Buiced

What brought you to create a liquid vitamin online store?

Long story short for me, after thinking I was a pretty “fit” guy, at least externally, a blood test in Feb. 2012 revealed my cholesterol was high (234), as was my LDL (low-density lipoprotein—the bad cholesterol, 132). My doctor wanted to put me on Lipitor [a brand of cholesterol-lowering drug], as high cholesterol does run in my family and currently my dad, mom, and brother are all on statins [a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol]. After watching several documentaries on plant-based nutrition and then juicing, I bought a juicer and started juicing fresh veggies. I was hooked immediately, and in 4 months, my cholesterol went from 234 to 168 (down 28 percent). Juicing gave me portion control and helped curb my cravings. What was really interesting was that during this journey that I have been on to improve my health, I discovered that although the leafy greens are packed with phytonutrients, they lack many essential vitamins and minerals. I tried taking vitamins in pill form after each juice, but they upset my stomach. I would get nauseated when I took pills. With or without food, I could count on feeling nauseated for a good 20 minutes each time I took my pills. Also, I actually got a few of those horse pills stuck in my throat a few times, which was not pleasant. Then I learned liquid vitamins are more readily available for easy absorption, 98 percent vs. 10-20 percent for pill forms, I decided to solve my own problem and created BUICED liquid multivitamin to boost my juice. Now I BUICED my fresh veggie juice, my morning OJ or my water. And when I’m in a hurry, I just fire back a shot. BUICED is a great liquid multivitamin product that gives you 100 percent daily value of the entire spectrum of vitamins.

What has been the major stepping stone or hurdle you’ve had to overcome with running your business?

As with any entrepreneurial venture, the biggest stepping stone or hurdle is simply getting off the ground! It took me 15 months from when I came up with the idea of BUICED, to then launching the website and getting into the marketplace. The good thing is, with the technology available these days via the Internet, and simply the ability to create your own distribution platform online as a sales channel, it enabled me to launch a consumer products brand that would have never been possible as little as 10 years ago. By taking advantage of sites like ShipStation, I was able to fill in the gaps for functions that would have normally required complex and costly business infrastructure. Now that I am off the ground, it is a matter of continuing to fine tune my systems and processes in order to make a small operation as efficient as a large operation, so that scaling the business is simply a matter of growing the customer base and spreading the awareness of the product. This is where you MUST have PASSION for what you are doing, otherwise it will get to be overwhelming even with all the tools and assets that are now at our disposal.

How has ShipStation helped you with your business?

Honestly, and this could not be any more true, but ShipStation has truly been a lifesaver for me when it comes to solving my biggest problem that I was nervous about, and that was what the heck happens once people order the product, and how are we going to ship it out to them without having to do everything manually! On the day we launched, to be honest we did not expect many orders to come in because we basically did a soft launch through social media, but surprisingly they did! We received almost 30 orders on the very first day, and I have to say we were not prepared for this at all with the proper system. We initially started with another system, but it was not much more advanced than if we manually cut & paste the order information into either USPS.com or our UPS.com account. After the 5th order, I knew there had to be a better way, and was told to check out SS. The rest–as you say–is history, because we quickly adapted to the platform, started using SS, and we ended up fulfilling the remaining 25 orders from that day faster than we did the first 5! Now THAT is what I call adding value when it comes to a 3rd party service!

What’s your favorite ShipStation feature?

Personally, my favorite feature is the Shipping Calculator, and the ability to quickly and effectively compare what it will costs to ship different weight packages to different parts of the world. Right now we are selling a 1-Pack, 2-Pack, 3-Pack, and 12-Pack, each weighing increasing amounts obviously. What I find fascinating is that depending on the size/weight of the order, and where in the world it is going, we end up being able to see what is the most cost effective way to ship EACH individual order, versus going with a one size fits all system. This alone has saved us a ton of money, because of the ability to check this quickly with the calculator!

Ray Doustdar

For me, ShipStation completely enhanced my productivity as well as it took away any stress when it came to shipping, tracking, and simply rounding out my customer experience!