The CBD industry is booming more than ever before, and the Oregon-based CBD purveyors at Plain Jane are leading the way. However, selling these products comes with a unique set of circumstances. Just ask Plain Jane Founder and CEO Lindsey Holthaus.
She created the brand in 2018 after struggling to source affordable, accessible cannabis in her home state of Maryland and seeing a growing trend of low-quality, overpriced CBD products flooding the market.
Now, Plain Jane sells CBD and hemp products in every form imaginable, from flower to gummies, pens to tinctures, topicals to prerolls. The market is responding to the high-quality product assortment, and Plain Jane is averaging between 200 and 500 orders a day.
As the company rides the wave of growth and looks to begin shipping internationally, they count on ShippingEasy to keep their workflow streamlined, low-cost, and… easy!
Tricky Business
Selling a product that maintains a tenuous legality in some states comes with a hefty dose of complications. While CBD is technically legal in all states, shipping certain forms of CBD, namely ones with any percentage of THC, is illegal in some, and can result in package seizures. For Lindsey, it’s all part of the job. She keeps her cool by ensuring that the parts of the job she can control, like shipping, are handled.
“As soon as we find out about a state law changing, we have to ban shipping that product to that state. There’s all these different rules for things constantly, and you just hope that you’re in compliance and do your due diligence. But you never know when the next law is going to get passed,” she says.
“It’s definitely a tricky industry to be in, so it’s really nice to have easy partners when everything else is really difficult.”
Plain Jane has been using ShippingEasy for two years, while the company tested out different selling channels before eventually landing on WooCommerce. ShippingEasy’s ability to work with multiple selling channels allowed the company to find the best one for them, and to utilize it hassle-free.
“ShippingEasy has actually been really, really easy to use,” says Lindsey.
That’s why it’s in the name!
Favorite Features
Lindsey and her team love ShippingEasy’s integrations, UI, and reliability, but there are a few key features that really make the difference for their company.
Email Tracking
“Our customers get an email as soon as they order, then they get an email when we’ve created the shipping label,” Lindsey says.
Part of great customer service is keeping the customer informed, and these emails go a long way when it comes to quelling any potential worries a customer may have about their shipment, especially given the global supply chain issues we currently face.
Updated Shipping Rates
Just as Plain Jane likes to keep their customers informed, so does ShippingEasy.
“I like that ShippingEasy gives us an update on shipping rate changes. It will say, ‘Hey these are the shipping rate changes, this is everything that you need to know.’”
Duplicate Labels
The label duplicating feature is a big time-saver for Lindsey.
“We have to create duplicate shipments a lot. ShippingEasy makes it simple. If I just need to send labels to the same person, or I send packages to our photographer, I just go in and find the name and then create a duplicate label, and I don’t have to create an order or anything. That’s really nice,” she says.
Given the large order volume the brand is beginning to see, features like these are a must for the relatively small team to stay ahead of the game.
“I don’t think that we’d be able to do it ourselves, since we are getting 200 to 500 orders a day. ShippingEasy just saves us so much time. We have two customer service agents that print labels every single morning, and they just couldn’t do it all without ShippingEasy.”
International Expansion
As if shipping CBD between states weren’t enough of a challenge. Lindsey and her team are positioning themselves to take Plain Jane across country borders in the future.
“International expansion is probably our main goal. We’re thinking Canada, Mexico, and the EU. It’s been an issue for us just because of customs and the licensing and the regulations, but it’s a goal for us.”
While Lindsey looks to the future, she is thankful to have found a shipping solution that allows her big dreams to look more like big realities every day.
