Overcoming Brexit and entering Europe with byrd
For numerous online retailers based in the UK, the implications of Brexit are a real hassle, especially for those with ambitious EU growth plans. This was the case for Absolute Collagen, a leading collagen-based cosmetics company. With the help of byrd’s pan-European fulfilment network to store and ship products from France, it managed to stick to its growth plans in Europe. Let’s find out more about their story.
Absolute Collagen, a family success story
Absolute Collagen is a leading specialist collagen brand. It was co-founded by leading beauty entrepreneur and CEO, Maxine Laceby, and her daughter Darcy. Absolute Collagen was launched in 2017 with one product: an anti-aging daily liquid collagen supplement. Maxine launched the business from her kitchen and grew Absolute Collagen into a multi-million-pound success story in only a few years.
Nowadays, Absolute Collagen is selling a more extensive range of collagen-based cosmetics all over Europe, such as serums, supplements, skincare, and shampoo with the highest concentration of collagen on the market and award-winning products.
Fulfiling cosmetics and subscription-based products
As the brand experienced rapid growth during the last few years, the fulfilment of their subscription-based cosmetics products became a tough logistical challenge. In particular, its Absolute Collagen products require a logistics solution that meets specific requirements:
- Lot and expiry date tracking
- Selling of bundles and subscription boxes
- Short delivery times
- Certificates (e.g. organic certification, HACCP, etc.)
- Specific product storage requirements
By working with byrd as their preferred 3PL (third party logistics provider), Absolute Collagen not only ticked all the boxes to meet high process standards, but was also able to increase its presence in the European Union.
Overcoming Brexit with byrd’s pan-European fulfilment network
“We had a solution in the UK but we turned to byrd because we were looking for a warehouse based in France and a partner that could allow us to open warehouses where we want to expand to.” Country manager, France at Absolute Collagen”
Before Brexit, Absolute Collagen was only using its warehouse in Ireland to ship to the UK and Europe. After that, for reasons including costs, customs and delivery delays, they had to find a European solution since a lot of their customers are based in France.
Using byrd’s fulfilment centre in France, Absolute Collagen was able to overcome the challenges of Brexit and meet its customers’ expectations better. It was also the first step toward a larger European growth plan.
Shorter delivery delays by getting closer to their customers
“To be competitive in France, fast service is really important for us. Our customers receive their parcel in 48 hours, which is amazing! We’ve also seen our lost parcel number decrease drastically which helps increase the overall customer satisfaction.” Country manager, France, at Absolute Collagen”
Before working with byrd’s fulfilment centre in France, delivery times to French customers took five to seven days. Fast service is important for them, as there are ‘sensitive’ and subscription-based products. The aim was to deliver the parcels in 48 hours, which was achieved with the help of byrd’s tailor-made fulfilment solution.
In addition, Absolute Collagen was also facing lost parcel issues. By starting to use byrd’s fulfilment warehouse in combination with the all-in-one logistics software to follow each step of order processing, they were able to drastically decrease the number of lost parcels, which noticeably increased overall customer satisfaction.
Supporting ambitious growth plans in Europe
Today, Absolute Collagen is not only using byrd’s all-in-one logistics software and fulfilment centre for its Shopify shop, but has also expanded the online business to Amazon and uses byrd’s knowledge and resources for Amazon pre-FBA shipments.
The next steps are to continue growing within the European market by opening new warehouse locations in Europe within byrd’s fulfilment network. One of the next target countries will be Germany. This will allow Absolute Collagen to grow its business, gain market share as a leading provider of cosmetics and beauty products and also launch new products in the future.
