The Humble Co. & SPS Commerce Brands: A Success Story

Retailers were asking The Humble Co. to do EDI and the young company wanted a solution that meant minimal work for its internal team and used a subscription model for its fees. SPS Commerce Fulfillment was the answer. The full-service EDI solution provides the technology, knowledge of retailer requirements and accessible experts to keep this part of The Humble Co.’s business running smoothly. The company couldn’t slow down to learn EDI; they left it to the experts at SPS.

The Humble Co. is doing EDI with almost a dozen nationwide retailers and several logistics partners with SPS Commerce Fulfillment with 100 percent success.

Bringing Eco-Friendly Products to a New Market

The Humble Co. is creating a revolution in personal care through its innovative health and wellness products that are eco-friendly, stylish and socially responsible. The supplier began with bamboo toothbrushes and quickly grew to offer the broadest eco-friendly oral care product portfolio, including chewing gum, dental floss, toothpaste and cotton swabs.

“We entered the U.S. market in 2017 and knew the demands of the consumer and the retailer would be dramatically different than Europe,” said Jimmie Berggren, CEO of The Humble Co. (U.S.). “In our first year we signed with several grocery retailers, but in 2018 things really took off. Kroger, Target, Walgreens and many others invited us in for category reviews and most are now carrying our products. It’s an exciting time at The Humble Co.”

Adapting to Retailer Demands

“Selling products through large U.S. retailers means adapting to their requirements and being flexible,” said Berggren. “The consumer has many options. To stand out, we partnered with retailers to create unique packaging, add colors and ship smaller case packs as well as develop options for luxury and lower-cost markets. And, every retailer required EDI, which wasn’t a skillset of ours.”

With a small team of ten individuals on staff, the company didn’t want to hire a resource to do EDI or train one of their staff to become an expert. Instead, Jimmie looked for a partner that would manage the complexities and daily operations on their behalf.

“Our team needed to remain nimble and focused on new product innovation and distribution, not EDI,” explained Berggren. “SPS was the perfect fit as they made onboarding with retailers easy, has the staff to ensure that implementation was flawless and their pricing scales to grow as we do. SPS is an extremely valuable part of our company!”

Nothing Stopping Their Growth

With EDI operations managed by SPS, The Humble Co.’s team has also added a third-party logistics provider (3PL) to manage the company’s warehousing and shipping needs. With a growing number of retailers already selling their products, and more coming on board in 2019, the company is developing a scalable infrastructure to support them and their customers today and tomorrow.

“Our vision is to be everywhere from dollar stores to grocery chains to independent stores,” said Berggren. “We want to replace plastics with eco-friendly options to grow our business and accelerate the mission of our Humble Smile Foundation that has already provided oral health care products and preventative oral care to more than 80,000 children. We are relying on SPS to help us meet our goal.”