Made by Mary Grows International Orders by 90% with Managed Markets

In 2013, Mary Moody was a new mom with a sweet little baby dealing with postpartum depression and looking for a purpose. She found purpose and joy in creating jewelry, which led her to start Made by Mary: a brand of high-quality, handmade jewelry that celebrates life’s pivotal moments.

As the business grew, Made by Mary began selling outside of the US, but ran into major obstacles that prevented the brand from offering international customers a great shopping experience. It also got in the way of sales. Fortunately, Made by Mary was able to alleviate these problems with Managed Markets: Shopify’s international selling solution.

Since adopting Managed Markets, Made by Mary has:

• Grown its volume of international orders by 90%
• Increased international order conversion rates by up to 180%
• Reduced international shipping times from 30 days to just three
• Cut customer service tickets from international buyers by 50%

Challenge

In international markets where Made by Mary was set up to sell, customers had to wait between two and four weeks to receive their shipments. When shipments arrived, customers had to pay taxes and duties, because Made by Mary didn’t have any way to include them in the checkout process. “International customers expect duties to be included in shipping,” says Taylor Moody, Made by Mary’s CEO and co-founder. “So it was not a good surprise when they received orders three weeks later and also had to pay additional fees.”

As a result of slow shipping times and unexpected duties, international customers submitted a lot of support tickets. “If they hadn’t received their order within about two weeks, customers would start writing to us. Any time the customer has to come to us to ask where the order is, we've already lost,” he explains. “International customers typically aren’t repeat customers; which means that first experience was probably their last experience.”

The brand had to spend a lot of time responding to these complaints and issuing refunds. “If the shipment didn't arrive at their door for a month, we refunded them to make up for the delay. Given that we were generating 1% of our sales internationally, this issue was creating a disproportionate amount of work for our customer service team relative to sales,” Taylor says.

Taylor considered using international selling integrations to solve Made by Mary’s dilemma, but he had reservations due to poor experiences with third-party software in the past. “There have been many times when we've been burned by a third-party integration. If it doesn't have the capability to integrate all the necessary data or communicate with other systems, we're still having to manage things manually, which doesn’t actually create the efficiency we need,” he explains.

With all of these problems, it was clear Made by Mary needed a better way to sell abroad.

Solution

Made by Mary had already been using Shopify for ecommerce when its leadership team learned about Managed Markets. Due to the brand’s established relationship with Shopify, Taylor was confident he could trust Shopify again. “There's always a level of understanding that Shopify's going to take care of us and Managed Markets would be easier because it's all on the same platform,” he says. “We don't have to use any integrations. We don't have to have another account that someone has to manage. So we were excited when we heard that Shopify offered a solution to help us expand internationally.”

With Managed Markets, Made by Mary delivered a better customer experience when selling abroad. The jewelry brand can sell to customers in their local languages and currencies and offer affordable, fast shipping. Customers can also pay for duties at checkout, so there are no surprises when the package arrives.

Internally, Managed Markets helps Made by Mary by taking care of compliance and import restrictions, covering any discrepancies in import fees, offering fraud protection, and allowing the business to sell specific products to specific markets. “Managed Markets made it incredibly easy to sell internationally,” Taylor explains. “We don't have to deal with the headache of ongoing upkeep. It just works.”

Results

Since implementing Managed Markets, Made by Mary has entered new markets, like Europe and Singapore, without the hassle of ongoing overhead management. “We've been able to open up more sales in various countries. Singapore wasn't on our radar before, but we’ve seen a big influx of orders from there,” Taylor says. As a result, international orders have grown by 90%, with conversion rates seeing up to a 180% lift.  

Customers are now enjoying fast, affordable shipping. “We're getting international orders out the same day we receive them,” he explains. “Customers are receiving their orders in three to four days, instead of multiple weeks, which is huge. The biggest benefit of shipping with Managed Markets is getting access to shipping labels. Shopify has saved us money by using the bundled account.”

With Managed Markets, Made by Mary has cut customer service tickets from international buyers by 50%. This reduction frees employees up to focus on other aspects of the business. “Doing this without Managed Markets would’ve taken the equivalent of a full-time employee,” Taylor says.

Managed Markets has also made it easier for Made by Mary to stay tax compliant. “The nuances of filing taxes internationally is very complex. We'd have to use attorneys, accountants, and other firms in order to stay compliant abroad without Managed Markets,” Taylor says.

With Managed Markets, Made by Mary can sell to new markets more easily while giving customers a localized shopping experience with faster shipping.