The Interview

In this insightful conversation, Drew Giovannoli, CEO of Buried Wins sits down with Brittany Barron, who brings over four years of experience as Head of Product Marketing at ShipBob. They discuss the unique challenges of e-commerce fulfillment, common misconceptions about what buyers truly value, and how ShipBob is evolving to meet the needs of growing brands.

Q&A with Brittany Barron

Drew: What does ShipBob do? What problem does it solve for e-commerce brands?

Brittany: Fulfillment is really hard for any sized brand. It’s time-consuming and expensive, taking up a significant portion of a brand’s spend just to run their business. ShipBob strives to help brands chaos-proof their fulfillment. We also want to help brands drive more revenue with fast delivery, unboxing, omnichannel and global capabilities. And of course, everyone wants to save money.

Drew: What assumptions about the buyer have you had to rethink or learn that were surprising to you?

Brittany: Having worked mostly for true technology companies with less of a services component, I thought buyers would just go with the best tech, and ShipBob has the best tech, so I thought we should just lead with that. I was definitely wrong there. It’s about so much more.

Our customers obviously value the technology and they’re excited about innovation, but they’re really looking for a partner. They want hands-on support and the ability to save money and time. That support factor is probably a much bigger consideration than I initially realized.

Drew: I’ve noticed when talking to your customers and potential buyers how much they genuinely care about their work—can you speak to that?

Brittany: The people who run warehouse and operations for these brands have incredibly stressful jobs. They need to get goods out on time, at the right price, and undamaged to uphold their brand’s reputation. Much of this can be out of their control, so finding the right partner is crucial. What’s surprising but also really enjoyable is seeing how genuinely passionate they are about their work.

Drew: Recently you released ShipBob Plus. Who is that for and what pain is it solving?

Brittany: What separates ShipBob Plus from our standard offering is that we recognized the unique challenges faced by the fastest-growing brands. These companies need a partner that can both support their scale and offer hands-on support—making them feel like they’re the only brand being supported. ShipBob Plus provides that extension of their brand, which is often a challenge for modern brands to find.

Drew: How has customer feedback shaped ShipBob Plus or ShipBob’s roadmap?

Brittany: In so many ways! A lot of the feedback we received from Buried Wins shaped our rollout plan and was part of the genesis for why we packaged up and branded ShipBob Plus.

We heard two main themes: First, many customers started as SMBs, grew to mid-market, and we’ve grown with them. We’re constantly partnering to improve our product and operations to better serve these evolving mid-market needs.

Second, customers asked: “You support thousands of merchants, how will you offer me good support?” That’s a huge misconception we wanted to address. We’re constantly improving by investing in our NPS, merchant experience, making our SLAs better, extending cutoff times, offering onsite support, and providing 24/7 support for merchants.

Drew: Who is the ideal customer for ShipBob Plus?

Brittany: We tend to support brands that start out with direct-to-consumer (D2C) but are growing their channel mix. We want to support them across all their channels.

Drew: One of the hardest things in product marketing is defining who something’s NOT for. Who might be better served by the core ShipBob offering rather than ShipBob Plus?

Brittany: Small to medium-sized brands are better off with our standard offering. They truly don’t need all the bells and whistles that ShipBob Plus offers. As you grow and face increasing complexities across channels, geographies, and your growing mix, that’s when ShipBob Plus becomes more valuable.

That said, anyone working with ShipBob gets access to our network, best-in-class SLAs, and our technology. ShipBob Plus just has that extra layer of support that a large mid-market or enterprise brand needs.

Drew: One of the greatest benefits of working with ShipBob must be meeting incredible brands. What have you purchased from a brand you met through ShipBob?

Brittany: So many things! I am definitely the target customer—I will buy from Instagram ads! Every year at ShipBob, we release a gift guide featuring our customers. I’ve been using that for Christmas shopping for the past four years.

One year I bought everyone in my family Pit Vipers—they’re an awesome customer. Our Place is another great one. I interviewed their operations manager going into peak season last year, and they sent me a little conventional oven that I use daily. It comes in really cute colors and I definitely recommend their products.