About the Author
Guido Zoboli, Ausker’s CEO and Cofounder
Key Metrics:
● Main shipping destinations: Asia, Australia, New Zealand
● Fulfillment costs reduced by 40% per shipment
Table of Contents
- About Ausker
- Biggest Order Fulfillment Challenges Before NextSmartShip
- The Points of Impact
- How NextSmartShip Helped
- Benefits Garnered After NextSmartShip
- What’s Next for Ausker?
- Ausker’s Tips for Crowdfunding
About Ausker
Ausker is an Italian kitchen brand that sells kitchen utensils ranging from cooking pots, knives, and pans. The company was founded by three Italians back in 2015 through successful crowdfunding campaigns on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
The frying pans and cooking pots are made out of the die-cast aluminum body that gives their products durability. This aluminum alloy allows heat to spread evenly and the coating consists of a five-layer non-stick coating to protect against abrasion and corrosion.
Ausker’s products are 100% PFOA free to ensure safe food consumption. To make cleaning and storage easy, Ausker’s pots come with detachable handle holders made out of silicone to give you the best grip. The lid has two strainers for water draining and steam release. The lid rim is quite a thoughtful addition as it offers the best grip when pouring.
To ensure that Ausker has paid attention to your entire cooking experience, their pots come with a silicone spoon holder. This valuable addition saves your counter space from messy stains. You could maximize your frying pans and pots by using them as bake-ready dishes.
Ausker serves to better the kitchen lives of chefs, bachelors, grandmothers, newlyweds, and any food enthusiasts. The company has attained global attention having reached more than 70 countries including the U.S, Iceland, Malta, Singapore, and more.
Biggest Order Fulfillment Challenges Before NextSmartShip
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, Ausker received orders from several countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. the team realized that fulfillment would be a problem. Ausker sells high-quality cookware that’s quite heavy compared to other products. It was important to find a way to lower shipping costs without compromising customer experience. Our initial fulfillment strategy involved working with couriers to ship products from their warehouse in Italy.
However, this was becoming far too expensive. The weight of a complete cookware set is more than 10kg. It cost more than $100 per shipment to make a delivery. To make matters worse, most couriers increased their prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Points of Impact
These higher costs were eating right into our profit margins and left less capital for marketing and product development.
Secondly, Ausker’s logistics manager had to spend several days trying to find different solutions to remedy the situation. Unfortunately, We don’t have direct contact with different couriers, so it was almost impossible for us to find the best price to ship to Asian and Oceania countries.
How NextSmartShip Helped
NextSmartShip was exactly the partner Ausker needed. They were able to save 40% per shipment. NextSmartShip offer 90-days of free storage in their warehouse and this helped us reduce fulfillment costs.
NextSmartShip also doesn’t charge for goods receiving. They have connections with different couriers and were able to find dedicated lines to help us group more shipments to each country. Working with different couriers affords them the luxury of providing a discounted shipping rate that helped us save 40%.
They also helped us with a custom shipping box for our cooking set bundle. This made us avoid paying for a bigger shipment volume that’s quite expensive. NextSmartShip provides global fulfillment centers and this ensured timely delivery to every backer.
Benefits Garnered After NextSmartShip
We have managed to reduce our shipping costs significantly. Our customers have also managed to receive their products on time and were able to check the progress of the shipment using a tracking number.
We have also managed to turn our dream into a reality. We wanted to provide high-quality cookware at reasonable prices. We believe people who have a passion for cooking don’t have to buy expensive brands to get top quality products.
We would have had to increase the cost of our products due to expensive shipping. NextSmartShip helped us avoid expensive and unnecessary costs. This made it possible to make our products affordable to everyone and ensure honest trade and happy kitchens without having our customers dig deeper into their wallets.
Similarly, NextSmartShip stood out because helping us reduce our fulfillment costs and providing impeccable customer service was always at the center of their decisions. Their dedicated customer support team has been amazing from day one. Instead of having different people, they use a dedicated account manager. They have replied quickly to our issues and provided clear reports to monitor our shipments.
What’s Next for Ausker?
Thanks to NextSmartShip, order fulfillment has become easy considering that most of our products are made from China. We are confident to continue to provide high-quality cookware products at affordable prices without having to suffer losses with shipping.
Ausker’s Tips for Crowdfunding
You’ll need to be creative and come up with a product that offers experiences people can’t replicate. The diversity of your rewards plays a key role in creating your project’s narrative in marketing. Ausker prides itself in offering next-generation cookware that elevates cooking experiences.
The first 48 hours of your crowdfunding campaign help you get to a good start. This will help you build momentum and keep you in good stead for the whole campaign. It’s crucial to begin planning your shipping strategy during the pre-campaign stage here to ensure smooth logistics.
Equally important, focus on having a great community before launching a crowdfunding project. Provide constant updates and transparency about how goals are being accomplished. This helps you secure loyalty, generate lifelong customers, and earn brand ambassadors for your future campaigns.
