be a daunting task for eCommerce merchants. With various regulations, duties, and shipping costs to consider, it is essential to establish best practices to ensure customer satisfaction while maintaining profitability. In this article, we will discuss the importance of shipping from Canadian fulfillment centers, considerations for free shipping promotions, selecting the right courier, and choosing the best 3PL partner.

Shipping from Canadian Order Fulfillment Centers

Shipping orders from Canadian order fulfillment centers can significantly benefit both the merchant and the customer. When Canadians receive an order with a declared value of over CAD $200, they are likely to be charged customs or duties upon delivery. Couriers such as UPS and FedEx are known to charge additional fees to collect these taxes and duties. This often results in the shopper refusing the package altogether, and the seller is forced to refund the order, ultimately losing the sale. To mitigate this, merchants should consider importing products and storing them at a Canadian-based 3PL company. By shipping from within Canada, shoppers are not charged any additional duties and taxes upon delivery, thus reducing the return rate on Canadian orders.

It is also important to note that using USPS to ship to Canadian shoppers from the USA is rarely a good idea. The parcels will be handed off from USPS to Canada Post for delivery, which can result in disjointed tracking numbers and potential delays, particularly during busy seasons. Carriers like UPS and FedEx will deliver parcels without handing them off, ensuring a more seamless delivery process. This is an important consideration if a merchant opts to ship products to Canada from the United States.

Canadian Customs has the authority to hold any parcel indefinitely. This is a crucial point for merchants shipping from outside of Canada to communicate with their Canadian shoppers. Clear communication about potential delays due to customs processing is essential. Failure to do so can result in negative reviews and a poor customer experience, especially if a buyer is expecting to receive a package by a specific date for a holiday, birthday, or other special event. By being transparent about the potential hurdles in the shipping process, merchants can set realistic expectations and foster a positive relationship with their Canadian customers.

Understanding Canadian Shopper Expectations

When it comes to online shopping, the expectations of Canadian consumers can vary greatly depending on their location. Generally, Canadians expect their orders to be processed and shipped promptly, similar to American consumers. However, the delivery time expectations can differ significantly.

For those living in rural or remote areas, there is an understanding that parcels may take longer to arrive. The lack of infrastructure and the vast distances that need to be covered mean that next-day delivery is not a common expectation. These consumers are usually accustomed to waiting a bit longer for their packages to arrive.

On the other hand, consumers living in city centers and metropolitan areas like the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA) have higher expectations when it comes to delivery times. The presence of better infrastructure and more delivery options in these areas means that shoppers often anticipate shorter delivery timeframes, similar to what American consumers expect. This is a critical distinction that merchants need to consider when setting delivery expectations for their Canadian customers.

By taking into account the geographical and logistical differences that exist within Canada, merchants can better manage customer expectations and improve overall satisfaction. This includes providing accurate and clear information on delivery timeframes during the checkout process, and being transparent about any potential delays that may occur.

Considerations for Free Shipping Promotions

When it comes to promotions offering free shipping across Canada, merchants must tread carefully. The cost of shipping a package can vary greatly from one location to another. For example, shipping to remote Canadian addresses can be ten times more expensive than shipping the same parcel to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). All merchants should familiarize themselves with remote location postal codes to avoid any surprises when setting up their shipping policies and charges. While some products may be suitable for free shipping promotions in certain areas, others may not be feasible. This can be a significant challenge for merchants shipping to Canadian consumers for the first time, especially when they are accustomed to USPS Priority Flat Rate shipping, which does not exist in Canada from Canada Post or any other carrier.

Selecting the Right Courier and Shipping Service

Understanding the Canadian landscape and selecting the right courier is crucial. Canada is a vast landmass, and not all carriers have the capability to deliver parcels to remote locations in a cost-effective manner. Choosing the same courier across all orders can have negative ramifications for the merchant. While a courier may be cost-effective when shipping to a major city or a specific part of a province, they can charge excessively for another. This can easily wipe out any profit margins and put an order in the red. It is also important to note that Canada Post Lettermail does not offer tracking, unlike USPS First Class. This is a crucial distinction, as eCommerce consumers typically expect to receive a tracking number as soon as an order is processed. Merchants must take this into account when shipping to Canadian consumers. InterFulfillment offers a RateShop feature that allows their system to automatically shop for the most cost-effective rate for each parcel, ensuring that the best carrier and service are selected.

Delivery Timeframes

Delivery timeframes can be just as tricky in the Canadian shipping landscape. Online shoppers typically expect items to be delivered in a timely fashion or at least have an estimated timeframe when checking out on a website. This is not always possible in Canada. One shipping service may result in a parcel being delivered the next day to a certain address, while another address may cost more and take over a week or even longer for delivery. This comes down to understanding the landscape and the various carriers and services offered.

Canada Post offers carbon-neutral shipping, with many tracking emails featuring a badge indicating that a shipment will be carbon-neutral. This may be an important value-added aspect of shipping for consumers. Generally, Canada Post is the most suitable across the board when it comes to shipping in Canada. However, there are instances when using UPS, a company that continues to improve its Canadian infrastructure and shipping capabilities, may be more cost-effective. The fact that a large number of Canada Post shipments are carbon neutral, paired with the fact that Canada Post is typically the most suitable carrier with their Expedited Parcel service, may be reason enough for certain merchants to choose them over others.

