Feature Friday: Spotlight on Jorian Sartorious (Rescue-Essentials.com)
It’s time for Feature Friday! This week, we’re featuring Jorian Sartorious, the Chief Technology Officer of Rescue-Essentials.com. Rescue-Essentials.com provides “quality custom kits for combat medics, tactical law enforcement, wilderness medics, and personnel deployed to high-threat areas.”
How many packages do you ship each day?
We ship approximately 80-100 packages, on a good day.
How many employees do you have?
We currently have 10 employees with us.
How did you decide to start selling online?
The business that Phil Carey started in 1990 (I joined in ’91) sold first-aid and medical kits to outdoor retailers (not end users). After that company sold in 2000, Phil waited until 2007, then convinced me to help with a new business venture focused on end users. Phil told me, “Jorian, it’s a new millennium, let’s try selling online!” So we did.
Selling online, we‘ve used both ProStores and Volusion in the past. We’ve also been selling on both Amazon and eBay for the last few years.
What was your process like before choosing ShipWorks?
We spent almost a year and a half in order-processing hell, trying to work with another channel integrator who promised us live inventory control through QuickBooks. It took the better part of a year to make their stuff work. They tried to activate the QuickBooks interface, and the whole system (which never worked reliably to integrate channels) basically imploded. They took thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours from us, for software we couldn’t use. It was a nightmare.
When we switched to ShipWorks, we were up and running very quickly (about 20 hours after the first download)—with very minimal help from your tech guys. It worked better than the other system on its best day, and was better designed (more intuitive, easier) and faster—it was just flat-out better.
How did you hear about ShipWorks?
About a month ago, we were looking for a new platform for our web store. I called the people at BigCommerce (among many others). The BigCommerce representative told me about ShipWorks. I looked at the ShipWorks site, talked to one of your reps, and then decided to download the “Free Trial”. [This is] something ShipWorks really does right—the trial is fully functional, which told me that you must be very confident in your product. Now I see why; you have every reason to be that confident.
What would you tell a business owner considering using ShipWorks?
ShipWorks is one of the coolest things we’ve done. We could write a whole treatise on the awesome benefits of ShipWorks and the dangers of getting involved with some other companies. If there’s any chance of helping someone else avoid the awful experience we endured, I’d be more than willing to talk to them. I’m a little bit religious about ShipWorks now!