How Canary Expanded to 15 Countries, While Rapidly Scaling Retail and DTC Channels
Canary co-founder and CEO, Adam Sager, was returning home from vacation with his family when he realized he had no idea what had happened while they were out. There could have been a fire, a burglary, or a burst pipe, and his family would have been helpless. That feeling of helplessness spurred the idea for an all-in-one product that could keep people connected to home through a smartphone app. Canary was born.
Canary has a clear design advantage over most competitors. This is backed up by a shelf full of awards from the International Forum (iF), Red Dot, Fast Company and others. However, the biggest differentiator lies in the customer experience across hardware, software and services. Instead of aggressive marketing tactics that play to someone’s fears, Canary is centered around a simple concept — giving meaningful information about what happens at home, and empowering people to take action.
How Flexible Fulfillment Helps Scalability
Launched in United States retail, in April 2015, Canary grew rapidly. Within 15 months the company had distribution at top-tier retailers across 15 countries. Sales growth was supported by highly-engaged users, checking the app more than three times per day, and using Canary to solve a broad range of needs: from protecting home to staying connected to loved ones, and often four-legged loved ones.
Jim Franz, Head of Supply Chain at Canary, says the biggest challenge the company has faced has been managing growth.
“The company has expanded rapidly over the last three years, but progress rarely occurs in a straight line,” he said. “DCL Logistics provided the flexibility and expertise we needed to accommodate our ongoing evolution.”
How to Juggle Rapid Growth in Both Retail and DTC Channels
Canary’s current focus is primarily on brick-and-mortar retail, with ecommerce and direct sales growing rapidly. These are supplemented by a few key relationships with strategic business and marketing partners. Jim says, going forward, the team at Canary expects the mix to remain the same, even as it grows to accommodate new partners in the United States and abroad.
Working with an experienced 3PL with both retail and direct-to-consumer experience is key to Canary’s success in the market. It’s rare that a fulfillment provider specializes in managing fulfillment to retailers, and can also shift attention to growing direct-to-consumer orders as well.
Finding Fulfillment That Fits
“As a new company shipping hardware for the first time, particularly as a company that had already pre-sold more than 15,000 units, choosing the right logistics partner was absolutely crucial to our business,” Jim said.
“We conducted a formal RFP process and took care to be as thorough as possible in our search. After reviewing a number of options, it was clear that DCL Logistics was the right fit — not just for our launch, but for the planned evolution of our business.”
DCL Logistics is known to work with brands from the startup phase to global distribution. Canaray is no differnt. Jim continued, “DCL has grown their support right alongside us as we’ve expanded from a few hundred to tens of thousands of retail doors across not only the U.S., but Canada, Europe and beyond. There are very few companies that do everything DCL can do, especially for startups. Throughout all of our changes, DCL has rolled with us and proven their ability to deliver every time.”
More About Canary Product Development
Jim says the future for Canary involves continued expansion. The company now has multiple product offerings, including bundled packs that offer out-of-the-box solutions for different types of environments. These are currently being rolled out across various international regions. In addition, Jim says Canary will continue to have an unwavering focus on discovering and delivering new ways to keep families connected through hardware, software and services. Jim says he looks to DCL Logistics to help with continued support as Canary scales from startup to mature company.
To learn more about Canary, visit https://canary.is.