Choosing the Right 3PL Partner

Selecting the appropriate third-party logistics (3PL) partner is crucial to the success of any e-commerce merchant shipping to Canada. The ideal 3PL provider will offer a range of comprehensive order fulfillment services that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the merchant and their Canadian customers. This includes warehousing, pick and pack services, and transportation management. By leveraging the expertise and infrastructure of a 3PL partner, merchants can optimize their logistics operations and focus more on growing their business.

In addition to logistical support, a good 3PL partner should also serve as a knowledgeable guide for merchants navigating the complex landscape of shipping to Canadian consumers. This includes understanding the intricacies of customs regulations, taxes, and duties, as well as the various shipping options available to reach customers across Canada’s vast and diverse geography. The 3PL provider should take the time to learn about the merchant’s products, asking detailed questions about the shape, size, and weight of typical parcels to determine the most efficient and cost-effective shipping methods.

They should help the merchant strike the right balance between shipping costs and delivery times. This is especially important in the Canadian market, where shipping costs can vary significantly based on the destination. A suitable Canadian 3PL partner will have established relationships with various carriers and can negotiate competitive rates on behalf of the merchant. They should also offer a range of shipping options, from standard to expedited, to meet the expectations of different customers.

One way to ensure that you are choosing the right 3PL partner is to request a comprehensive quote that outlines all the costs associated with shipping your products to Canadian customers. Companies like InterFulfillment can provide detailed cost analyses that take into account all the variables involved in the shipping process. This will provide a clear picture of the costs involved and help you make an informed decision based on your business needs and budget.

Conclusion

In conclusion, shipping to Canadian shoppers requires a strategic approach. By shipping from Canadian fulfillment centers, considering the implications of free shipping promotions, selecting the right courier, and choosing a suitable 3PL partner, eCommerce merchants can successfully navigate the Canadian shipping landscape, ensuring customer satisfaction and profitability.

Ready to start shipping orders to your customers from Canada? InterFulfillment has you covered. Request your quote today or email us at sales@interfulfillment.com!

Adayra Lopez is the Sales Manager at InterFulfillment.

Did you know that 40% of businesses struggle more with customer acquisition than retention? To entice someone to click the “buy now” button in this commotion may seem like conquering Mount Everest.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, customer acquisition is the lifeblood of online businesses. Businesses prioritize customer acquisition methods to stay ahead in the game. It is crucial to ensure you spend your customer acquisition cost wisely.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll unravel strategies to acquire new customers efficiently, ensuring your customer’s lifetime value far outweighs the initial investment. Let’s optimize and create a powerful customer acquisition strategy.

1. Defining Your Target Audience

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Recognizing and defining your ideal customer is essential for optimizing marketing efforts. It ensures your digital marketing strategies, content marketing, and influencer marketing campaigns resonate with those who matter most.

A fundamental step in this process is to do market research. This helps in diving deep into customer insights, understanding the customer journey, and fine-tuning acquisition marketing. By focusing on the right customer or client, businesses can reduce customer acquisition costs and increase their chances of converting prospects.

Every stage of the customer acquisition funnel should align with your target audience’s needs and preferences. This alignment bolsters acquisition tactics and emphasizes customer satisfaction and lifetime value.

2. Crafting a Compelling Value Proposition

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A compelling value proposition lies at the heart of an effective customer acquisition strategy. It’s more than just a catchy sentence; it’s the promise of value your business delivers. Your value proposition should address the needs of your ideal customer and stand out amidst the noise of today’s digital marketing landscape. It’s pivotal to your marketing and sales initiatives as the backbone for email campaigns and content marketing endeavors.

A robust value proposition can increase your chances of customer retention and define your customer acquisition marketing strategy. So, how do you craft one? Identify your customer’s pain points and uniquely align your solutions. Ensure it speaks to both customer experience and customer satisfaction.

Always measure customer acquisition outcomes after refining your proposition. A significant customer acquisition strategy pivots on how effectively you can communicate your unique value in a crowded market.

3. Leveraging Multiple Digital Marketing Channels

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Optimizing your customer acquisition strategy means being present where your audience is. One of the best ways to achieve effective customer acquisition is by diversifying your customer acquisition channels. Sole reliance on a single marketing channel can leave your business vulnerable to unforeseen changes, such as algorithm tweaks or market saturation.

By embracing various customer acquisition strategies, you not only lower your customer acquisition risks but also improve your customer acquisition strategy. For instance, while social media marketing effectively catches users’ attention, a well-timed welcome email can enhance that initial interaction.

Speaking of which, if you need inspiration, here are some excellent welcome email examples that can serve as a touchpoint in your acquisition funnel. A multi-channel approach is crucial in ensuring a sustainable customer acquisition strategy for your business.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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In pursuing a sustainable customer acquisition strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) stands out as one of the best ways to optimize customer acquisition efforts. SEO, at its core, enhances the visibility of your online presence, ensuring that when potential customers search for services or products similar to yours, your business lands at the top of their search results.

SEO is an essential stage of the customer acquisition funnel, where new customer acquisition begins. When done right, SEO can significantly lower your customer acquisition costs by driving organic, targeted traffic to your site.

