Managing 500,000+ dropshipping orders
Knocking, a broadcast media e-commerce platform, creates TV shopping shows similar to a shopping network, along with TV ads, online segments, and radio ads. Viewers watch or listen to a segment, and buy the product on e-commerce platforms that are created by Knocking.
For Knocking, fulfilling dropshipping orders from hundreds of brands was a huge challenge. Not only did they need to integrate orders, invoices, and payments seamlessly, but also connect different shipment systems to its vendors.
Unlike conventional e-commerce, Knocking’s dropshipping business model means it doesn’t keep products in stock. Instead, the store sells the product, passes on the sales order to a third-party supplier, who then ships the order to the customer.
“Once customers place an order, it goes into our e-commerce platform for each of these different shows that we have online, on radio, or on television. There are different websites for each. The problem? We are working with hundreds of brands,” says Junaid.
Since customers can place orders in any number and in any combination across hundreds of different brand partners, fulfilling orders poses potentially massive complications.
What’s more, e-commerce platforms, like Shopify or Squarespace, require integrated shipping systems and connections into the platform itself to ship to customers.
“With 50 to 100 brands, it would be nearly impossible to get all of those integrations in one store. Not only that, we want to duplicate these integrations for every different store where we have the same brand partner,” explains Junaid.
With high-profile brands like MISSION, Sharper Image, and Tommie Copper selling products through Knocking, the company has its reputation on the line. It’s pertinent that Knocking has a strong viable platform with minimal room for mistakes.
“We never want wires to cross. We have millions of dollars of sales happening across different platforms with different brand partners. We don’t want issues, like orders being sent to the wrong person for the wrong item, or returns going to the wrong warehouse. It’s an extra cost to solve these issues. We were having those problems before Duoplane,” says Junaid.
Fulfilling orders efficiently was manageable when Knocking only had a few brands and media partners. But as the company grew to promote dozens of different brands through more media partners, Knocking required a tool that could:
A powerful dropshipping automation tool
As the number of brand partnerships grew rapidly, Knocking expanded its media partners and aired more segments. With a flood of orders coming in, Knocking could no longer manage shipping integrations to its e-commerce backend.
“Duoplane became important in that way. With Duoplane, we figured out how to keep our incoming orders clean and tidy, and solve issues like wrong orders or returns to the wrong warehouse,” says Junaid.
Because Duoplane is an e-commerce automation platform specifically built for dropshipping, it features automated drop ship and multi-warehouse routing to send even a high volume of orders effortlessly.
But what Junaid and Robert Altavilla, another member of the team handling vendor integrations, were most impressed by was Duoplane’s pre-built connections to warehouses and specific shipping platforms like Shippo and ShipStation.
“We work with so many brand partners who use all these different shipping software from their warehouses. Sometimes, we’ve never even heard of them, like Shippo. But Duoplane has it all pre-built for us. The vendor only needs to log into their account, do three steps, and they’re connected to our store,” explains Junaid.
Without Duoplane, the Knocking team would have to research each shipping platform, its requirements, and figure out how to connect it to their e-commerce store. Duoplane eliminated almost all the headaches that come with dropshipping shipments.
“Since Duoplane took care of all of that for us, we don’t have to be on top of it. It’s so much smoother, so much quicker to get everything accomplished. We look more professional to our brand partners by providing them with more options at a faster turnaround time,” says Junaid.
It also helps that Duoplane was straightforward and easy to set up. With the capability to integrate into existing systems, Knocking’s brand clients are up and running within minutes. Even with 500,000 sales happening across hundreds of brand partners, Duoplane handled it all seamlessly with stellar support.
This leads to another feature Junaid and Robert appreciated—the quick response Duoplane provides to troubleshoot issues:
“I can email Duoplane support at any time of the day, and their response time is very quick. Unlike other software platforms, Duoplane responds within a couple of hours with a real human. The team always brings resolutions. And if they don’t have a resolution, they give us workarounds,” comments Junaid.
The final feature that Junaid and Robert credits for reducing order errors was Duoplane’s ability to filter orders in detail:
“Most software doesn’t allow you to filter your orders by features. That’s specifically important when it comes to troubleshooting issues, like if returns have gone to the wrong place, or when orders are sent with incorrect SKUs, or orders without shipping information. But Duoplane organizes the day-to-day shipment information in an extremely well-organized way that is easy to sift through and troubleshoot,” says Junaid.
Duoplane’s effortless vendor integration, stellar support, and well-organized, intuitive interface led to big wins for Knocking.
500+ vendors onboarded with 30,000+ orders each month
Thanks to Duoplane’s intuitive interface and fully automated features and integrations, Knocking can now seamlessly onboard 500+ vendors and process 500,000 sales orders across different platforms without a hitch.
Knocking also saves massive time and cut huge costs when connecting its brands, warehouse, manufacturer, and fulfillment centers together:
“Without Duoplane, each new integration done through an API requires a developer, which can take anywhere from weeks to months and cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. With Duoplane, even if they don’t have the existing integration, they can code it for us at a great value,” says Junaid.
Through automation, the risk of error in handling orders was much lower than manual inputs. By onboarding vendors smoothly and minimizing order mistakes, Knocking succeeded in building brand partner relationships and maintaining its reputation:
“Duoplane helped us see whether our vendors are fulfilling orders in time to keep our reputation, as well as the reputation of the products. The interface allows us to keep track of getting these orders to customers in a timely manner,” says Robert.
Over time, Duoplane has grown with Knocking’s needs by adding more functionalities and features that Knocking could benefit from, such as new integrations.
“Duoplane is really ticking all of our boxes, and we’re really happy with them. They are easy to work with, seamless with integration, and provide real human touch with their support. They make things as easy as possible, which is awesome,” says Junaid.
