The Challenge
As far as hair care is concerned, Hairlust leads the way when it comes to sustainability, innovation, and transparency. This commitment to ethically sourced products and services is why it has garnered such a global following. But going from a disruptive start-up to meeting far flung demand on such a scale was not without challenge.
All orders are shipped from its warehouse in Denmark (except Norway, which has a local warehouse), so it needed a way to access preferred carriers in each country. What is more, to meet its commitment to sustainability, Hairlust had to provide its customers with sustainable delivery options to every market it shipped to and find ways of working internally that aligned with these sustainable values. On top of this, it had to have the capabilities to provide deliveries where and how customers wanted them in each particular market which included everything from home delivery to pick-up and drop-off (PUDO) stations.
The Solution
With a clear need for multicarrier shipping capabilities, Hairlust turned to nShift in 2018.
As well as being easy to integrate with its existing systems, like Shopify, nShift enabled Hairlust to instantly add new carriers and new countries from nShift’s extensive carrier library. This meant it could constantly meet customer expectations and deliver on its sustainability commitments by offering a wide variety of low delivery options.
It also meant that Hairlust could offer a variety of delivery options and design an automated booking flow to print shipping labels automatically.
"We checked out other options but there was only one winner. nShift was ideal for our business in terms of helping our expansion while the customer service team has also been incredibly helpful."
The Results
The partnership started as Hairlust began to expand its product range and at a time when it moved warehouse facilities in order to scale production. A year later nShift had helped Hairlust expand into 10 markets with its range sold by over 1,000 retailers in Denmark and abroad. By 2020 Hairlust hit the 100,000 customer milestone and by 2022, this fast-growing company was selling to customers as far away as Taiwan. On top of the expansion to new markets, the company also attracted a surge in social media followers and an avalanche of awards in the process.
Since working with nShift, Hairlust has experienced a 615% increase in orders being shipped and seen revenues grow 642% - numbers that nShift has helped facilitate. But nShift’s impact goes beyond helping the company grow. The automated and flexible workflows have had a huge impact in helping to filter and segment orders. The company estimates that using nShift has led to labor savings of 430 hours per year – equivalent to around three FTE (full-time equivalent) months.
By automating the delivery process, Hairlust has also been able to give its customers a better experience, building more loyalty and incremental revenue. Not only that, but because order processing and custom documentation are now paper-free, it means Hairlust has been able to improve its sustainability credentials despite its growth to new markets.