Strategies like social media marketing can be impactful; a solid SEO foundation ensures that you’re not just reaching out but that the right customers are finding you. It’s not just about acquiring new customers or clients; it’s about ensuring the right customer acquisition strategy for your business is in place.

5. Content Marketing

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In the online business landscape, optimizing customer acquisition is a clear growth path. Enter content marketing, a powerhouse in this realm. It’s not just about creating content; it’s about crafting relevant, engaging narratives tailored to your audience.

When you provide valuable insights or solutions through your content, you’re not just shouting into the void—you’re building trust. This trust, in turn, nudges potential customers closer to your brand. It’s essential to know your audience, understand their pain points, and address them with your content.

Distribute this content where they frequent and in formats they prefer. As you consistently offer value, you not only enhance your brand’s authority but also amplify your customer acquisition efforts. In the vast online marketplace, content marketing is your beacon, guiding prospects to your business and fostering growth.

6. User Experience (UX) Optimization

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User Experience (UX) stands at the forefront. When users land on your platform, the ease and intuitiveness they navigate can either boost or hinder your customer acquisition efforts. An optimal UX is one of the best ways to ensure effective customer acquisition. It goes beyond aesthetics; it’s about ensuring each stage of the customer acquisition funnel is seamless.

A positive experience can lead to customer referrals, significantly helping to reduce customer acquisition costs. A solid customer service team, attuned to user needs and feedback, can enhance the overall UX.

As marketing is the process of reaching new audiences, having an outstanding UX can make marketing to new customers more fruitful. The goal is not just acquisition but also customer retention and customer satisfaction. UX optimization is a pivotal component in your acquisition strategy for your business.

7. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

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Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) revolves around refining the user experience to drive more conversions. Think of it this way: marketing is a valuable way to bring traffic to your site, but without an effective CRO, potential customers might leave without making a purchase or taking desired actions.

A robust client acquisition strategy should not just focus on new acquisitions but also on harnessing the power of the traffic you already have. Here’s where your marketing or sales team comes into play.

By analyzing user behavior and making targeted changes, they can ensure that the amount spent on marketing yields a higher return. It’s like customer care but before the purchase. Get the right customer acquisition strategy, which is as vital as the strategy that works for CRO, and watch your business thrive.

8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

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Customer Relationship Management, popularly known as CRM, serves as the backbone of any sustainable customer acquisition and customer retention strategy. But why? Behind every successful online business is an unwavering focus on understanding, anticipating, and catering to customer needs.

A potent CRM system doesn’t just store customer data—it deciphers patterns, forecasts behaviors, and aids in crafting a tailored client acquisition strategy. The best way to get insights into your audience’s preferences and pain points is through a CRM.

A synchronized sales and marketing approach is paramount, and a CRM bridges the gap between marketing and customer experiences. When used effectively, it can significantly reduce customer attrition, ensuring that your digital marketing strategies and investments bear fruit. Attracting new customers is essential; retaining them and understanding the ‘why’ behind customer choices can propel your business to greater heights.

9. Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making

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Understanding and leveraging analytics is crucial for an effective customer acquisition strategy. It’s not just about attracting a vast number of visitors; it’s about attracting the right visitors. To identify your customers and truly understand your target market, delve deep into the data. The insights obtained can illuminate the cost of customer acquisition and highlight the customer lifetime value for each segment.

Relying on gut feelings or hunches is no longer sustainable. Instead, adopting data-driven decisions ensures that every dollar spent produces the best possible return per new customer. Incorporating analytics into your customer acquisition plan helps fine-tune email marketing campaigns, ensuring email marketing is a valuable asset in your arsenal.

By monitoring the marketing funnel closely, businesses can adapt a variety of customer acquisition strategies, ensuring a strong customer acquisition strategy for steady online growth. The goal is not just to build a customer base but to sustain and grow it with precision and intent.

10. Scaling and Iterating

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Expanding your online presence requires more than initial success; it demands constant adaptation and refinement. A great customer acquisition strategy isn’t stagnant; it evolves. As you scale, it’s imperative to continuously create a customer acquisition strategy that factors in new insights, market shifts, and feedback. This dynamic approach ensures that the cost of customer acquisition remains optimal, maximizing your return per customer.

Regularly revisiting and iterating on your customer acquisition plan allows businesses to tap into unexplored avenues and improve current customer acquisition tactics. For instance, email marketing can constantly be enhanced, given its evolving best practices and tools. Your email marketing campaigns today might drastically differ from those a year later, emphasizing its adaptability.

With many acquisition tools available, it’s beneficial to experiment and iterate. Creating a customer acquisition strategy is a continuous journey, not a one-time task. The ultimate aim is to grow a robust customer base efficiently and sustainably.

Conclusion

In the digital realm, mastering customer acquisition is paramount for sustained online business growth. By clearly defining your target audience, you can craft a compelling value proposition tailored to their needs.

Employing various customer acquisition strategies, from SEO and content marketing to UX optimization and CRO, will ensure you reach your audience effectively. Leveraging multiple marketing channels emphasizes that email marketing is a valuable tool in this mix. Adopting CRM systems streamlines relationship-building, while analytics offer insights, guiding data-driven decisions.

