Year in Review: Greatest Hits of 2022 | FlavorCloud

2022 was quite the year. Many of the post-pandemic global recession concerns continued to have an impact, but we also saw incredible opportunities for brands to grow with international ecommerce. And that’s one thing that doesn’t look like it will change in 2023.

As we say hello to 2023, we want to acknowledge the bustling, productive, perhaps even hectic year of 2022. Let’s take a moment to savor the accolades and achievements we enjoyed. Shall we?

Why We’re Celebrating

As 2022 recedes into the rearview, there’s a lot to celebrate—including us! We’ve been on the receiving end of some terrific honors and featured articles. But even when we’re having the red carpet rolled out for us, we’ve still been busy rolling out product updates and making improvements.

Accolades

In October, we were thrilled to receive recognition as a Cool Vendor in the Gartner October 2022 Cool Vendors in Logistics and Fulfillment Technology report. Our CEO and Founder, Rathna Sharad, described it as “a huge honor in our journey” to be highlighted and recommended as an innovative vendor changing the cross-border tech landscape.

Speaking of Rathna, check out Inc. Magazine’s profile on her as one of “The 20 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs of 2022.” Inc. Magazine also ranked us 251 in their 2022 list of fastest-growing companies. We remain grateful to our customers, partners, and Inc. Magazine, who also ranked us #8 in Seattle, Washington, and #13 in logistics companies in the US.

And just in time to ring in the new year, Business Insider named us as one of 14 retail-tech startups that will soar in 2023. We couldn’t agree more!

Product updates and improvements

Another reason to celebrate? All the significant strides we continue to make within the FlavorCloud platform, including expanding the core of our intelligent Global Carrier Network—strengthening outbound cross-border shipping routes worldwide. We have new and exciting updates to our AI engines for product classification and conversion optimization, better door-to-door tracking with more accurate delivery estimates, and seamless app and API experiences for our merchants and our partners.

Expanded coverage. In 2022, we expanded coverage and strengthened our Global Carrier Network even more with new carrier integrations and optimizations across first-mile, global-mile and last-mile. These are helping us broaden and deepen our network to offer redundancy and resiliency, while continuing to offer the lowest shipping rates with best-in-class service. Lower cost economy services were introduced for US outbound, as well as UK, and EU.

We now offer outbound services for the UK, EU, Canada, India, Australia, and China. Our Global Network will be launching full-service solutions for these markets and more as we continue to expand our network.

We are also expanding into end-to-end B2B automation, a major and exciting leap for FlavorCloud, so there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming months.

Product Classification Engine. An exciting new AI engine powers our product classification as we look to automate how our merchants and partners handle HS codes. You can look forward to more updates as we continue to enhance our classification API.

Shopify App enhancements. We’re proud to be offering a few exciting changes for Shopify users. We’ve worked on updates to drive conversions for merchants and partners based on customer feedback, including:

• Conversion optimization tools
• Markets enablement for a seamless checkout experience
• Better predicted delivery times across FlavorCloud network carriers

Dangerous Goods: FlavorCloud is now able to ship beauty products that require dangerous goods shipping methods. Shipping goods classified as DG can be complicated, but FlavorCloud is able to provide guidance and shipping expertise to help navigate these complexities.

FlavorCloud 2.0 App. We launched the new FlavorCloud 2.0 App with:

• Improved user experience and easy navigation
• Fresh, modern look, showing the information you need
• Intuitive interface with better workflows
• Improved order and shipment management
• Improved search and filters

In FlavorCloud 2.0, our users are enjoying:

• Batch actions and detailed views
• Enhanced alerts and notifications
• Seeing outstanding tasks at-a-glance
• Proactive notifications for potential errors
• New real-time dashboards

FlavorCloud 2.0 helps customers make better-informed decisions based on business performance while optimizing with business rules.

New partner portal. We also launched our new partner portal and an improved partner program to increase reach, drive demand, and provide information about integrations and implementation.

Through the portal, our partners have access to:

• Deal registrations
• API documentation
• Marketing collateral
• Self-serve training

What We’ve Been Up To

In addition to continually updating and improving our platform, we’ve been crisscrossing the map this year to connect with customers. We love to talk with them about their international sales goals and discuss how FlavorCloud can support their continued growth on a global scale.

