How Hoss Improved Their Amazon Seller Health with Fulfil’s Amazon Integration

Hoss is a family-owned and operated business that sells premium garden tools, seeds, and supplies on Shopify and Amazon. Their business is operationally complex, as they buy bulk seed with different lot numbers and countries of origin. They also produce and fulfill garden tools, repack seeds, and sell live plants from their own warehouse.

This case study highlights how leveraging the robust integration between Fulfil and Amazon has enabled Hoss to improve its Amazon seller account health, reduce mispicks and returns, and create growth opportunities for the business.

How Fulfil’s Amazon Integration Helped

1. Improved Amazon Seller Account Health

Before using Fulfil, Hoss’ Amazon seller account health used to frequently get alerts that their Amazon FBM orders were shipping late. With Fulfil’s native Amazon integration and built-in warehouse management capabilities, Hoss was able to ensure that orders were fulfilled efficiently and that order status updates were sent to Amazon in real time.

Since moving to Fulfil, they’ve stayed below Amazon’s 0.5% late shipment target rate, and there hasn’t been an issue with their Amazon seller account health.

2. Reduced misships and returns

The Hoss team used to deal with a fair number of misships in their warehouse, which often led to a spike in returns from customers who received incorrect products. They realized that streamlining their fulfillment workflows in the warehouse could help improve their customer experience.

Since implementing Fulfil’s warehouse management system in their warehouse, misships have gone down drastically, and their return rates have dropped below 1%. This has freed up fulfillment and customer service teams to spend more time enhancing their customer experience and less time fixing mistakes.

3. Reduced stress

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With rising consumer demands, fast delivery expectations and high order volumes, working in the fast-paced world of eCommerce can be stressful. Prior to Fulfil, the Hoss team was constantly worried about whether their orders had actually been shipped, marked complete in Amazon, and if the end consumer had been informed. Fulfil’s Amazon integration took the guesswork out of it and made life less stressful for the Hoss team.

“Fulfil’s Amazon integration takes the guesswork out of it. It's smooth and it hasn't broken. Before Fulfil, there was always this constant fear: Have my orders actually shipped? Does the customer know that already? Are the orders actually gonna get completed in Amazon? We don't have to do that now. It's a night and day difference.” - Cameron Varnadore

4. Improved fulfillment efficiency

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Prior to Fulfil, the Hoss team had to spend time manually scrolling through their order queue to identify Amazon orders to prioritize for fulfillment. They would then need to wait multiple hours to get the tracking number and have the order completed on Amazon.

With Fulfil’s batching templates and automation rules, they’re able to automatically batch Amazon shipments together to be prioritized for picking first thing in the morning. This has helped improve fulfillment efficiency and saved the team from manual workflows. 

“All of our orders used to go in the order queue, and there was no automation. So, processing our orders did take longer. Now with batching in Fulfil, we can automatically batch and prioritize Amazon shipments first thing in the morning. There's no more waiting for an entire day or multiple hours to get the tracking number and have the orders completed on Amazon. Just the fact that we're able to batch and prioritize orders better has made a huge difference.” - Cameron Varnadore

5. Smoother workflows

With Hoss’ previous system, they had to use CSV files to import Amazon orders and export tracking. They also needed to have a dedicated computer to run invoices, which often errored out and never reached Amazon.

This led to clunky workflows that required frequent manual intervention to process Amazon orders. Fulfil’s Amazon integration eliminated the need for this manual intervention, bringing much-needed automation to their Amazon workflows.  

“With our previous system, it was pretty much a nightmare. We had to import via CSV all of our orders and export tracking. The order completion happened only when an order was invoiced, and we had to have a dedicated computer just to run invoices because it was so time-consuming. Half the time, it would error out and never reached Amazon. With Fulfill, it's a night and day difference. It's much, much smoother.” - Cameron Varnadore

Beyond the integration

1. Consultative Sales Team

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Given Hoss’ operational complexity, they were looking to partner with an ERP provider that could understand their workflows and help find solutions to their specific needs.

The Fulfil team visited Hoss during their evaluation of Fulfil to scope out solutions and ensure that Fulfil was the right solution to address the problems Hoss was looking to solve. 

“There aren't many ERP companies that will send their CEO to go visit and scope out solutions. It was clear they wanted the system to work for us. Their CEO coming down and checking out our operations and seeing if both of us were a fit for each other, that was what sold us on Fulfil” - Cameron Varnadore

2. Smooth Implementation

Traditional ERP implementations can be rocky if outsourced to third-party consultants. Fulfil’s in-house implementation approach, combined with a focus on configuration rather than customization, enabled a smooth implementation for the Hoss team.

The Fulfil team visited Hoss on-site for two to three days to collaborate closely on workflow configuration and training. This enabled a smooth implementation and allowed both teams to quickly pivot to find solutions to any challenges that arose.

3. Improved Margin Visibility

Prior to using Fulfil, the Hoss team struggled to have granular insights into their margins. With Fulfil, they’ve been able to improve their tracking of cost of goods sold and landed costs, providing them a truer sense of their margins at the product level. This has enabled more informed decision-making as they look to further their growth.

4. Flexible No-Code Configurations

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One of the complexities that comes with selling both live plants and garden tools is the need to use different inventory availability calculation methods at the product variant level. This was something that Hoss was unable to find a solution for until they discovered Fulfil.

Since implementing Fulfil, they’ve been able to pre-sell live plants with different inventory calculation methods, allowing them to be more adaptable with their product mix and customer acquisition approaches. 

“One feature that Fulfil really stood out with, that surprisingly not a lot of other ERPs allow, is the ability to push different inventory availability calculation methods at the product variant level. This was a must since we sell live plants. It's allowed us to pre-sell. It's allowed us to be way, way more adaptable and has really given us an advantage.” - Cameron Varnadore

5. Enhanced Growth Opportunities

Fulfil’s ability to adapt to the ever-changing needs of eCommerce businesses provides a competitive advantage for brands looking to roll out new product lines and business models. 

Hoss was interested in launching monthly subscription boxes with different products depending on the time of the year and the time of the subscription purchase.

Fulfil has enabled them to roll this out to customers, providing an opportunity to increase customer lifetime value and enhance the customer experience with new product options.

Scaling your Amazon business

Working with an ERP that has a native, robust Amazon integration that supports FBA, FBM, and MCF is essential for operating an eCommerce business at scale. Learn more about how Fulfil’s Amazon integration can play an integral role in streamlining your operations.