How quip Delights Millions of Customers with Stord [Case Study]

quip trusts Stord to shield from increased parcel costs while improving consumer experience through a technology enabled and commerce focused fulfillment operation.

About quip

2.5 billion people suffer from untreated tooth decay, making it the single most common health condition globally¹. Roughly 80% of Americans will have had at least one cavity by age 34² and nearly half of adults over 30 show signs of gum disease³. The adverse impact of poor dental health has been linked to a 2-3x risk of heart attack or stroke⁴, increases in developing type 2 diabetes⁵, as well as a potential contributor to cardiovascular damage.

Awareness of the critical health impacts of proper dental hygiene generates nearly $10 billion in annual revenue in the United States across toothpaste, brushes, mouthwash, and other products⁶. This growing awareness has caused a massive shift towards electric toothbrushes, with sales worldwide valued at $3.4 billion and projected to grow to $4.82 billion in 2032⁷. This shift has also driven a drastic environmental impact, with an estimated 1 billion plastic toothbrushes ending up in landfills and oceans each year from U.S. consumers - generating about 50 million pounds of waste⁸. Nearly every toothbrush made since the 20th century still exists in some form⁹.

Since its inception in 2015, quip has been on a mission to transform oral care from a boring chore to a cherished ritual. With a commitment to simple, science-backed design, quip creates intuitive, effective products that make oral health accessible to all. In addition to its highly acclaimed electric toothbrushes, quip offers a full range of personal care products, including water flossers, toothpaste, refillable floss string, gum and mints. More than 54 million quip products have been sold, with millions of users enrolled in quip's subscription service to ensure their products stay fresh and effective.

The Problem with Pressure 

Over the last decade, quip has grown strongly as overall demand for electric toothbrushes and ecologically-minded options have blossomed. However, competing in a saturated market, dominated by massive legacy brands, required quip to meet consumer experience expectations set by more resource-rich players.

quip experienced many sources of pressure during expansion. Initially quip was forced to split B2B and DTC orders across different fulfillment providers, which fractured inventory, hampered global visibility and increased operational costs. Mounting demand coupled with antiquated technologies burdened the customer support team with countless “Where Is My Order” emails and tickets, which threatened to damage consumer loyalty. This setup forced the quip team to spend hours manually assessing what had shipped, what was planning to be shipped, and what exceptions may have arisen each and every week.

The quip team was under immense demand to manage their e-commerce and retail markets, but when their parcel provider shuttered overnight, the potential damage to the brand was incalculable. The compounding pressure of parcel instability, splintered fulfillment providers, disparate inventory records, and laborious hand-managed order tracking required a better partner and solutions.

Good Design is Good Business

A core tenant that differentiates quip from the competition is their approach to solving problems through good design. Through the use of Stord’s OMS, Stord Parcel and Consumer Experience suite along with experienced operators, quip was able to implement a custom designed end-to-end commerce enablement solution that reduces complexity, improves consumer experience and provides an ongoing resolution to parcel instability.  As a result, quip has unlocked a better delivery experience for all customers.

quip is now taking advantage of Stord’s dedicated B2B and DTC teams, allowing them to aggregate all of their fulfillment operations with one provider. This simplification means all inventory is now accessible through a single platform, Stord’s Order Management System (OMS), Stord One Commerce. Now, quip has complete control and visibility of every order at every stage in fulfillment at their fingertips - no more hand-managed reports and hours of laborious checking on order status.

Through the OMS, quip is able to integrate all existing marketplaces and sales channels, delivering seamless communication with Stord fulfilment centers across the country for rapid picking, packing, and shipping of B2B and DTC orders. This technology also helps quip provide better consumer communication, by empowering customer service representatives to more efficiently manage Where Is My Order (WISMO) tickets. The union of Stord’s fulfillment accuracy and software driven reporting has drastically reduced the number of WISMO tickets the quip team receives.

quip is better able to meet customer demand through Stord’s multi-node fulfillment network. Split inventory between Stord’s Las Vegas, Nevada and Hebron, Kentucky locations help reduce transit times and parcel zone costs. quip, with Stord’s OMS, is able to intelligently set routing rules and workflows to mitigate exceptions and get the product out the door to the end consumer in the most efficient manner.

Sustainability, Flexibility, Customizability

While most electric toothbrush manufacturers are major contributors to global pollution, quip has designed a much more eco-friendly and sustainable toothbrush that reduces waste by 70%. Through their flexible subscription model, quip is able to ensure that their users get the customized experience they need to ensure the healthiest teeth with the least amount of ecological impact. quip needed a partner who could manage this fulfillment complexity while staying true to their focus on sustainability.

Stord’s dedicated kitting teams in both Las Vegas and Hebron, have helped increase the quality of the packaging while also helping to significantly reduce the expenditure through implementation of Marketing Mail Flats. Stord manages both pre-kitted SKUs as well as an on-demand kitting solution to grant quip customers maximum flexibility in their ordering process.

quip ensures a full circle consumer experience with Stord Returns - a cohesive technology and parcel offerings solutions. Now, quip can seamlessly manage return submissions and ship with the lowest parcel rate possible. Returns are visible within the OMS, giving quip total insight into every SKU and their current status.

quip realized yet larger bottom line value through Stord Parcel and transportation teams. When Pitney Bowes Global eCommerce shut down, most brands were facing an immediate increase of 25% or more to keep their orders flowing. This meant shifting to more-commonly-available services like USPS Ground Advantage. Furthermore, this shift in carriers would have delayed packages, which would have cost millions of dollars and damaged customer loyalty.

Stord’s transportation team sprung into action, scheduling calls with quip leadership to discuss solutions and plan an effective transition. Within a 12 hour period, Stord appraised quip leadership of the rate changes and developed a plan to move to alternative service providers, shielding them from the costly increases, negative customer experience, and an average 3-6 week delay that most other brands experienced. This keen-eyed approach provided quip with a smooth transition and prevented interruptions to all orders.

Partnership Routine

Now, quip has a singular partner dedicated to powering their commerce through a consumer experience centered strategy. Through Stord’s hybrid model of integrated physical fulfillment and e-commerce technology, quip is in control. All inventory, orders, returns, and exceptions are presented on one dashboard. This eliminates inaccuracy across disparate partners and tools, reducing pain felt by quip’s internal CX team and end consumers alike.

quip is dedicated to providing their customers with the best dental hygiene products, and Stord is dedicated to ensuring that every customer enjoys a singular experience from the cart, through to delivery, and beyond. 

quip’s Pearly Bright Future

It’s smiles all around as quip is well positioned for a bright future with Stord. quip can expand into more global markets and more product lines through Stord’s comprehensive fulfillment network across North America, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

quip can continue to own more and more of dental hygiene space and outcompete the massive legacy players with Stord’s flexible, scalable and consumer-focused solutions, while enjoying improved economies of scale on every order.