The Growth Challenge
Vanity Planet, a leading beauty and personal care brand, creates makeup, skin and hair care products. The company was launched in 2014 and quickly realized exponential growth through ecommerce and dropship channels.
Like most brands, Vanity Planet grew from humble beginnings, but through social media influencers, it quickly blossomed from being known in niche markets to being a widely recognized and respected brand.
The company’s rapid growth and scale necessitated third-party support. Vanity Planet sought a solution that would enable global expansion over time. With access to an expansive network of warehouses around the world and a proven track record of supporting businesses through major growth, Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services was the provider of choice, and factors like ease of implementation, the ability to enable support retail compliance through channel expansion and a true spirit of partnership only strengthened their decision.
Ease of Implementation
In the early days, most of Vanity Planet’s orders were placed directly on their own Shopify ecommerce site. The Shipwire Platform, order management software offered by Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services, integrates directly with Vanity Planet’s Shopify shopping cart. Without the burden of manually managing cart connectivity, Vanity Planet was able to grow and process sales faster.
In addition to hundreds of pre-integrated ecommerce connectivity options, the Shipwire Platform has a dashboard that provides the Vanity Planet team with visibility over their entire supply chain. Access to a single snapshot of their ecommerce and dropship business lets Vanity Planet check the health of its business at any given time.
Rapid Expansion through Retail Partnerships
With the help of enthusiastic social media influencers, Vanity Planet’s business began to take off. As awareness for the brand grew, so did the demand to have its products available via retailer’s ecommerce stores. Ingram Micro’s Sell Thru Retail dropship solution enables Vanity Planet to connect to virtually any retail.com sales channel and automates order flow, inventory management and tracking information. Retail compliance is also upheld throughout the order fulfillment process, and new retail channels to be set up in matter of weeks via Ingram Micro’s Commerce EDI solution.
The Value of Relationships
In addition to growing through retail channel sales, Vanity Planet credits much of its success to building and leveraging relationships and finding a third-party logistics provider that was attentive to their goals and involved in ensuring the success of those goals was a priority.
Vanity Planet’s growth trajectory requires a logistics partner that offers more than just order fulfillment — careful attention to their account is needed for the brand to be successful, and Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services dedicates an Account Director to all large accounts.
Along with managing day-to-day tasks (account management, planning and reporting) Vanity Planet’s Account Director is a single point of contact they can rely on to facilitate all projects and information. “Communication is integral in building a partnership,” said Jami Llamas, Director of Logistics. “We are constantly collaborating and finding ways to modify and streamline the processes we have built together.” Llamas added that when the company has new ideas or suggestions to enhance the systems and strategies it uses today, their Account Director helps bring those ideas to life.
In partnership with Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services, Vanity Planet continues to delight customers and grow in popularity.
What’s Next?
Though Vanity Planet is a American brand, their customers span more than 140 countries. The team plans to develop websites targeting specific geographies to drive more international sales, and each new market will have a regional webstore that connects to a strategically located Ingram Micro warehouse for optimized fulfillment and shipping of those orders.
Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services will support all of Vanity Planet’s expansion, ensuring their supply chain is set up to meet the demands of the company’s various sales strategies. In closing, Mike Ponzillo, co-founder, Vanity Planet said, “It’s an exciting partnership, it’s one we depend on and it’s one that we look at as a significant advantage in us moving forward.”
