Summary

Got Bag came to us mid-problem: delayed retail shipments, inconsistent warehouse coordination and vendor compliance failures piling up across accounts. We took over imports, rebuilt retail compliance and structured returns. Fulfillment volume grew 4x in the first year.

The situation

Got Bag makes sustainable bags from recovered ocean plastic and had built real international recognition. North American demand was accelerating across both direct-to-consumer and major retail.

The logistics underneath it had stopped keeping up, and the failures were the visible kind.

Shipments were arriving late. Warehouse coordination was inconsistent. Vendor compliance problems were showing up across multiple retail accounts, which is the point where a brand stops being a growth story to a retailer and starts being a risk.

Four things were colliding.

Global imports with moving parts. Ocean freight, customs clearance and shifting tariffs made inbound timing and cost hard to predict, which made everything downstream hard to plan.

Two channels with opposite requirements. DTC needs speed and flexibility. Retail needs routing guide compliance, labeling standards and delivery windows hit exactly. Running both off one operation means the workflows have to branch.

Retailer confidence already damaged. Recovering from compliance failures is harder than avoiding them, because you're now being watched.

Returns that had to match the brand. For a sustainability-led brand, the returns experience is part of what customers bought.

What we did

Took over import operations. Ocean freight coordinated, with customs documentation and tariff planning centralized, so inbound timing became something the brand could plan around rather than react to.

Built warehousing to serve both channels. Retail shipments to routing guide spec with correct pallet configurations, labeling and ASNs. DTC processed at volume with speed. Same building, separate workflows.

Rebuilt vendor compliance account by account. Worked directly with retail partners on documentation, labeling and delivery scheduling to hit every window. That's what reduced chargebacks and rejected shipments, and it's what rebuilt the relationships.

Structured returns to match the brand. Returned items inspected, processed and put back into sellable inventory where they qualified, with the experience consistent with the brand's customer service standards.

Results

Fulfillment volume grew 4x in year one, with delivery precision improving rather than degrading as volume rose.

Retail partners regained confidence through consistent compliance execution across shipments.

Import and tariff management centralized, giving visibility into inbound timing and cost that supported planning for retail launches.

DTC matured into faster fulfillment with consistent branded packaging and a structured returns process.

One coordinated operation replaced a fragmented set of providers.

"They didn't just fix fulfillment, they built a system that gave us room to grow. Every retail window, every DTC shipment, every import, executed with precision and care."

Case Davis, VP of Logistics and Supply Chain, Got Bag

Why this one matters

Growing 4x is impressive. Growing 4x while recovering from compliance failures is the harder thing, and it's the part worth paying attention to.

Most operational recoveries stall because the brand tries to fix the visible problem (late shipments) without addressing why shipments were late. Here the cause was upstream: import timing nobody could predict, which meant inventory arrived when it arrived, which meant retail windows were missed.

Centralizing imports fixed the retail problem, even though they look like separate functions. That's the argument for one operation holding freight, fulfillment and compliance together rather than three providers each holding a piece.

Questions this raises

Can you recover a retail relationship after compliance failures? It takes consistent execution over time rather than a single clean shipment. Retailers who have been let down apply more scrutiny, so the standard is higher than it would have been originally.

Do you manage ocean freight and customs? We coordinate international freight inbound to our facilities including ocean shipments and delivery from port.

How do you run DTC and retail from one operation? Separate workflows drawing from one inventory pool. Retail orders follow routing guide requirements for labeling, pallet configuration and appointment scheduling. DTC orders are built for speed.

What causes vendor compliance failures? Labels that don't match spec, ASNs late or not matching what arrived, deliveries outside the booked window, and pallet configurations outside requirement. Each retailer publishes its own rules.

Can returns be handled without damaging the brand experience? Yes, and for brands where returns are part of the customer relationship it matters. Items are inspected, processed and restocked where they qualify, with disposition rules set by the brand.

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