I can honestly say I’ve never seen a product quite like your unique drinking glasses! How did BenShot come to be?

We are from a small, rural farming community in Wisconsin. Hunting, alcohol, and the Green Bay Packers help us get through the cold winters. I moved to Philadelphia for work. On a trip home for the holidays, my father and I talked about ways we could work on a project together. He had been selling artwork at arts and crafts shows across the US for about 10 years, but he was getting tired of driving the long distances to art shows . So, we decided to setup an online store, I was tasked with managing the online marketing and he would make and ship the glasses. We started selling online Jan of 2016.

What are some of your own best practices that could help another growing e-commerce?

Establish a core mission for your business. That mission will help you make the tough decisions as they come. As you start to scale some, of the core mission points will get tested. We are a father and son team making “Bulletproof” glasses. A good example of a decision we had to make was to keep manufacturing in the USA. We could train glassmakers in Wisconsin or we could outsource manufacturing. We come from a small community- the jobs we create here are important. Making the glasses at our workshop adds a little complexity, but it’s vital to our core mission. Surround yourself with a strong group of people, it makes everything better.

How has ShipStation changed the way you operate your business?

ShipStation is an amazing tool. We just started our online business in Jan of 2016. We scaled from 0 packages in 2015 to nearly 13,000 in 2016. We only have one person in our shipping department! In addition to the general shipping help that ShipStation provides, there is in depth analytic tools which are as valuable as the shipping features. We tell every small business we meet to use ShipStation. There is not even a question in our mind.

What ShipStation feature has improved your workflow the most?

Batch printing labels is amazing for shipping. Automatic integration with Amazon and Squarespace is essential.
Analytic tools for end of year analysis and quick overview of total shipments and orders is incredibly valuable and I didn’t event consider it when we started using ShipStation. We are excited for 2017 with ShipStation.

Read BenShot’s complete story by clicking here. Want to be featured in our User Success spotlight? Let us know!