“We ship 30% more with the same amount of staff”
Jan Willem de Muinck Keizer | SUITSUIT
The SUITSUIT brand
Operating for 12 years now, with a new strategy in place for five years which focuses on female travel-savvy Millennials.
Operating internationally
SUITSUIT operates in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Asia, and the Middle East.
Biggest logistical challenges
Shipping suitcases - meaning shipping big parcels - demands an efficient and more cost-effective approach.
For women who want more out of their journey
We want every woman to feel like they’re ‘on top of the world’ when they travel; in style, organised, and proud of the suitcase which holds her dearest and most beautiful possessions while she travels. Ready to discover the world, in search of inspiration and adventure. And as your favourite female travel-buddy, we like to come along with you.
How did you start and what is the story behind SUITSUIT?
Our online store has really grown in the last few years. When we were starting out we mainly used our website for information about the company and about the Suitcase Cover, a stretchable and printable suitcase cover to recognize and protect your suitcase, designed by Founder Emile Vijlbrief.
As SUITSUIT started to develop as a brand, with more product categories and collections, and as our target audience (female travel-savvy Millennials) became more and more defined, our online store became increasingly important as well.
After all, our target audience is used to shopping online and this is no different when it comes to suitcases, bags, and travel accessories. This way we could also tell the full SUITSUIT story, which is not as easy when working with retail partners. After using a custom-built platform for years we switched to a SaaS-platform last year, so that we can have unlimited scaling opportunities in years ahead.
How long have you been operating and in which markets?
Officially we have been in business for twelve years now. The brand reinvented itself five years ago, after which we took a new strategic direction in which we decided to focus only on female customers from then-on.
Ever since we took that decision our brand positioning has become crystal clear to all, and we have grown to become a well-known player in this (niche) market. In Europe, our home country of the Netherlands is obviously important. We also operate in Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic, and we are working on expanding into other European countries.
We also operate in Asia and the Middle East through local distributors.
How does Sendcloud help you with these challenges?
Sendcloud creates a lot more efficiency when it comes to shipping. Before we started using Sendcloud we had a WMS-system that also created the shipping labels for us. It was a rather user-unfriendly system that tried to be a little bit of everything, but it definitely wasn’t optimised for e-commerce.
After we switched to a different e-commerce platform we split up our pick & pack process, and Sendcloud now takes care of the logistics of our order processing. The picking process is linked to our WMS system which is part of our ERP package. In the end, these three different systems communicate with one another through a unique identifier, which is added to every order.
”Sendcloud turned out to be an essential partner when it comes to the logistics of processing our orders.
Jan Willem de Muinck KeizerSUITSUIT
Could Sendcloud make your shipping process even more efficient?
Most important for us would be an even faster implementation of new functionalities that courier companies offer. Right now we are, for instance, still missing return options in a few countries. The option to use Shipping Rules as a temporary solution for return shipments would solve that. So we could decrease the number of questions for our customer service team.
Is there anything you’d like to say to fellow online retailers?
The switch from our own platform to SaaS-solutions has made things so much easier for us. The ease with which you get the different systems up and running is perfect, as well as the way they are integrated with each other. That saves you a lot of hassles while trying to grow your business.
We also know it won’t be an issue to scale up further in the future, which gives us peace of mind. Sendcloud turned out to be an essential partner when it comes to the logistics of processing our orders. Hopefully, we’ll keep growing together with them in years to come!
Benefits
SUITSUIT ❤ Sendcloud
With a renewed set-up we succeeded in shipping 30% more shipments with the same number of staff members, and we haven’t even reached our maximum capacity yet. It is assuring for us to know that, when the time comes, we can scale up with multiple Pack & Go stations, and we won’t be held back by certain systems. By setting up our Shipping Rules correctly we always have the right shipping labels so we won’t have any unnecessary costs.
