How Loop & Tie Solved International Shipping to Grow Orders and Cut Costs

Loop & Tie's corporate gifting platform ran into unreliable carriers that couldn't guarantee duties and taxes prepaid, so recipients often got hit with unexpected fees on delivery. FlavorCloud's landed cost and compliance engines gave Loop & Tie guaranteed DDP and managed customs clearance in one integration. The result: a 45% drop in shipping label costs, an 18% reduction in support tickets tied to international orders, and a 19.4% increase in order volume alongside a 17.5% lift in order value.  

Loop & Tie is a corporate gifting platform that connects the billions of dollars companies spend on gifting each year with small businesses, makers, and causes, built around choice-based gifting that supports economic, social, and environmental impact. 

A surprise bill at the door undercuts the whole point of the gift. 

Is it really a gift if the recipient has to pay for it? That was the question Loop & Tie kept running into. Their carriers couldn't reliably guarantee duties and taxes prepaid, which meant a customer or employee receiving a gift from Loop & Tie's client often got hit with an unexpected fee just to claim it. The inconsistency showed up everywhere downstream. Customer satisfaction dropped and complaints piled up. And Loop & Tie's team spent more time managing the fallout from failed deliveries than growing the business they'd built to spread goodwill.

One integration solved duties, delays, and refusals.

FlavorCloud's landed cost engine put guaranteed Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipping behind every international gift, so recipients saw a gift, not a bill. No more guessing whether a package would clear customs cleanly or get stopped for a fee nobody budgeted for. The compliance engine took on managed customs clearance directly, closing the reliability gap Loop & Tie's previous carriers couldn't, the same gap that had been driving complaints and eating up their team's time. 

Loop & Tie chose to offer express shipping exclusively for its platform, wanting a faster, higher-quality experience for every recipient. That kind of upgrade usually comes with a higher price tag. Instead, label costs dropped, proof that better service and lower cost weren't a tradeoff Loop & Tie had to make.

"The FlavorCloud support team and AMs have been fantastic to work with from the onboarding process through daily support of our shipments, and continue to be a major asset in our growth as our needs expand," said Andy Pekala, Fulfillment & Operations Manager at Loop & Tie. "It's great to see our past requests considered and implemented in recent updates, and it's clear that the team is committed to our success." 

45% lower shipping costs, fewer complaints, and more orders. 

• 45% decrease in shipping label costs 
• 18% reduction in the rate of support tickets tied to international shipments 
• 19.4% increase in order volume 
• 17.5% increase in order value 

Loop & Tie now ships gifts across every category imaginable, clothing, electronics, kitchen goods and appliances, cosmetics, sporting and outdoor goods, games, and more, to recipients in countries including India, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, Denmark, and the Philippines. None of it comes with the customer service burden that used to follow international orders. 

The partnership keeps growing with Loop & Tie's needs. 

FlavorCloud remains hands-on as Loop & Tie scales, with direct access to engineering and compliance experts whenever a new market or shipment type comes up. "Having correct HS codes is vital in shipping internationally," said Whit Bolland, Head of Compliance at FlavorCloud. "We work with our merchants to ensure they get this right. It can be time-consuming, but it's an essential building block for shipping internationally. We're always on hand to help, and one of our points of difference is that we automate customs compliance through our managed service, so it's always easy with FlavorCloud."