Scaling E-commerce with Hunt A Killer
How Cuttlesoft helped “Hunt A Killer” ditch Shopify and grow subscriptions with custom e-commerce and fulfillment software.
The Challenge
Hunt A Killer, a fast-growing subscription box company, faced limitations with Shopify's platform, including billing errors and a lack of customization options for their checkout. As they prepared to launch a major new apocalyptic-themed product called Earth Break, in addition to their existing products Hunt A Killer and Empty Faces, they needed a comprehensive solution to overcome these challenges and streamline their operations across multiple brands.
What we did
We delivered a comprehensive web application that seamlessly integrated with Chargebee, an off-the-shelf billing management solution, to handle subscriptions. The solution included a dynamic, universal shopping cart capable of handling multiple brands and products. In addition to managing purchases and checkout, the system handled complex logistics such as tax and shipping cost calculations, shipment notifications, and provided an administration portal for warehouse and back-office teams. This end-to-end solution streamlined operations, optimized shipping schedules, and ensured efficient product tracking and delivery.
Deliverables
- A custom-built React.js frontend application
- A backend application developed with Ruby on Rails
- Logistics and Fulfillment Dashboard for Warehouse and Admins
- Subscription and Fulfillment Management with Chargebee
- Asynchronous Order, Shipping, and Subscription Tasking with Sidekiq
Services
Web Application Development
Platforms
Heroku
Technologies
Rails
React
Sidekiq
Ditching Shopify and growing subscriptions with custom fulfillment software.
Where did he hide the bloody hatchet? How did he dispose of the gruesomely dismembered body? And which poor, unfortunate soul might be his next victim?
When you run a company that’s in the business of selling 6-month murder- mystery box game subscriptions, you have a lot more important things to worry about than a bug-riddled billing system and a wonky, un-customizable checkout page.
But that’s exactly what the fast-growing startup, Hunt a Killer found itself doing just as the product was really taking off.
“We were doing all our billing through Shopify’s plug in platform”, explained parent company Skylark Media’s Vice President of Product, Brian Thomas, “and almost daily we’d have an error where someone wasn’t being billed correctly or they had a canceled card. We couldn’t edit the checkout or thank-you page. Getting analytics was a nightmare. And, bottom line, we were losing customers over it.”
Supporting Multiple Brands and Product Lines
In addition to Hunt a Killer, Skylark Media was also marketing a paranormal mystery product called Empty Faces which was having the same problems. And compounding their worries was the fact they were about to launch a major new apocalyptic-themed product called Earth Break. They couldn’t afford to mess around with Shopify any longer.
Thomas knew the next step was building something custom, and he called Cuttlesoft.
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His wish list was a long one. Thomas wanted a system entirely built from scratch that integrated with an off-the-shelf billing management solution to handle subscriptions. But he also wanted it to function as a single universal cart to handle all three products that they could send some parameters to via URL. Additionally, he wanted the cart to brand itself as well as derive context for the product and the brand that was being purchased.
No problem!
Using Ruby on Rails, React, and Sidekiq, our solution integrates with Chargebee, Klaviyo, SmartyStreets, and ShipStation, providing Hunt A Killer with checkout management, subscription rebilling, warehouse logistics, automated marketing, and shipping notifications for a streamlined, scalable operation.
According to Thomas, “Cuttlesoft created exactly what I wanted."
"The overall deliverable at its core was a checkout page, but it was more so an entire ecosystem that they handed over where we could integrate our team and our developers into the code repository so we could hook into Cuttlesoft’s deployment platform and start bug tracking and integrating as a team to iterate the product. It’s only 3 pages, but there’s a lot behind them.”
Aligning the user experience with popular e-commerce platforms was paramount in our approach. We crafted a dynamic form that adapted to subscribers' locations, intelligently adjusting label names to match localized divisions (e.g., states and provinces) and postal codes (e.g., zip codes in the USA). This seamless integration with our shipping cost calculator ensures accurate and localized shipping rates while providing a familiar and trustworthy checkout process. Our commitment to user-centric design is further exemplified by our open-source countries.json project, which enables the creation of geographically dynamic forms.
"Cuttlesoft does an excellent job of researching and finding what clients genuinely need."
Outcomes
Today, Cuttlesoft’s unique solution is helping Hunt A Killer achieve its goal of bringing all its sub-brands together in a single stream-lined checkout and billing process. The fulfillment system flawlessly ships the correct boxes to the customers who ordered them. Killers are found. Paranormal mysteries are solved. The earth is saved. And customers keep coming back for more.
1m
Boxes
Shipped across all 3 brands; Hunt-A-Killer, Empty Faces, and Earthbreak.
2x
Subscribers
Increase in 90 days after launching the new DTC checkout process.
#6
Inc 5000
Hunt-A-Killer was #6 on Inc 5000 in 2020 after 20,485% growth!