For continuous growth, create a customer acquisition plan that allows for scaling and iterating based on feedback and results. It’s not just about attracting customers but nurturing them and refining your strategies based on the FAQs about customer acquisition that arise. The roadmap to success is multifaceted; each step, when optimized, propels your business further.

Will Schneider is the founder of WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, a company that operates as a match-making service for the fulfillment industry. Prior to starting WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, Mr. Schneider gained extensive experience in the logistics industry running two private warehousing and fulfillment companies, and served as the Vice President of netQuote, a real-time quoting service for the insurance industry. In addition to writing informative posts about outsourced fulfillment and shipping services, he is also passionate about helping businesses find the right solutions to improve their overall operations. When not working, Will enjoys coaching youth basketball.

Imagine making a board game about collecting flowers…

…And then raising over $1 million on Kickstarter.

That’s what Amy & Dusty Droz, the husband and wife duo behind Dux Somnium Games, did last year.

It’s a remarkable story of success, and one which is remarkably grounded, relatable, and repeatable. Not to mention interesting and shareable!

And so we want to share that with you today.

Successful crowdfunding comes from putting the same effort into the campaign story as you did the project itself.

Your crowdfunding campaign story:

Is the first impression you give potential supporters,
Persuades readers to engage with your campaign, and
Encourages them to share your campaign with their networks.

Without an engaging story, how will the world know about your phenomenal project? Spread your passion for this project and solidify support with a gripping narrative that grasps readers’ emotions.

Crowdfunding campaign stories and online reader behaviour

All stories target emotions. Your crowdfunding story is no different, but you only have a few seconds to grab those emotions and hold onto them.

The average internet user doesn’t read articles, they skim. They look for headings, graphics, lists, and other eye-catching content to tell them what they want to know.

Consider your behaviour when you first opened this article. Did you start reading from line one and continue word-by-word? Or was your eye drawn to the three-point list in the first section, then moved to check out more section headers?

If you said the former, you’re in the minority. Most readers will predictably glance through the headers in this article to find the pieces they’re looking for.

However, there is one major difference between this article and a crowdfunding story.

Crowdfunding stories are NOT blog articles

Advice and best practices for writing online articles are focused on search engine optimization (SEO = ranking as high as possible in online search results). Depending on the content, ideal word count for SEO purposes is around 2000 (beyond for financial articles).

But a blog article is teaching something. A crowdfunding campaign is selling something. And there’s a reason why marketing ads are brief.

“But all of the information is important!”

I’m sure it is… to you. The people you’re targeting require much less information than you think. And when someone wants further information, you’ll have links to where they can find it waiting. The core story for the project, however, must communicate only essential details.

One study found the average word count for successful crowdfunding campaigns was between 300 and 500 words.

This means you have less than 500 words to establish a strong enough connection with someone that they’ll contribute to your crowdfunding campaign.

And yes, it’s possible!

Crowdfunding campaign story elements

Opening (25 to 50 words)

Start strong with something eye-catching and relevant. It can be:

An agreeable statement to bring the reader into your mindset,
A rhetorical question to spur their thoughts about the problem you’re solving,
A glowing review, award, or other accolade from a credible source (i.e. not your mom),
Product quote or tagline.

Your opening material’s role is to prevent as many visitors from ‘bouncing’ (immediately exiting out of the campaign) as possible. You won’t catch everyone – a high percentage will click away without even scrolling. But, once you’ve hooked them, it’s easier to keep them long enough to convince them to support the campaign. So, this section, while the shortest, also requires the most consideration and creativity.

Example from The Collected Doug Wright Vol. 2 (Designed & edited by Seth)

Project background (50 to 100 words)

Provide a BRIEF background on the project. This is part of what helps readers emotionally connect with you. Why did you create this? Is it a passion project? Are you solving a problem you or someone else has?

Be real and open with your readers. Transparency enforces trust, and trust in crowdfunding is essential. In most cases, campaign supporters won’t receive their rewards (if there are any) right away, as the campaign works to raise funds to produce the project. Therefore, your supporters need to trust you.

Example from the One Tin Soldier campaign, a Burning Man art installation:

A close-up of blocks on the sand Description automatically generated

Project description (100 to 150 words)

A project description can include a variety of things, depending on what the campaign is for. Of course, you must include what the project is, relevant specs and available options, but the key is to highlight what makes your project unique.

Every project is different, which means every project brings something new and valuable. Aim for two or three important value-adds to highlight in your campaign.

Communicating that value is crucial, and doing so briefly can be difficult. Consider these questions when writing your description:

What problem does your creation solve?
What does it include or do that other comparable creations don’t?
Are there components, characters, themes, or other characteristics focusing on under-represented groups or ideologies?
Why do you believe you and your project are extraordinary?

Example from TPK Brewing and “The Blooms That Feed On Fire, A 5e adventure by Portland’s first TTRPG brewpub”

Who is going to love this project? (25 to 50 words)

Hint: The answer is NOT “everyone!”

Identifying your target audience is important for your campaign promotion as well as its story. You’re solving a problem for other people as well as yourself, so shout it out to them. What makes your project unique is what drives this specific set of people to support it.

