The Value of Accountability
Martin’s business partner and co-founder of Evolution Fulfillment, Gwen Harrison, sees their model as philosophically different from the typical 3PL model.
“We consider ourselves more than just a vendor” says Harrison, “We fully commit to a brand and fully integrate into their operations and systems. A service provider only follows the written agreement to the letter, whereas we condition our staff to think and act as if they were direct employees of your brand. We encourage them to run their part of your business as if it were their own. In practical terms, it means keeping a lid on costs, it means owning customer issues and proactively fixing them. Not because a contract says to, but because it’s in the best interest of growing a business. Our first consideration, we train our staff, is to ask ‘is this good for the brand?’”
The Value of Advice
The nature of the brand fulfillment model requires an open line of communication between 3PL companies in Canada like Evolution Fulfillment and the international brand to keep everything and everyone aligned towards growth. Instead of only distributing a product, Evolution also provides advice and connections that help a brand market, sell and distribute within the Canadian and American marketplace. And because all parties’ interests are aligned under the brand fulfillment model, there’s every incentive for Evolution to grow a brand’s business or keep an eye out for opportunities.
Harrison adds: “We’ve had numerous situations where our staff have taken a situation where an unsatisfied customer returned product and – because they’re thinking about the brand’s best interests – have turned it into a sales opportunity”.
Case in point, a fashion T-shirt brand based out of Los Angeles was eyeing the Canadian market and eventually partnered with Evolution Fulfillment. They sold 5,200 units in their first season and then, with some good advice from Ben Martin and Gwen Harrison, tripled sales the very next season to 17,600 units.
For key markets, the distributor model has inherent flaws that restrict the control you have over the growth of your brand or, in the worst case, ruin your brand in that market
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