Funidelia: Happy Delivery – Magical Moments

Outfits for carnival, birthdays or theme parties? Funidelia has it all at just at a click of a button.

Funidelia is the B2C brand of its parent company Funiglobal. The company was founded in 2011, when Carlos Larraz (CEO) and Toño Escartín (Business Development Manager) discovered a niche in the market for a European costume provider, noting that some of their friends imported costumes from the United States paying fees and high freight.

Starting with Spain, Larraz and Escartín launched their strategy to become a company with a high volume of transactions, an essential requirement to succeed in a niche sector. Soon the couple focused on expanding to other European markets and taking advantage of key dates to boost their sales.

In 2017 Funiglobal has been rated by the Financial Times as one of the Top 100 innovative and fast growing companies in Europe. With its B2C brand Funidelia serves today more than two million customers in 32 countries across the globe.

“In a normal month, Funidelia registers on more than 9,000 transactions; these figures skyrocket during peak sales periods. On Halloween, for example, sales rose 344%, while in the Carnival season they saw 789% growth in transactions.”

“We want to accompany every customer with every party they plan to celebrate. Every day Funiglobal ships thousands of orders and we put great emphasis on a top service so we can be close to our customers”, says Alejandro Jimenez Trobat, Logistics Manager at Funiglobal.

Shipping and delivery are a central part of the customer experience

Whether it is the carnival in Lucerne or Basel or just a theme party the buyers are looking for something appealing from a wide selection of costumes just at the time they need it. In delivery terms this translates to simplicity, speedy delivery and a convenient and transparent service.

In search to support its international growth Funiglobal’s logistics team has teamed up with crossborder experts of Swiss Post to streamline their Swiss e-commerce traffic and provide a true local experience that is in line with its service proposition and customer experience.

Funiglobal’s ultimate goal: to make online shopping towards Swiss customers as local, as simple and as reliable as possible. Not always an easy task for foreign merchants have to overcome longer transport distances day by day. On top of that Switzerland is known for its customs complexity.

Previously, Funiglobal was collaborating with an international carrier with a global network that was lacking the local touch in service that customers had been demanding. Hence, essential elements such as easy access for customers and customer proximity via a dense infrastructure and high number of PUDO (Pick up Drop Off locations) were missing. Another drawback aspect for Funiglobal was the utilization of a single customs clearance process that had resulted in inconvenient additional fees to pay for the end customer upon delivery. Further, there was no possibility to claim back a customs refund and VAT for Funiglobal for exported goods.

The overall consequence resulted in a less convenient service to customers creating purchase barriers and economic disadvantages for Funiglobal.

“Despite our international offering we realized we were providing a service component that was not appealing enough to Swiss customers needs. We simply didn’t know what was “normal” for Swiss customers. On top of that we were losing money paid on customs with every return coming back to Spain”, recalls logistics expert Mr Alejandro Jimenez Trobat.

Happy Delivery - Magical Moments

Today, Swiss Post’s crossborder solution handles the entire end-to-end eCommerce supply chain for deliveries to Switzerland. A solution that encompasses elements such pick up from the central warehouse in France, French export clearance and Swiss import, last mile distribution and reverse logistics incl VAT & customs reimbursement.

Communication to Swiss Post is simplified via a single point of contact for the whole Swiss supply chain.

To remove frictions and increase convenience for end customers on delivery Swiss Post introduced a DDP bulk clearance for Funiglobal. Via this method Funiglobal was able to save on customs fees and Funiglobal customers no longer experienced the negative surprise of paying extra fees out of their pocket.

Previously Funiglobal could only refund customers once a return has arrived in the French warehouse. This process had been inconvenient for the end customers as they had to wait more than two weeks to get their money back. With the new process Swiss Post allowed Funiglobal via daily registration reports to speed up the refund process.

To attract more customers Funiglobal also enabled payment via Postfinance, an institution with more than 2.5 mio account holders in Switzerland.

“Switzerland is a market of primary importance to Funiglobal. With the help of Swiss Post we are able to be at customer’s door with 48 hours and have been able to tailor our eCommerce service proposition to local needs while saving money through new features e.g. the customs and VAT refund process. Through Swiss Post our customers can now benefit from speedy and convenient services such as the highest number access points in Switzerland, flexible in-flight options and easy free return collections through services such as pick@home. As a global etailer these are the services we need to be close to our Swiss customers.” - Alejandro Jimenez Trobat, Funiglobal

Ready for Growth

Funiglobal welcomes the cooperation with Swiss Post a local expert of profound eCommerce expertise on the Swiss market.

Mr Jimenez Trobat further explains

“Thanks to Swiss Post’s local know-how and speedy project execution we can now deliver our Swiss customers a high level quality, simplicity paired with reliable and convenient service. These are the cornerstones in delivery that help us to increase market penetration and build longer lasting relationships.