If you haven’t yet gotten far enough in your campaign to determine your audience demographic, now is the time. Detailed descriptions are unnecessary, but here are some traits to consider when outlining who that audience might be:

Age, gender, orientation
Socioeconomic status
Common pain points
Hobbies, activities, interests
Where do they live (geographic location and living situation)?
When might they be most interested in this project?
What are they passionate about?
What similar well-known products, media, etc. might they also enjoy?

Example from “Ain’t Got Time to Die: Film Festival Run”

Outline what funds will be used for (25 to 50 words)

As supporters are pre-funding a project before it happens, they must trust you. Part of that is being open about how you arrived at your crowdfunding goal. Doing so helps supporters understand your project’s scope and likelihood of success, shows how well-planned your project and campaign are, and helps them understand the value of their contributions.

Some choose to simply list expenses, but a word-conservative and more effective way is through visual representation. Like pie charts!

Example from “Backstory One-Shot Comic by Ryan K Lindsay, Jen Vaughn, and Teo Acosta“

What is going to happen and when? (50 to 100 words)

The next thing supporters want to know is the timeline of events from the moment they contribute or claim a reward to when they receive said reward (or, to when the campaign ends and fulfills all promises if rewards aren’t a part of your campaign).

Considerations for this section are:

What happens if you do not hit your campaign goal?
When do you expect to ship rewards? (An approximation, such as ‘June 2024’ is acceptable)
Do you foresee any risks or challenges?
How will you communicate updates and changes?

Your timeline might change, even for reasons out of your control (cough-worldwidepandemic-cough). And that’s okay! Communication is key, here.

Crowdfundr provides multiple avenues to communicate with supporters, through public updates and private messaging in the communication centre.

Consider updates a required feature of your crowdfunding story. Updates aren’t only useful for communicating changes, they’re fantastic pieces of content for you and your current supporters to share and drive more contributions! This article helps explain further.

Crowdfunding story calls to action (20 words)

There are two calls to action for every crowdfunding campaign story: contribute (or claim a reward) and SHARE!

Unless you’re running a private campaign for a select group, you’ll want people to share your campaign. Even if they cannot contribute (not everyone is in a financial position to do so), they can still help support you by spreading the word.

Be direct with your ask and make it easy:

Help bring this project to life by:

Claiming a reward.and/or
Sharing this campaign with your network!

What about the ‘extra’ information?

Some supporters might want the nitty-gritty details you left out of your campaign story. It’s important to provide easy access to more information (like FAQs, specs, shipping information, etc.) for those who want it, without crowding your story. There are multiple places you can put these details and link to them in your story:

Outside website
Newsletter
Crowdfundr user profile / Organization account profile
Crowdfundr extra story tabs
Downloadable files

Where are campaign rewards included?

While every platform is different, Crowdfundr was designed to highlight rewards with descriptions, images, add-ons, and variant options to exist within the reward itself. So, when it comes time to describe your rewards, a simple “Discover reward options on the right side of the campaign (for desktop) or scroll to the bottom (mobile devices),” is all you need.

Visual appeal of a crowdfunding campaign story matters!

You could have every element listed above within the suggested word count, an intriguing project, and rewards to die for… but that will all fall flat if not presented in an attractive way.

Three things will help with this:

Headers. Remember, online readers skim. Make it easy for them by separating story elements with headers.
Colour and font style. Highlight extra-important information with a colour and/or font change. Keep these changes minimal to keep their effect, and don’t go overboard! One or two extra colours (with the main story components in black) are more than enough, and they should align with the rest of the campaign and your brand.
Images. Of yourself, of your project creation, of your rewards, of anything of value that attracts attention. Break up content with carefully chosen images to bring supporters closer to you and your project.

There is no single “right” way to write a crowdfunding campaign story

The points listed above for writing your story are meant to be guidelines. We at Crowdfundr have seen successful campaigns ignore most of these recommendations, but they’re not common.

If you are to take one key message away from this article, let it be to keep your campaign story short, informative, and highlighting your project’s key values.

Yours in success,

Shan Reeb, Crowdfundr

If you are interested in tabletop role-playing games, Crowdfundr is currently running the Tabletop Nonstop Spotlight. Check out amazing crowdfunding campaigns from TTRPG creators!

Three friends from Barcelona are travelling through Asia when they stumble onto something that changes the trajectory of their lives. In Shanghai, they discover a thriving world of affordable, high-quality tailoring—master craftsmen producing bespoke garments at a fraction of what it would cost in Europe.

Most people would bring home a nice suit and a good story. These three brought home a business plan.

All three of them were engineers. Not a single fashion degree among them. No background in textiles, no experience in retail, no rolodex of garment industry contacts.

That turned out to be the advantage.

Today, Hockerty and its sister brand Sumissura have served over 400,000 customers across 81 countries. Their consolidated revenue has reached £17 million, with growth exceeding 20% year over year. They’ve produced over 10,000 custom jeans alone. They were named Swiss Brand of the Year 2025/26 and Best Tailored Menswear Brand 2025 by LUXlife Magazine.

And they’ve done it all without raising a single round of venture capital.

This is the story of how a group of engineers built a fashion company by treating bespoke tailoring like a technology problem. And how a marketing manager who knew nothing about fashion joined them at 27 and helped scale the whole thing through search, testing, and a growth hacking mentality that never went away.

