It’s the simplicity of Shippo that appeals to Panda, “When we order goods I’ll email Shippo and they’ll contact our supplier to sort everything from door to door. As if by magic, a few weeks later, the shipment is delivered.”
Oliver Montague, an Electrical Engineer by trade and Panda’s founder, had a passion for ebikes. Annoyed at the high cost of conversion kits he turned to Alibaba to get samples from China. From a hobby, a business was born.
Initially put off by the cost of air freight Ollie bought and imported 10 kits by sea with Shippo’s help. Like many new businesses, any available room in Ollie’s flat became the warehouse. “Order sizes were limited by the spare space in my bedroom!” he recalled.
How did Panda find a supplier?
Initially receiving samples from a number of suppliers that he found on Alibaba. More orders were placed with the suppliers that offered the best quality product.
Ollie feels that a good relationship with their main supplier is key to the quality of Panda’s product offering. Having initially found him on Alibaba their relationship has grown and trust developed. Ollie has travelled to China to meet them and look around the factory.
How have they grown?
Panda have grown 5-fold year on year from a bedroom based business to major presence in their marketplace by reinvesting the profits over and over again. From an initial order of £4000 (including shipping with Shippo), Panda took £100,000 just two years later without any full time staff.
Panda sell their products through their own website and via eBay. They use a fulfilment company to store and deliver the orders to their customers. As a result, they’ve outsourced all the logistics and only have to manage their product listings, help with customer queries and order more goods when they fly off someone else’s shelves!
Why Shippo?
It’s the simplicity that appeals to Ollie, “When I order some goods I’ll email Shippo and they’ll contact our supplier to sort everything from door to door. As if by magic, a few weeks later, the shipment is delivered”.
“We don’t want, or need to be shipping experts, Shippo play a crucial role so we can concentrate on our own business”.