Video Testimonial
One of the things that made us move to Sellercloud was the flexibility and adaptability to any of our needs. Every business has different needs.
COO
First Choice Online
Client since: 2022
Uses: Sellercloud
Industry: Beauty, Cosmetics & Face Creams, Electronics, and Pharmaceuticals
Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Miami, FL
Company size: 26 employees
Types of items sold: A wide variety of products, from beauty products to electronics and pharmaceuticals.
“One of the things that made us move to Sellercloud was the flexibility and adaptability to any of our needs. Every business has different needs.”
Maria Martin, COO, First Choice Online
Before Sellercloud
First Choice Online was founded in 2015 by Maria Martin and her family after migrating from Venezuela to Miami, Florida. They established the company in the US, selling various products online while exploring different marketplaces.
They did everything from their home and garage, which was manageable for a time. However, the business grew rapidly, and soon, their inventory consumed their living room and bedrooms. Handling pickups and deliveries was becoming challenging, and it was at that point they finally made the move to open their first warehouse.
The Challenge
As their business grew, so did their tech stack. Things were getting complicated, and increasingly, tasks were getting done outside their main ecommerce solution. “We were doing a lot of things for our company outside of our main system,” explains COO Maria Martin. “We were using our old system for synchronizing inventory and pricing on marketplaces. However, the purchasing part, we were doing outside,” she said.
Without a centralized ecommerce solution, it was harder to track processes, reporting was fractured, and they could not improve efficiency. For Martin, it was essential to have everything in one software solution.
First Choice Online also wanted a solution that would meet their current needs and continue to support them as their company grew. “We were looking for a system that adapted better to our necessities,” said Martin.
The Solution
When First Choice Online discovered Descartes Sellercloud, they knew it was precisely what their business needed to overcome current and future challenges. What won them over was its range of features compared to other ecommerce solutions. “One of the things that made us move to Sellercloud was the flexibility and adaptability to meet any of our needs. Every business has different needs,” said Martin.
The most significant benefit of switching to Descartes Sellercloud was that First Choice Online could now rely on one solution to manage their ecommerce business, replacing their existing tech stack comprised of several disconnected platforms. Descartes Sellercloud instantly improved First Choice Online’s shipping processes by removing the need for its additional shipping solution.
Implementing Descartes Sellercloud also improved First Choice Online’s warehouse management process. They could finally plan their warehouse and schedule their employees’ work hours to meet peak demand times. “That’s been amazing,” said Martin. In addition, First Choice Online could also manage inventory movements between multiple warehouses more efficiently based on their status and location. The warehouse staff now has greater visibility into the inventory and when it arrives at their warehouses, so they no longer needed to communicate that information between teams.
The ability to customize Descartes Sellercloud was also a major plus for Martin, who says she loves its flexibility for different business models. A key part of the solution’s customizability is its open APIs that can integrate with a wide variety of tools and services so they can connect with whatever they need to keep their business running more smoothly.
After Sellercloud
With Descartes Sellercloud, First Choice Online was able to consolidate its entire operations under one system and move away from its disjointed tech stack. “That is something we accomplished and are proud of and happy for,” said Martin. It was a critical goal for the company.
A significant benefit for Martin is that their employees are more efficient and no longer have to work additional hours to get the job done. She specifically mentions how just being able to incorporate the purchasing team into their system has been very advantageous as it has “minimized a lot of tasks that we were doing outside [the system], and we have the visibility of the products that are coming in.”
Martin also praised their account manager and the support their business has received from Descartes Sellercloud. She explains how he helped their business determine the most appropriate solutions and has always been ready to help when challenges arise. “He’s very responsive and tries to find the best way to understand what we’re trying to express or the problem we are trying to solve and to find the best solution for us,” she said.
Looking to the future, First Choice Online is confident that Descartes Sellercloud will enable their business to continue to scale, which was vital when searching for a new solution. As the solution is so versatile, Martin tells us that she is excited to learn more about the system and how to use it as much as possible to cover all their needs. “I 100% believe that we are going to achieve what we want with Sellercloud,” she said.
Martin recommends Descartes Sellercloud to any online business looking to grow. “You need a solution like Sellercloud because it gives you the ability to control everything in one place from the inventory to the publishing on marketplaces,” she says, adding that if you don’t use such a solution, you are going to spend a lot of time doing tasks that are manual and more time-consuming.
First Choice Online is also looking forward to what Sellercloud will be able to offer them as part of the Descartes family of products. “Now that Sellercloud has joined with Descartes, we are confident that we have more resources and tools to grow our business,” Martin said.
