Biggar and Leith is a wine, spirits, and fancy goods company that sells popular brands like the Hotel Starlino aperitivos and Casa Firelli hot sauce. Their dedication to craftsmanship and eye for excellence helped them curate such successful and well-loved brands.

Casa Firelli sells a rich, rounded Italian hot sauce that gives a delicious kick to any dish. Their hot sauce is crafted in Parma with balsamic vinegar from Modena, chilis from Calabria, and roasted red peppers from Tuscany. Their quality ingredients and unique family recipe make their products a hit on any pizza, pasta, sandwich, eggs, or even in a cocktail.

This versatile hot sauce is a hit with foodies, and as the company grew, they needed to tap into outsourced logistics services like prep and fulfillment to meet higher demand. We spoke with Casa Firelli Sales Director Matt Herman to learn why they chose MyFBAPrep and how they use MyFBAPrep services and expertise to grow their business.

From daily drives to USPS, to headache-free ops

“MyFBAPrep was the most professional.” – Matt Herman, Casa Firelli Sales Director

Before MyFBAPrep, the Firelli team handled pack and prep out of a storage unit and drove to USPS every day. They knew their manual processes wouldn’t hold up as they grew, and they needed to outsource to increase efficiency.

They considered other warehouses around the U.S., but selected MyFBAPrep ultimately because they were the most professional, with all of the locations and services required.

Today, Casa Firelli and other Biggar and Leith teams use MyFBAPrep to handle all of their eCommerce orders, whether it’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) prep and fulfillment with their Shopify store, or FBA prep and delivery into the Amazon FBA network.

Investing in D2C

“We wanted to provide our products where people want to buy them. We’re seeing some good growth now, but initially, we invested a lot more in D2C than we got out of it — so we’re glad the prices you charge are fair.” – Matt Herman, Casa Firelli Sales Director

Casa Firelli pays close attention to what their consumers want, and they noticed buyers were increasingly looking to purchase directly from brands rather than marketplaces.

Armed with this knowledge, they decided to invest in their own D2C website. This introduced numerous benefits for both the brand and their buyers:

1. Casa Firelli could own the customer relationship, including all marketing and communications. This makes their business and revenue more resilient.
2. They created a sales channel that wasn’t subject to shifting marketplace SLAs, or always at the mercy of marketplace rules. This maintains consistent sales within their control.
3. They were able to tailor the purchasing journey on their website, providing a better, more branded buyer experience.
4. They optimized their website for upsells (e.g., with bundles) and eliminated competition from the equation (whereas marketplaces are optimized for purchase, be it from you or a competitor).

Tip: Are you looking to start selling D2C? Most merchants find their biggest barrier to entry is customer acquisition, as websites (unlike marketplaces) don’t come with existing audiences. Check out our article on D2C customer acquisition to learn about the components of a robust acquisition strategy and nine channels to start with.

White glove MyFBAPrep experience

“We’ve gotten offers from other prep companies as we’ve grown, and I’ve just told them no…I like working with MyFBAPrep.” – Matt Herman, Casa Firelli Sales Director

At MyFBAPrep, customer service isn’t simply another item to cross off our to-do list. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, which means we take the time to learn about each of our sellers’ businesses to find the best setup and help them grow.

Thanks to this, Matt has already recommended MyFBAPrep to some of his entrepreneur friends who started their own snack brands, and even their broker!

Tapping into MyFBAPrep’s expertise on demand

“We use MyFBAPrep to fulfill all of our eCommerce orders, whether it’s pack/prep/ship on Shopify or a product we’re selling on Amazon. And we also use the team for helpful advice from time to time.” – Matt Herman, Casa Firelli Sales Director

The MyFBAPrep team has decades of experience as eCommerce sellers, consultants and advisors. When you work with us, you get your very own personal strategy team at your fingertips.

In true partnership fashion, the MyFBAPrep team was there to answer all of Matt’s questions about logistics, different sales channels, and anything else. Matt notes that Tom, a MyFBAPrep co-founder with extensive eCommerce experience, is “super easy to get a hold of whenever I need him.”

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