When Engineers Build a Fashion Company

With an engineering mindset, “efficiency, features and processes become more important,” says Salva Jovells, Head of Marketing at Hockerty and Sumissura. “And that is deep in the core values of the brand.”

Salva is describing what happens when engineers build a fashion company from scratch. Not designers, not retail veterans. The priorities are different. Where a traditional fashion house might lead with aesthetics or trend forecasting, Hockerty leads with systems.

“When you apply [systems], the quality and precision of bespoke fashion can be offered worldwide with very competitive starting prices,” Salva explains.

The company was originally called Tailor4less when it launched in 2008, and the name tells you everything about the founding philosophy: make custom tailoring accessible to people who couldn’t otherwise afford it. The original slogan was “affordable elegance,” and that DNA has never left.

Co-founders Alberto Gil and Andreu Fernandez built the business from their experience in technology, not fashion. Their epiphany from Shanghai was straightforward: skilled tailoring existed at scale and at reasonable cost. What didn’t exist was an efficient digital bridge between those craftsmen and customers around the world.

So they built one.

From the very beginning, the company developed its own proprietary technology rather than relying on existing eCommerce platforms. Not out of stubbornness (though every entrepreneur has a streak of stubbornness), but rather necessity.

“Since the beginning, Hockerty created its own proprietary technology,” Salva says. “It has been proven to be a strength versus those many competitors that disappeared.”

The decision to build in-house meant they could create a 3D configurator that lets customers design garments down to the last detail—fabric, lapels, buttons, lining, monograms—and see a hyper-realistic preview before ordering. Try doing that on Shopify.

“It allowed us to be the first ones to have 3D designers in many different types of products that were not usually related to bespoke brands: jeans, chinos, field jackets,” Salva says. “And keeping those updated to our customers’ high standards.”

The configurator isn’t just a visual gimmick. Behind it sits an algorithm that generates tailor-made patterns from a customer’s measurements. Feed it a few inputs, and it produces a precise body profile that the company’s tailors in Shanghai use to cut and sew each garment.

“Does the iteration ever finish?” Salva says when asked about the algorithm’s development. “I would say it is a constant improvement. There are always challenges to be tackled, patterns to be improved, and changes in customer behaviour that become opportunities to improve the result.”

That engineering mindset—treat everything as a system, measure it, improve it, repeat—is what separates Hockerty from the wave of online tailoring startups that launched in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Most of them are gone. Hockerty is old enough to vote.

“And that’s our commitment,” Salva adds. “We won’t stop improving the patterns so they are balanced for everyone, no matter what size.”

The Marketing Manager Who Knew Nothing About Fashion

Salva Jovells joined Hockerty in 2015. He was 27 years old, coming from another startup, and by his own admission, he knew nothing about fashion.

What he did know was growth hacking.

“During the interview with Alberto, one of the founders, I felt he was really interested in hearing my ideas, and I knew he would let me learn, try, and scale different strategies,” Salva recalls. “It was key to know that it was a place to test, learn, and grow.”

That culture of experimentation wasn’t a phase. A decade later, Salva still describes his work in those terms.

“And I get that excitement even today when testing AI tools and processes myself, for example,” he says.

When Salva arrived, the business was already on solid footing. It had been growing steadily since 2008, and the fundamentals were sound. But the opportunity was about expanding—into new regions, new channels, and new product lines.

“The business was already solid; it was already about expanding regionally, channel-wise and product-wise,” Salva explains.

“Hockerty has always been bootstrapped and growing based on benefits, so that is something that also makes you confident to join,” he adds.

That’s worth pausing on. In an era when most direct-to-consumer brands measure success by how much venture capital they’ve raised, Hockerty has grown entirely on revenue without outside investors or an eager board demanding hyper-growth at all costs.

Instead, the company grew by being profitable and reinvesting those profits into the business. It’s the kind of boring, disciplined growth that doesn’t make headlines but does produce companies that survive for nearly two decades.

The Bets That Built the Business

Every company that survives long enough has two or three moments that made the difference. For Hockerty, Salva identifies two.

“The bid we did on SEO,” Salva says. “The white hat one. Creating content, improving experiences, and creating relations with brands. Long-term actions that made us grow and keep building on top of the brands.”

This wasn’t the shortcut-laden, keyword-stuffing SEO of the early 2010s. Hockerty invested in legitimate content creation, user experience improvements, and brand partnerships that built domain authority over time. It was slow and it wasn’t glamorous. And it compounded.

The second was surviving COVID.

Think about what the pandemic meant for a made-to-measure clothing company. No weddings. No office dress codes. Everyone working from home in sweatpants. The core reasons people buy custom suits evaporated overnight.

“No weddings, home office…” Salva says. “But keeping the teams, the workload, so we could get out of that dark period stronger than the rest. And it worked.”

That last part is critical. While competitors cut staff and scaled back, Hockerty kept its teams intact. They maintained the workload. They bet that demand would return and that being ready—with experienced staff, refined systems, and improved products—would matter more than surviving lean.

