How Animalhouse Fitness Used FlavorCloud Analytics to Become a Multinational Company

With the launch of fulfillment centers in their fourth country, Animalhouse Fitness has truly become a multinational corporation. Read their story to discover how they made decisions and collaborated with FlavorCloud to drive their expansion and international development.

Inspired by a critical need in the fitness industry, Animalhouse Fitness has earned acclaim for its modern business approach. Renowned for their high-quality, innovative fitness equipment suitable for both home and gym environments, Animalhouse Fitness aims to eliminate barriers hindering individuals from achieving wellness goals. Partnering with FlavorCloud was a natural fit for their vision, as they share this commitment to assisting people in overcoming obstacles. Through their partnership with FlavorCloud, Animalhouse Fitness was able to analyze their audience and make the most optimal decisions for international selling and expansion.

Foundation for Multinational Expansion

In 2021, Animalhouse Fitness embarked on its cross-border journey with FlavorCloud at an early stage in their business. With a meticulously curated product line, they aimed for strategic expansion rather than unnecessary product list expansion. Recognizing the potential for growth lay in expanding their market and audience reach, Camy Raissian, Head of Operations at Animalhouse Fitness, explained, "The Founders figured out that we wanted to go more places. We want to expand." Cross-border selling presented a prime opportunity for growth.

Having outgrown their initial warehouse setup, Animalhouse Fitness collaborated with Shipbob to prepare for expansion. With fulfillment centers across the US, Animalhouse Fitness established a solid presence in the domestic market. However, their aspirations extended beyond the US borders, recognizing the global appeal of fitness and their environmentally conscious equipment. This worked perfectly to consider international growth through Shipbob’s DDP offering, powered by FlavorCloud.

DDP Analytics Provides Valuable Insights

Partnering with FlavorCloud, Animalhouse Fitness implemented the delivered duties paid (DDP) offering to provide international customers with clear and guaranteed checkout options. The results were remarkable. While excelling in the domestic market, Animalhouse Fitness was pleasantly surprised by the influx of DDP sales from international customers. With orders streaming in from 45 different countries throughout 2023, Camy and the Founders, Evan Gubera and Paul Jackson, took notice.

Camy Raissian, of Animalhouse Fitness, highlighted, "The biggest benefit of FlavorCloud we've found other than the extra sales associated with getting DDP and exposing the product to other people throughout the world, is it helped us really quickly see where we are actually selling outside the US. "

Delivered duties paid (DDP) It is a shipping option where the merchant takes responsibility for goods arriving at the destination. It involves the merchant paying all shipping-related costs through delivery, including transport, export, and import duties, shipping insurance, VAT if applicable, and storage. Plus, it means navigating customs, potential shipment inspections, and bearing the risk of damaged goods costs or replacement. All the heavy lifting when it comes to international shipping!

Offering this at checkout allows merchants to show a guaranteed global delivery promise that clearly shows customers when the order is expected to arrive and the full costs of shipping, duties and taxes. Showing this at checkout can be the difference between a buyer converting and finishing the sale or abandoning cart at checkout.

Utilizing order volume and DDP FlavorCloud analytics, they gained clarity on the international demand for Animalhouse Fitness products and customer spending preferences. The demand was there, clear as day, and they were able to make educated decisions on how to expand. Armed with this data, they made informed decisions regarding expansion. Leveraging Shipbob's international fulfillment network and the existing order volume from FlavorCloud, they swiftly executed their first expansion into Canada on May 2022, capitalizing on identified growth opportunities.

That was just the start. Buoyed by the success of their Canadian venture, Animalhouse Fitness pursued further expansion. Camy Raissian remarked, "It eliminates the ambiguity of what do we want to do next. It’s just a question of at what point do we stop?” Such data-driven expansion decisions proved invaluable.

Steps Towards A Global Presence

Subsequently, Animalhouse Fitness expanded into the UK on March 2023 and, in early May 2024, ventured into their fourth country, Australia, cementing their status as a truly international company. Reflecting on the decision to enter the Australian market, Camy Raissian noted, "The sales have always been there, and following our expansion into Canada and the UK, we began to explore opportunities in the Australian market utilizing FlavorCloud data. The data was clear, Australia was our next target. By conducting preliminary research into the Australian market, combined with FlavorCloud data, we pulled the trigger and this year expanded into Australia. FlavorCloud gives us a lot of insight into new markets and allows us to make decisions like this with much more confidence."

Furthermore, Animalhouse Fitness valued FlavorCloud's customer service and the reliability of DDP's guaranteed duties and fees. Despite their indirect relationship through Shipbob's integration, they appreciated having a dedicated account manager for seamless communication and issue resolution. The smooth operations and minimal need for communication underscored the success of their partnership.

A measure of success they have is about how little they need to communicate. For instance, Camy mentioned their international orders are easy to manage for their customer service team compared to domestic orders.