Michael Henderson founded WOLFpak with a clear vision: to bring more functionality to the everyday athletic backpack while inspiring his community to overcome adversity. The WOLFpak mentality recognizes that everyone struggles in their own ways, but that anything is possible through discipline, grit, and perseverance.
Today, the US-based company offers a variety of fitness backpacks, meal prep bags, apparel, and more, all built with functional fitness in mind. With the help of Managed Markets from Shopify, WOLFpak has been able to overcome the hurdles they faced with cross-border selling and has expanded the influence of their brand worldwide. Since activating Managed Markets, WOLFpak has seen:
- 433% global sales growth in the 18 months since launch
- 30% increase in global conversion rate in the last 12 months
- 102% increase in year-over-year (YoY) global conversion rate for Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales
The Challenge: Global commerce complexities threaten brand reputation
WOLFpak’s flagship product was a quick hit in the US, and it soon gained attention overseas. But various operational complexities got in the way of their sales abroad. “It was a rocky road getting our products in customers’ hands overseas,” Michael says. “But international sales needed to be in our wheelhouse. We live in a social moment where communication spreads in seconds across the world. If you don’t sell internationally you’re limiting your opportunity for growth.”
One of the biggest challenges WOLFpak faced capitalizing on that opportunity was that customers were often surprised by additional duty taxes and fees after placing their orders. “The package would arrive close to their door, and then they would get a phone call informing them they owed $80 in additional fees,” Michael says. “I knew what was happening, I just didn’t know how to fix it.” What he did know was that being unable to transparently show prepaid duty taxes at checkout was damaging the trust customers had placed in the brand.
On top of regulatory and tax issues, high shipping costs and long transit times also weighed the brand down. WOLFpak tried using a shipping service, but it was costly. They ended up covering a lot of the shipping costs themselves so customers didn’t have to, which proved unsustainable as it ate into their profit margins. The delivery times for international orders were also significantly longer than domestic ones, often taking up to three weeks due to customs delays. These long transit times frustrated customers and were unacceptable for the brand when compared to the domestic shipping experience.
Summing up his views on shipping internationally during those early days, Michael says it was “double the work and double the time.” High costs, long transit times, and unexpected fees were all combining to hurt the brand’s reputation. WOLFpak needed a more efficient and customer-friendly solution to handle their international shipping needs, and fortunately, Managed Markets provided the right tools at the right time.
The Solution: Managed Markets opens up worldwide sales opportunities
With Managed Markets, WOLFpak was able to access exclusive international carrier options, which saved them a significant amount of money on shipping. “We never want shipping to be a detractor to checkout conversion, so we were absorbing a lot of the shipping label fees,” Michael says. “But Managed Markets allows us to print labels for a fraction of the cost we used to pay.” With the flexibility to offer more competitive pricing, WOLFpak could provide an improved shopping experience, even offering free shipping to customers in certain regions where they couldn’t before.
WOLFpak’s international transit times also improved with the integration of their new carriers through Managed Markets. Orders that once took weeks to arrive began arriving in days. Customers noticed the changes, and they let the team know. “It’s mind blowing to hear customers tell us we deliver faster than their local delivery service,” Michael says. “Many customers have never seen an international package arrive so quickly.”
Customers also appreciated the transparency of pricing at checkout as Managed Markets enabled WOLFpak to include duty taxes and fees in the final price for every order. Managed Markets tailored the shopping experience to fit each customer’s location too, presenting pricing in local currencies and displaying the shipping and payment methods available in any given region. “The localized shopping features of Managed Markets have improved our customer experience,” Michael says. “We saw a noticeable reduction in cart abandonment.”
In addition to these customer-facing and operational benefits, Managed Markets provided WOLFpak with end-to-end liability management through its merchant-of-record (MoR) service. This saved the team time and resources on administrative and taxation compliance processes related to international sales. “Navigating international shipment and taxes is complex for an ecommerce business,” Michael says. “But with Managed Markets, I know that WOLFpak is compliant with local taxes, and that helps me sleep at night.”
All these benefits made Managed Markets both a “pain reliever” and a “turnkey operation for growth,” according to Michael. With their barriers to international sales removed, the team began to invest where they saw the biggest opportunities. “We’re aggressive with our social media ad campaigns because social activity is a key factor in driving awareness and growth in today’s market,” Michael says. He shares how the team also analyzes where orders are coming from and finds ways to magnify growth in those areas. “We ask ourselves, ‘Where is there growth, and ‘how can we accelerate it?’ And if there’s no growth, we ask, ‘How do we ignite it?’”
The Results: A full pack of tools for going global
Managed Markets has given WOLFpak everything they need to execute on their global expansion vision and provided for a significant amount of savings. “I’m glad I jumped onto Managed Markets as fast as I could because at the pace we’re growing, I know the savings alone are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars already,” Michael says. He also shares the importance of thinking globally in today’s market where virtually every person in the world is a potential customer thanks to the ability to connect through the internet. “When it comes to growth, we don’t focus just on vertical growth in our own market but horizontal growth worldwide,” Michael says. “Managed Markets has been the key to unlocking that growth.”
The solution has become an integral part of WOLFpak’s business. “If you took away Managed Markets it would be like a car wreck,” Michael says. “It would be a painful road to recovery to be made whole again. It would take months to recover.” And taking a look at the numbers, it’s not hard to understand why: Since activating Managed Markets, WOLFpak’s international sales as a percentage of their total sales have grown each year, with Michael projecting them to soon account for 20% of total revenue. And in the 18 months since the launch of Managed Markets, WOLFpak’s global sales growth increased by 433%, which is double their growth rate in the US.
Overall, Managed Markets has lifted what felt like a heavy burden and freed up energy to focus on what matters most. The brand now has a dedicated customer base in Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia, and is expanding in many other areas as well. “Managed Markets has removed so much of my stress,” says Michael. “It’s like having this whole other team working for me, and that allows me to focus on the business and on growth. I can put my attention exactly where it needs to be.”
Navigating global shipping is complicated. In the beginning, it felt like we needed an entire dedicated team to handle international transactions. But that changed after we adopted Managed Markets. With the cost savings, the speed of delivery, and the accuracy of the deliveries, Managed Markets has been a blessing.