They were right. The company’s data shows that suits and wedding outfits remained top sellers even during the pandemic. Love, it turns out, conquers all, including broken supply chains. And when the world reopened, Hockerty was positioned to capture demand that competitors had abandoned.

The company now coordinates roughly 60 employees across three continents. The Barcelona office houses design, IT, customer service, and product teams. The board and marketing team operates from Zurich, Switzerland. And Shanghai handles logistics and manufacturing, with shoes crafted separately in Spain.

Two Brands, One Philosophy

In 2014, the company launched Sumissura as a separate brand for women’s made-to-measure clothing. Two years later, Tailor4less rebranded to Hockerty for the men’s line.

Why two brands instead of one?

“It was Sumissura that split from Tailor4less to have her own identity in 2014,” Salva explains. “Well, you never know what would happen if we had the two brands together, but there are many good things.”

The split forces different thinking. Men and women approach custom clothing differently, and trying to serve both under one brand risks diluting the message for each.

“It forces you to think differently, distinguishing and understanding what women want differently than men,” Salva says. “It allows us to give women the right independent space in a traditionally masculine bespoke clothing environment.”

That last point matters. Bespoke tailoring has historically been a men’s world—Savile Row, old-school haberdasheries, the whole culture of men’s suiting. By giving Sumissura its own brand identity, Hockerty ensured that women’s custom clothing wasn’t positioned as an afterthought or a spin-off. It has its own voice, its own marketing, its own collections.

The two brands share technology, supply chain, and operational infrastructure. But they maintain distinct identities in how they speak to customers. And that dual approach has paid off—Sumissura saw sales surge during the pandemic as women increasingly sought out inclusive, well-fitting options that off-the-rack couldn’t provide.

“We Don’t Know What Clothing Sizes Are”

Ask Salva about inclusivity versus customization, which matters more to the business, and his answer is immediate.

“Mom or dad? Complicated to decide,” he says. “It is mandatory for us to keep both the most balanced we can. We need to offer customisation to everybody. We don’t know what clothing sizes are.”

That last sentence is the whole point. Hockerty’s business model doesn’t just accommodate non-standard bodies. It treats every body as non-standard. In their world, there’s no such thing as a “regular” or “standard” size. Every garment is cut to the individual.

The motivation differs between men and women, though.

“Men don’t know their pants size, so having made to measure options help them purchase online,” Salva observes.

He’s right. Most men have no idea what their actual measurements are. They know they’re “roughly a 34 waist” or “usually a large,” but those sizes vary wildly across brands. Made-to-measure eliminates the guessing game entirely.

For women, the value proposition cuts even deeper.

“Women know perfectly the importance of clothes that fit perfectly,” Salva says. “Once they find the jeans that fit them perfectly, they can’t go back to off the rack.”

This is where Hockerty and Sumissura’s retention story becomes powerful. Once a customer creates a body profile and receives a garment that fits, the switching cost is enormous. Not financial switching cost. Emotional switching cost. Going back to off-the-rack clothing that almost fits feels like a downgrade.

The company’s mission statement captures this: “In a world where the fashion industry forces people to fit into boxes, Hockerty exists to make people feel confident and secure by creating bespoke garments that reflect everybody’s uniqueness.”

It’s not just marketing copy. It’s the engineering problem they’re solving. Instead of manufacturing thousands of identical garments and hoping they fit some percentage of the population, they manufacture one garment at a time, designed for one specific person.

Affordable Elegance Is Not a Discount Strategy

Custom shirts starting at £39. Custom suits under $300. For made-to-measure clothing, those are shockingly accessible price points.

How does Hockerty keep prices this low?

“It is hidden on Hockerty’s DNA as it was originally called Tailor4less and its original slogan: ‘affordable elegance,'” Salva says. “We make big efforts to keep the starting point as low as it is for years.”

The pricing philosophy reveals something important about how the company thinks about margins.

“Our prices are fair, margins are fair and tight, which doesn’t allow us to be on these stupid (sorry) forever discounts,” Salva says. “We offer the best price all year long.”

There’s a real tension in eCommerce between pricing strategy and brand integrity. Many online retailers inflate their “regular” prices so they can run perpetual sales—30% off everything, all the time. It creates an illusion of value while training customers to never pay full price.

Hockerty goes the opposite direction. Margins are tight by design. The price you see is the real price. There’s no Black Friday blowout because the everyday price is already as low as they can sustainably go.

This approach requires operational efficiency that most companies can’t achieve. Every dollar of waste—in manufacturing, logistics, technology, or customer service—directly threatens already-thin margins. It’s why the engineering mindset matters so much. Systems thinking, process optimization, and continuous improvement aren’t just nice-to-haves. They’re survival requirements when you’re selling bespoke clothing at near-mass-market prices.

The company’s made-to-order model also helps. Because every garment is produced only after a customer orders it, there’s zero unsold inventory. No end-of-season clearance sales. No warehouse full of suits that didn’t sell. That zero-waste approach is both environmentally responsible and financially essential for maintaining low prices on custom work.

What Comes Next

From three engineers in Barcelona to 400,000+ customers across 81 countries. From Tailor4less in a garage to Swiss Brand of the Year. From a company nobody in fashion took seriously to one that’s outlasted most of its competitors.

