Customer stories : Absolute Snow

What started as an idea in a garage flourished into a snowboarding gear empire. Absolute Snow, one of Parcelforce’s loyal customers, was originally launched in 2004 as Bargain Boards, and the same managing director (and owner of said garage) continues to run the business today.

Matt Pyne-Gilbert, general manager at Absolute Snow, has been chatting to us about the evolution of the store and how transformative it’s been to have partners such as Parcelforce Worldwide on hand to support the logistical side of the business. According to Matt, the brand is always looking to expand into new areas. ‘We send out skis, poles, snowboards, snowboard bags – the list goes on. We hope to get a handle on other areas of the outdoor market too. In five years’ time, we hope to be selling more globally.’

A major consideration for eCommerce brands is delivering orders, the courier you choose potentially making or breaking your relationship with customers. Matt says, ‘When we started looking for a delivery company to support us as we grew, it was important for us to be able to understand the services and pricing structure, and for the carrier to be completely transparent as we had been caught out by higher than expected invoices from our previous carrier.’

As well as failing to turn up to collect the day’s shipments, the team’s former delivery partner was also misplacing customer addresses, meaning they lost a lot of confidence in the reliability of their service. At the time, Absolute Snow was also encountering a number of problems with customs clearance, and one month saw every single international shipment returned to them by customs. But here’s where Parcelforce stepped in.

‘Our international sales consultant at Parcelforce Worldwide, Andrew Cassels, gave us invaluable advice on creating the necessary customs paperwork,’ says Matt. ‘I had no idea about export tariff codes until I spoke to Andrew, and the automatic generation of the necessary customs paperwork and labels make it all so much easier!’

For Matt, the overseas integration between Parcelforce and local postal and delivery organisations was another big plus. ‘Our customer services team used to spend a lot of time liaising between the carrier and the customer when a delivery hadn’t been made at their home address, so having the option to deliver to a local Post Office in the UK is really helpful.’

By opening a business account with Parcelforce Worldwide, you could manage your deliveries more efficiently and receive access to our full range of tracking tools. Choose from a wide selection of options tailored to your individual needs and start taking advantage of our fast, reliable courier services today.