Introduction

BROWN GIRL Jane is a plant-based wellness and beauty collection set on a mission to make self-care accessible and luxurious. The Black- and women-owned business—the founders, all graduates of Spelman College—aims to create a community around their wellness products. 

Wellness with a purpose becomes a necessity

The company was founded right before the pandemic, which illuminated a shift in buying patterns. CEO and Founder Malaika Jones stated, “Wellness moved from a nice-to-have to a must-have.” As a new-to-the-market beauty brand, the founders embraced community elements and purposely work to highlight racial disparities and support Black-owned businesses. The company continued to grow through innovative partnerships with brands such as Birchbox and Unilever, further propelling the company into the limelight. 

Increased awareness brought an exciting time for BROWN GIRL Jane: more press and more orders meant a large amount of lost packages. Morgan Dewberry, Head of Operations, recalls that period being difficult. “I was spending up to several hours every day tracking down lost packages. Then, I’d go back to the fulfillment center and play a waiting game.” Resolution could take upwards of a week and Morgan, responsible for customer service, knew this wasn’t an ideal situation. 

Morgan would act as a liaison between fulfillment centers, the carrier, and her customers. The team knew If the package was located and heading back to a center, they would send out a new one, usually attached with a promotional code for the long wait. Providing an optimal customer experience was cutting into costs, and with quite a few lost packages, it was not very sustainable for a growing business.

BROWN GIRL Jane adds seamless security with Route

As the company expanded, the team knew it needed a change in order to successfully scale. BROWN GIRL Jane switched its operations to a new fulfillment center, which lowered the amount of lost packages. Secondly, the team partnered with Route to alleviate time spent on tracking items down and filing claims. “Route is a money-saver. I don’t have to do so much manual work and it acts as its own shipping department that we can rely on,” Morgan explains. Utilizing Route for package protection lets Morgan be hands-off and she no longer has to track down anything. 

“Route protects us. It’s almost like our security blanket.”

Route functions as BROWN GIRL Jane’s support. “Route protects us. It’s almost like our security blanket,” says Morgan. “We now have very few inquiries and a large percentage of our customers add Route protection at checkout.” Most online shoppers have grappled with lost, damaged, or stolen packages before. Route’s low cost coupled with its priceless peace of mind has made customers feel more comfortable than ever ordering items. Plus, with Route, the support team is granted more time to focus on other customer support concerns, allowing the team to maintain its current head count even with a large increase in business. 

Morgan, relying on Route’s Track and Protect features, no longer has to manually research and communicate about orders. She has been able to hire someone to head up customer service. This allowed her to focus more on the operations side of the business; inventory, sales and living up to BROWN GIRL Jane’s passion of creating products and a community centered around women’s wellness.