Endicia

BabyAge.com

One-Stop Shop for Parents and Parents-To-Be!

BabyAge.com

BabyAge.com is the premiere online retailer of pregnancy, juvenile, and toddler products. Boasting the largest selection of high-quality, brand-name strollers, car seats, cribs, baby bedding, furniture, and toys on the Internet, BabyAge.com is a one-stop shopping source for parents and parents-to-be. After searching for the best web-based Application Programming Interface (API) to meet its needs, Endicia’s Label Server became BabyAge.com’s one-stop shipping and fulfillment solution.

Background  

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, BabyAge.com is now in its tenth year of providing customers with a large selection of brand-name baby essentials at competitive prices. Shoppers can find everything from car seats to diapers at BabyAge.com, with most items available for immediate shipment. BabyAge.com also offers customers a variety of proprietary products via the Today’s Baby, Today’s Mom, and Today’s Tot product lines. These high-quality lines feature cribs, pregnancy pillows, and toy drum sets and are only available at BabyAge.com. Top sellers include the new baby essentials—car seats, strollers, baby gear, and cribs. BabyAge.com has also enjoyed success with toy and gift items over the past few years. The company’s most popular brands include Britax, Little Tikes, Step 2, and Graco.

In May 2009, BabyAge.com was recognized by Internet Retailer Magazine as number 280 of the Top 500 Web sites in the United States based on Annual Sales Revenues, and ranked number 31 in the Top 500 Specialty and Non-apparel Category. BabyAge.com has also been featured in a variety of publications, and its executive management speaks and presents regularly at industry events.

Jack Outside

Endicia's Role

BabyAge.com first learned of Endicia through Graco, a brand of baby products owned by the parent company Newell Rubbermaid. As Endicia is also owned by Newell Rubbermaid, the established partnership with Graco helped to increase BabyAge.com’s confidence in Endicia when finalizing their decision on a shipping solution. BabyAge.com was looking for a reliable provider of a service which would assist in reaching as many customers as possible. Using Endicia’s technology and the US Postal Service meant the company could cost-effectively ship small items and deliver product to APO/FPO addresses and rural locations not traditionally serviced by standard ground carriers.

As President and Co-Founder of BabyAge.com, Jack Kiefer oversees new business development and is instrumental in implementing new technologies and strategic improvements. When deciding on a reliable shipping solution, Jack states,

“Endicia Label Server basically sold itself. The technology was able to save the company money and allow us to efficiently reach more customers than we were able to before.”

BabyAge Warehouse

Since BabyAge.com was already driven by state of the art technology, integration with Endicia Label Server was quick and easy. It took the company about one week to implement and required little or no maintenance from then on. “Support provided by Endicia was great and everything was transitioned within a short time,” says Jack Kiefer. BabyAge.com uses in-house proprietary software in conjunction with Endicia. With Label Server, labels print automatically, without human intervention, from one physical warehouse. It’s a streamlined label generation process with no data entry required. Since Label Server’s implementation, response time to retrieve a shipping label image has significantly improved. The company’s fulfillment department also utilizes a full-zone shipping application that determines the best method, route, and carrier to ship an order prior to printing the complete shipping label with tracking and postage.

Offering additional shipping options with the US Postal Service has enabled BabyAge.com to reach a larger customer audience. Also, BabyAge.com has found shipping small, lightweight products, such as bottles and Halloween costumes, more cost effective using the USPS. As shipping expenses are the company’s single largest expenditure, the savings achieved using Endicia’s Label Server have been exceptionally significant and beneficial. The company has also taken advantage of Endicia’s useful features, such as Stealth (hidden) Postage. The ability to hide the postage value on shipping labels has reduced customer inquiries concerning the shipping costs of their order. BabyAge.com also benefits from free USPS shipping supplies. The same free, flat-rate box received from the USPS would otherwise cost the company approximately $0.35 each. During peak shipping months, that equates to a $1,750 per month savings in just boxes alone.

Jack Kiefer summarizes the company’s experience with Endicia:

“To be successful, it’s important to remain on the cutting edge of technology. At BabyAge.com, we constantly look for ways to improve. By implementing Endicia’s software, we are able to grow our business by reaching more customers in the most efficient manner.”

BabyAge Computer

The Future

Plans for BabyAge.com’s future include building on its Today’s Tot toy product line by producing play kitchens and dollhouses. Additionally, the Today’s Baby furniture line will also be developed further to include items such as changing tables and dressers. There is even a possibility to expand and develop the company’s warehouse in order to increase its product offerings. BabyAge.com plans to build its customer base with both new and repeat shoppers. By remaining in touch with consumer trends, the company is able to offer the most desirable products at the most competitive prices. Overall, the baby vertical is fairly “recession resistant,” and BabyAge.com anticipates that its business model will lead to future success.

To learn more about BabyAge.com, visit www.BabyAge.com.