Hair & Beauty
Renbe
Sarah can now focus on marketing and developing exciting new products.
Sarah, Co-Founder of Renbe, has worked in the beauty industry for over 15 years. She opened her own salon in 2018, and while she loved running the salon (and still does to this day), she was driven by a desire to do more in the industry.
Renbe’s Mission
In 2020, the world stood still. Like many small business owners, Sarah was forced to close the doors of her salon temporarily. While the situation was far from ideal, she used this time to do some soul searching; to find out what she wanted to do and who she wanted to be. It was from this difficult situation that Renbe was born, and Sarah founded the business with her husband, Jason, in 2022.
Having worked in the beauty industry for so long, Sarah was keenly aware of the environmental challenges surrounding both her own and her client’s skincare routines, All the cotton pads that end up in landfill, and all the hot water that was required to maintain reusable face towels.
Introducing The Flawless Face Towels
Renbe’s flagship product, the ‘Flawless Face Towels’, are an eco-friendly alternative to cotton pads and reusable face towels. Made with 100% bamboo, the biodegradable facetowls are sustainable without compromising on quality. Crafted with luxurious and strong material, the Flawless Face Towels are kind and gentle not only to your skin, but the planet, too.
No matter how much you spend on your skincare, the way in which you remove your products is just as important.
Sarah Priley, Co-Founder, Renbe
Thanks to entering the market with such a disruptive product, Renbe has gone from strength to strength over the last twelve months. Starting out with only a handful of online orders per day, they’re now doing hundreds per month. And, with smart use of social media and online advertising to bolster their online presence, their sales are continuing to grow month on month.
The Challenge
Before partnering with James and James, Renbe fulfilled all of their orders in-house. As Sarah was often busy running the salon, she relied on carriers to collect her orders from the salon every day.
As orders ramped up, she quickly realised that her current set-up would make it impossible to scale her business. The situation really hit home when one day, the carrier didn’t turn up to collect her orders.
On top of this, fulfilling orders in-house was taking up too much of Sarah’s time. She was extremely driven to grow Renbe, but found it increasingly difficult to work on business activities outside of fulfilment while also running her salon.
She also wanted the flexibility to step away from the business from time to time, without having to close down the store while she was absent.
Ultimately, Sarah needed a solution that would take care of all-things fulfilment on her behalf, without compromising on her ability to scale up her business.
What we delivered
After Renbe contacted James and James through our website, they knew from the get-go that we’d be able to solve their fulfilment headaches.
More time to think
By taking full control of Renbe’s fulfilment operation, we’ve taken the mental load of packing and dispatching orders away from Sarah so she can focus on marketing and developing exciting new products.
Renbe are also spending far less time investigating problems with deliveries, and communicating with carriers. If there’s ever a carrier-related problem, Renbe can simply raise a ticket with our Client Services Team, who are then able to investigate and solve the problem on Renbe’s behalf.
Maintaining customer satisfaction
Fulfilling in-house combined with a busy lifestyle meant that Sarah couldn’t always get orders out as quickly as she wanted to. We all understand that in today’s eCommerce landscape, customers expect their orders to be delivered extremely quickly.
With James and James’ same-day dispatch SLA, Renbe can rest easy knowing that if an order is placed by 4pm, it’ll be dispatched that same day. They’re also able to offer next-day delivery on every order across the UK, which could not have been possible before outsourcing to James and James.
Accurate forecasting
Another way we’re able to help Renbe offer a consistently high customer experience is through the inventory management tools available in ControlPort (our award-winning software).
We make it simple for eCommerce brands like Renbe to understand when they should consider sending new stock to us. ControlPort updates stock levels in real time, and calculates when SKUs are likely to go out of stock based on historical rate of sale.
This functionality enables Renbe to identify the optimal time to replenish stock, ensuring that they’re able to avoid stockouts and consistently meet customer demand. It also helps them to avoid wasting money on storage they don’t need, so they can invest it in other areas of the business.
Transparent billing
One element of James and James’ service that Renbe has come to really appreciate is the transparency of our billing. Our clients can access their Live Pricebook through ControlPort at any time, where every cost is broken down for them in real time.
To be able to see exactly what we’ve spent on picking, packing, storage and materials is really helpful. It’s so handy to see everything broken down.
Sarah Priley, Co-Founder, Renbe
Each of our clients has a bespoke pricebook that updates their costs in real-time. No confusing invoices or hidden charges; just a line-by-line breakdown that’s fully transparent and easy to understand.
International scope
While not on the cards right now, there may come a time in the future where Renbe looks to expand into new international markets.
One of James and James’ biggest selling points for them was the fact that we have sites across the world, and so when the time comes to expand, they won’t need to look for a new fulfilment partner.
The benefit of using James and James for multi-location fulfilment is the fact that inventory and orders can be managed across all fulfilment centres from one, seamless dashboard. It’s easy to set up, and makes the prospect of entering new markets much less daunting.
If we go down the road of international expansion, we’ll have all the data in the same place which makes things so much easier.
Sarah Priley, Co-Founder, Renbe
Closing thoughts
Renbe has built a huge amount of momentum over the last twelve months, and they aren’t planning to slow down anytime soon. Sarah is in the process of developing new sustainable skincare products to add to their range, and we at James and James are incredibly excited to support Renbe on their journey, wherever it takes them.
If you’re a beauty brand with high growth ambitions, we’d love to talk to you about your current fulfilment solution and the barriers standing in your way. Please don’t hesitate to book a no-obligation consultation with us, or read more success stories here.