Hiyo: Rethinking the world’s relationship with alcohol

After two years of development, Hiyo launched in 2021 to fill the gap for a better-than-alcohol alternative.™ Loaded with organic, functional ingredients, Hiyo is a social tonic designed to boost moods, amplifying a relaxed feeling known to Hiyo lovers as “the float.”

With a myriad of vendor partners and a complicated supply chain, Hiyo is truly a labor of love. Based in Los Angeles but popular across the country, the alcohol-alternative brand caters to a nationwide audience, standing out as a non-coastal brand with broad appeal.

The search for a flexible, responsible fulfillment partner

Hiyo began searching for a fulfillment partner pre-launch. With big goals in the short-term and even larger growth plans for the future, they knew they needed a partner who could confidently scale alongside them while providing:

With a referral from a trusted partner, Hiyo reached out to ShippingTree for its modern fulfillment technology, operational expertise, flexibility, and cost-saving tactics.

“ShippingTree has been incredibly helpful in their fulfillment flexibility,” says Jack Dampf, VP of Operations at Hiyo. “Not only do they help us tackle our direct-to-consumer shipping, they also streamline our larger, more complex retailer orders.”

In addition to expertise within the ecommerce and retail space, Hiyo has benefited from ShippingTree’s agility when it comes to customer demand. “If we’re pushing a big promotion, we just have to give ShippingTree a quick heads up and they staff accordingly to meet expected surges in demand,” says Dampf.

Meeting customers where they are: Hiyo’s omnichannel approach to modern fulfillment

Whether products are being shipped to a customer’s doorstep or a retail distribution center, a successful fulfillment operation requires technologies and processes in perfect synchronization.

From handling the intricate needs of large retail partners to managing the demands of D2C customers, ShippingTree’s flexibility and value-added services have been crucial for Hiyo’s omnichannel fulfillment strategy.

Hiyo was originally built as a direct-to-consumer brand and has grown an established online presence with 100K total online followers, but they’ve recently expanded to major retail stores to reach even more of their target market, working with retailers like Sprouts, Whole Foods, Wegmans, and more.

When Hiyo began branching out, ShippingTree revamped its fulfillment strategy to handle the growing brand’s larger retail orders. From picking, packing, and palletizing freight shipments with specific specs to handling unique placarding and labeling, ShippingTree ensures Hiyo’s products arrive accurately and undamaged to stores nationwide.

“ShippingTree has been a crucial partner for our small parcel fulfillment, but they were also able to pivot their fulfillment approach when we began selling in-store,” says Dampf.

In addition to online and offline channels, Hiyo recently implemented Amazon FBA preparation with ShippingTree. After a quick integration to the Hiyo Amazon store, ShippingTree was able to review and ship orders out in just five days. The results? Hiyo now can offer same-day shipping seven days per week leveraging ShippingTree’s Amazon Shipping partnership.

Reducing fulfillment costs across the board

Minimizing damage and picks with optimized packaging

In ecommerce, packaging is paramount. Not only does it keep products safe and delight consumers during unboxing, but it also determines overall shipping costs. For beverage brands especially, packaging can make or break whether a pack of cans arrives in pristine condition.

With Hiyo’s most commonly ordered SKU being a Variety Pack, they weren’t originally set up for efficiency in how they were picking and packing orders. ShippingTree worked with the brand to design new shipper boxes that accomplished a few things:

Previously, ShippingTree had to do 3 to 4 picks per order to create the Variety Pack. Now, their variety pack arrives at ShippingTree’s warehouse in one case, eliminating the picking, packing, and processing fees that were adding up with their unoptimized packaging.

The results? Hiyo’s newly designed boxes are perfectly snug to their product, effectively minimizing damages in transit. Plus, they’re saving money on every order with a more efficient process that requires fewer touches.

Unlocking a multi-node fulfillment strategy

When Hiyo launched, they were fulfilling orders from ShippingTree’s Southern Califonia warehouse. But with the brand’s nationwide audience, the 3PL identified an opportunity to reduce postage costs with a strategic multi-node approach.

“Hiyo’s customer base is spread out across the country. With this in mind, we developed an outbound shipping cost analysis to determine savings from launching additional fulfillment nodes, such as Dallas,” says Patrick Casey, Director of Operations at ShippingTree.

With the addition of ShippingTree’s Dallas fulfillment center, Hiyo is expected to save an average of 33% on priority mail and UPS ground shipping to all shipping zones from Dallas. Currently, Hiyo takes full advantage of ShippingTree’s multi-node expertise with fufillment operations in three different locations:

Leveraging technology-enabled fulfillment

Real-time visibility and control

For the beverage industry, having complete visibility and control is especially important for getting orders to retailers on time, tracking inventory and stock levels, and making sure the end-consumer always knows where their product is.

“Having access to real-time inventory visibility, order flow, and stock levels has been crucial to our business,” says Dampf. “If a customer or our team has a question about an order, we always know where it is, why it has or hasn’t shipped, and the routing of orders between our warehouses.”

ShippingTree’s intuitive dashboard makes it easy for your the Hiyo team to keep an eye on every aspect of their fulfillment operation. Complete with an inventory and order snapshot, brands can easily identify the status of their operation every step of the way.