Appearances

If you missed us the first time around, you can catch up with us on:

• The Logistics of Logistics Podcast, which featured The FlavorCloud Story with Rathna Sharad;
• LogTech Live with Eric Johnson, with our very own Rathna Sharad as a guest speaker on the episode, “Let’s Talk Supply Chain”;
• The Room Podcast and their episode, “Unlocking International Supply Chains and Shipping for Startups,” in the room with Rathna Sharad; and
• The DTC Growth Show interviewed FlavorCloud’s Chief Revenue Officer, Mike Sanchez, on the business of leading.

We weren’t just surfing the sound waves though. We also put in face time at industry conferences, including Shoptalk, Beauty Connect, and GELF, where CRO Mike Sanchez spoke along with our partner, ShipBob, about the challenges of going global.

New content

If you haven’t been able to keep up with our comings and goings, we understand—it was a busy year! We’ve rounded up a few of our greatest content hits:

• How to Recession-Proof Your International Shipping;
• 3 Ways to Drive Increased Conversions Today;
• Understanding and Combating Industry-Wide Carrier Surcharges; and
• A delightful Customer Spotlight on Furls Crochet.

Under the guidance of our Global Trade Compliance team, we’ve created a wealth of Global Trade Compliance content to equip our merchants and partners with everything they need to know to be trade compliant for global expansion with FlavorCloud. You can find this essential content under our compliance section, which includes detailed import guides per country outlining de minimis, tax and surcharges. Here are some popular examples:

• Complete EU Import Guide
• EU Import Guide: Germany
• Declared Value & Customs Valuation
• Understanding Kits, Sets, or Bundles When Shipping Internationally

Who’s Joining Us

Some new faces have joined us at the table in 2022! Our total team count is now 42, with dedicated employees spanning multiple countries and elevating all aspects of our business.

New hires into the FlavorCloud family

We’re grateful to have a powerful and agile team with the right people in the right positions to help us soar! Meet some of our new team members:

• Whit Bolland, our resident global trade compliance expert who happens to be fluent in five different languages;
• Vijay Maharaj, our VP of finance, who, in addition to being a numbers man, also once worked as a university writing tutor; and
• Nicole Smith, head of revenue operations, who’s also a US Army veteran. Thank you for your service, Nicole!

Network & Partnerships

2022 saw the launch and expansion of many pivotal partnerships. Here are some of the highlights from the year:

• Our regional and local partnerships with major carriers around the world are pivotal to creating the most cost-effective, high quality and compelling suite of international shipping and returns services for our merchants and 3PL partners. In 2022 we continued to expand our carrier and customs network to build more intelligent optimizations across verticals, routes and countries for a best-in-class experience.
• We launched our partnership with ShipBob, an industry-leading global 4PL platform. Together with ShipBob, we offer a powerful international shipping and fulfillment solution. As CRO Mike Sanchez said, “We’re honored to provide ShipBob customers with the opportunity to go global, drive growth, and create a seamless end-customer experience.”
• We’ve been expanding our full services from India, building partnerships with industry leaders such as WareIQ and Dehlivery, amongst others. We can now offer a true cross-border DDP solution for India to support local brands in reaching their customers anywhere in the world.
• We are thrilled to launch a strategic partnership with ProShip in Q1 2023. Aligning FlavorCloud with this market-leading shipping technology is a critical step for our enterprise brands and 3PLs.

We also want to say thank you to all our current partners who enable us to learn, grow and  provide better experiences for our customers. Thank you to the likes of Narvar, Shiphero WMS, and PFS Web, just to name a few.

Where We’re Heading

With 2022 in the books, let’s look ahead at what’s in store for FlavorCloud in 2023 and beyond.

• Prime for International: Offering everything a customer expects from a domestic purchase experience – fast, low-cost, end-to-end tracking, seamless customs handling, and easy returns. These are enormous challenges in international shipping, but FlavorCloud is on it, aiming to deliver this experience and hone it for every country worldwide.
• One-Stop Shop: Our mission is to be the One-Stop Shop for brands, for all their international shipping and returns needs, including supply chain optimization needs around the world as they scale, and wholesale (B2B)
• Headless Global Logistics: FlavorCloud platform is a horizontal services layer to power ecommerce tech partners for cross-border enablement worldwide.

Our illustrious CEO Rathna Sharad says, “It’s been a very exciting time building and scaling FlavorCloud over the last few years as we continue to innovate and lead the way in a fast-paced, growing, and fluid cross-border ecommerce space. I am very proud of what my amazing and passionate team has achieved so far, and await all that is ahead of us!”