The Hockerty story demonstrates what happens when engineers apply systems thinking to a traditional craft. When a company chooses bootstrapped profitability over venture-funded growth. When the response to “Shopify won’t work for this” is “then we’ll build it ourselves.”

Salva Jovells arrived knowing nothing about fashion and brought a growth hacking mentality that helped the company scale through SEO, testing, and experimentation. The founding team built proprietary technology that became the company’s biggest competitive advantage. And the decision to keep teams intact during COVID—when the easy move was to cut—positioned Hockerty to emerge stronger than competitors who played it safe.

The product line continues expanding. Custom jeans launched in 2021 have already crossed 10,000 units produced. Custom sneakers now feature augmented reality try-on. Sumissura keeps growing its women’s line with shoes, boots, and dresses. The configurator keeps getting more detailed. The algorithm keeps getting more accurate.

And prices stay low. Without “40% off” every day.

You can explore Hockerty’s full range of custom clothing at hockerty.com and Sumissura’s women’s collection at sumissura.com.

Key Takeaways

Proprietary technology can be your biggest moat.

Hockerty built its own 3D configurator and pattern-generating algorithm from day one because existing platforms couldn’t handle their model. That decision outlasted every competitor who relied on off-the-shelf solutions. If your business model requires something that doesn’t exist yet, building it yourself might be the best investment you make.

Bootstrapping forces discipline.

Nearly 18 years of growth funded entirely by revenue. No outside investors, no pressure to sacrifice margins for market share. Bootstrapping meant every decision had to make financial sense immediately, which built operational discipline that compounds over decades.

White hat SEO compounds like interest.

Hockerty’s biggest growth lever was legitimate SEO. That meant content creation, user experience improvements, and brand partnerships. It was slow and unglamorous, but it built a foundation that short-term tactics like paid ads can’t replicate.

Keeping your team through a crisis pays off on the other side.

When COVID wiped out demand for custom suits, Hockerty kept its staff and maintained its workload. When demand returned, they were ready while competitors who’d cut were scrambling to rebuild. The cost of retention was real, but the cost of rebuilding would have been worse.

Tight margins and honest pricing beat perpetual discounts.

Hockerty’s prices are low by design, not by promotion. Fair margins with no fake sales builds customer trust and avoids the discount-dependency trap that erodes brand value over time.

Separate brands for separate audiences can be better than one big tent.

Splitting into Hockerty (men) and Sumissura (women) forced the company to think distinctly about each audience rather than treating women’s clothing as an add-on to a men’s brand. In traditionally masculine industries, giving women their own dedicated space matters.

E-Commerce has created new opportunities for selling products outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar store. And, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are turning to their screens to make purchases. The influx in selling and spending via the web, plus easy-to-use selling platforms on the market like Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, and more, has made starting an e-commerce business more accessible.

While selling online allows many conveniences for both the seller and the customer, like working and shopping from home, there is one aspect that can be particularly challenging—fulfillment.

From keeping inventory organized, to shipping labels, and everything in between, it’s easy to make mistakes during the fulfillment process. Incorrect, delayed, or lost orders can have devastating effects on your customer base. For this reason, e-commerce businesses of every size should consider utilizing fulfillment software to streamline their supply chain operations.

About Fulfillment Software

Fulfillment software helps business owners with some or all aspects of fulfilling customer orders, including the six essential aspects of fulfillment:

Storefront Management
Order Management
Inventory Management
Shipping Management
Packaging
Picking, Packing, and Labeling

This software will also help sellers to process orders via one of three main fulfillment methods:

Self-Service: Self-Service is the “do it yourself” approach to fulfillment where a seller fulfills their own orders. This could be done in a warehouse with a team of workers or by an individual in their own home.
3rd Party Logistics (3PL): To fulfill via 3PL, sellers ship their products to the 3PL provider’s warehouse. The 3PL provider will then store this inventory until an order is placed. Once an order is placed, the 3PL will then pick, pack, and ship the order to the customer.
Drop Shipping: Drop shipping is similar to a 3PL, except that sellers do not own the items they sell. When an order is placed, the drop shipper is notified and will then fulfill that order with items from their warehouse, shipping the order out directly to the customer.

By utilizing fulfillment software, you can save time and money on your fulfillment process, allowing you to focus on the aspects of your business that you love.

What to Look for In Fulfillment Software

While fulfillment software can offer a wide range of useful services, order management tools and smart shipping are two essential aspects a fulfillment software should provide.

Order Management Tools

Order management tools help simplify many aspects of your orders and integrate directly into your storefront or marketplace. Order management software addresses a number of fulfillment pain points, such as syncing inventory across multiple sales channels, viewing all orders in a single dashboard, stock level alerts to ensure inventory availability, and helping create custom orders.

Smart Shipping

When it comes to shipping and packaging, fulfillment software should recommend the best shipping rates and shipping packaging. These recommendations will help make the picking, packing, and labeling process more efficient.

Keeping the above points in mind, here are the 7 top fulfillment software options available for e-commerce sellers today:

7 Best Fulfillment Softwares

1. Soapbox

Soapbox is an all-in-one software that makes e-commerce fulfillment easy and efficient, at scale. Whether you’re a small business owner or a large corporation, Soapbox has tools to simplify your fulfillment.