Shipcloud also supports us with international shipping
First of all, congratulations: From company to company in the Hamburg warehouse district, where Shipcloud is located near the Rebelle headquarters. The European full-service online marketplace for designer second-hand fashion is celebrating its 8th anniversary and sends hundreds of packages with bags, clothing, shoes, accessories and jewelery from well-known designers to over 30 countries every day.
In the beginning there is the idea
In short, business is good. And that because of a business idea that started in a Berlin basement, that of the parental home of founder Cécile Wickmann. There were a few boxes piled up with fashion enthusiasts’ once-beloved clothes and accessories. In her new job in particular, she has neither the time nor nerves to sell at the flea market. When researching the Internet, she and her co-founder Max Schönemann were unable to find an adequate sales service that would help them and other private customers to conveniently sell well-maintained items of clothing.
A start-up company is born
So both decided to found StyleRemains GmbH together in March 2013 and launch www.rebelle.com at the end of August, their own online marketplace for second-hand designer fashion. This runs with shop software developed in-house on the basis of Ruby on Rails, which can be adapted in-house over the years – in line with increasing sales. So far everything is fine, but with the growth Rebelle repeatedly reached its limits when it came to shipping. That was in 2017. DHL announced once again that it would switch off the local EasyLog shipping software. “We wanted more flexibility and better centralization of our shipments. And in the course of internationalization, the idea of connecting several carriers came up. So we were looking for a central shipping interface,” says Max Schönemann, describing the situation at the time.
The chemistry is right
They found what they were looking for at Shipcloud and the chemistry was right from the start: “The cooperation was very professional and close, with quick feedback and good solutions. During the integration, parallels kept coming to light. We are simply two start-ups that are no longer quite so small, who are developing together,” says Schönemann, characterizing the collaboration.
– Max Schönemann , co-founder of Rebelle
The tracking solution in particular is an important aid in being able to give customers automated status updates on their shipments. “This is very important for us because we deliver to 30 countries, including the USA. 65 percent of all transactions at Rebelle are transnational. That means, for example, a seller from Italy sells to a buyer from Germany or a customer from the UK buys a designer piece from a seller from Spain,” says Max Schönemann. Shipping within Germany is still done with DHL, for international shipping and express shipping – also to the USA – the Hamburg company relies on UPS and Fedex. His credo regarding Shipcloud:
“If you are looking for a flexible shipping solution with easy integration in online retail, you have come to the right place!”
