Case Study:
Concrete Countertop Solutions
Overview
Concrete Countertop Solutions (CCS) is a one-stop shop for decorative concrete products. Founded in 2009, CCS offers do-it-yourself (DIY) concrete kits under its Z Counterform line and the Z Poolform System for concrete pool coping. It operates a rapidly growing eCommerce business via Shopify that supports direct-to-consumer sales
and wholesale distribution.
Benefits and Key Outcomes
Faster order processing with automated rate shopping
Improved customer
experience during the
ordering process
Reduced time for
customer support to
track down orders
Less warehouse downtime due to a faster, seamless integration
Identified operational improvements with weekly reports and KPIs
Removed the need to hire additional employees to keep up with order demand
Time savings for less than truckload (LTL) and parcel shipping
Quick implementation and open communication with the team
Industry
Commercial & Residential Construction
eCommerce Platform
Shopify
Website
Challenge
It’s normal for small businesses’ shipping and eCommerce needs to change as they grow and the same holds true for CCS. Setting
up shipments directly on UPS’ website worked initially, but the process was slow and prompted CCS to move to a parcel shipping
solution for small businesses. CCS’ eCommerce business continued to grow at an accelerated rate and, when the COVID-19
pandemic struck and many consumers began placing orders for its DIY concrete kits, the company once again found itself in need
of a shipping solution that could accommodate a higher volume of orders and more complex shipping processes.
CCS was utilizing Shopify as its source system and order management system and wanted a compatible shipping solution that could
get up and running fast. Order volumes increased during the pandemic, but staffing did not. CCS needed a solution that supported
both parcel and LTL carriers and could help its limited number of warehouse employees process and fulfill orders quickly. CCS also
wanted to perform rating in its shopping cart rather than charging shipping as a separate line item, which it was previously doing.
“Because of our limited number of warehouses and the size of our products, it’s super variable how much it’s going to cost someone
to buy our products,” said Ryan Neuville, Director of Operations at CCS. “When we were looking for a new platform, there were very
few, if any, that were able to both rate in our Shopify cart and fulfill the orders on the back end. ShipHawk was a perfect fit.”
When we were looking for a new platform, there were very few, if any, that were able to both rate in our Shopify cart and fulfill the orders on the back end. ShipHawk was a perfect fit.
Solution
Concrete Countertop Solutions was one of ShipHawk’s early adopter customers using Shopify as a source system instead of an ERP,
and as such, there was a lot of partnership involved in setting up the integration to work precisely as CCS needed it to. “We were one
of ShipHawk’s early customers to use Shopify as a source system so working in partnership on the integration with ShipHawk was
critical – and worked really well,” said Neuville. “The ShipHawk team was great at guiding us through and if something wasn’t working
the way we wanted it, there was an open line of communication. It’s gotten better and better with every update and now, it’s honestly
working even better than we ever expected.”
Since implementing ShipHawk, CCS has realized a significant improvement in warehouse throughput without the need to hire
additional employees, which remains a challenge in the current labor market. “ShipHawk has helped us keep the labor costs down.
We’ve been able to do more with fewer people,” said Neuville. “Everything is working exactly how we want it. We’re very happy with
all the functionality.”
ShipHawk’s reporting functionality has been a game-changer for CCS. As a small but fast-growing business, before implementing
ShipHawk, CCS’ fulfillment operation didn’t track many KPIs. Now it uses the solution’s automated reports to monitor KPIs such as
order processing on an hourly basis, the average time in transit, and time from label print to delivery, and carry those actionable
insights back to the warehouse where it can make improvements.
CCS’ warehouse has fewer lag issues and less downtime than it did in the past. “Everything is working fast,” said Neuville. “That’s
probably the biggest area that we’ve noticed just because that affects everything that we do.”
It isn’t just the operations team noticing the improvements, the customer service team is also saving a lot of time. “We used to get calls
all the time asking where an order was or why one part of an order had been fulfilled while the other hadn’t – all because our tech
stack wasn’t up to speed,” said Neuville. “We rarely have issues between Shopify and ShipHawk due to the integration. That means
hours and hours of calls we don’t have to deal with anymore and a much smoother customer experience.”