Customer Profile
When Tweetycam started, founder Sylvain Mitault boxed orders and drove to the post office himself. But as the brand grew, so did their fulfillment needs and costs. When they initially outsourced fulfillment, their first 3PL charged $28 per shipment. They switched to a different warehouse and cut costs but quickly outgrew it.
With ShipBob, Tweetycam’s average fulfillment cost dropped to $14 per shipment, cutting costs in half from where they started, and gave them the scalable fulfillment foundation they needed.
The Australian non-Wi-Fi baby monitor brand grew from a garage operation to a team of 12 and found the space and cost savings to keep scaling with ShipBob.
Key metrics
- 50% savings in fulfillment costs
- 1 ShipBob fulfillment center, which covers shipping to all of Australia’s major metro markets
- 2-hour customer support response time
- Ships express replacement units the next day when a customer has an issue
About Tweetycam
Tweetycam started with a phone call. Founder Sylvain Mitault’s sister, a mother of two living in Brisbane, was frustrated with her baby monitor. It didn’t feel safe or like it suited her needs. Sylvain saw an opportunity to build something better: a monitor parents could trust, without the price tag or the hacking risk of Wi-Fi.
Sylvain launched Tweetycam in November 2022 as a baby monitor built on Bluetooth instead of an internet connection.
Today, Tweetycam is a family-run, Australian-designed brand known for long-range monitoring, HD night vision, and a monitor built to be as reliable as it is affordable. The brand grew almost entirely on word of mouth in its first year and has since expanded into Australian marketplaces like Chemist Warehouse. As they scaled, they needed a fulfillment partner that could keep up with their growth and fit their budget. That’s what they found in ShipBob.
Outgrowing a 3PL that couldn’t grow with the business, but finding one that could: ShipBob
As told to ShipBob by Sylvain Mitault, Founder and CEO of Tweetycam.
Tweetycam started like so many other brands: in the garage. I was writing addresses on labels myself and driving orders to the post office. By the time we hit around 300 orders per month, I knew I couldn’t keep doing it that way.
We moved to a local pack-and-send shop near my house. I liked being able to walk in and talk to someone face to face, but I was their only real client, and the price reflected it. My average cost was AUD $28 per shipment. That adds up for a growing brand.
After about seven months, we outgrew that space completely. We found a bigger warehouse on the Gold Coast, and the price dropped to around $22 per shipment. Cheaper, but still pricey at scale.
We stayed there about a year, but the same problem came back. We had too much stock and not enough space, and it felt like we were always about to hit a wall.
That’s when we started looking at ShipBob. I went to Melbourne and saw the fulfillment center in person. It was massive. I remember thinking there was no way we’d run into a storage problem there. That mattered to us. We wanted space to grow without having to think about it every few months.
And the cost made the decision easy. Our average fulfillment cost dropped from $22 to $14 per shipment. That’s a huge jump. Fulfillment was one of our highest costs, and it kept getting cheaper as we scaled, not more expensive.
“We looked at two or three fulfillment partners before choosing ShipBob. We wanted big storage, multiple carrier options so we could get the best rates, and a partner that could grow with us internationally, not just in Australia. ShipBob checked every box.”
Sylvain Mitault, Founder and CEO of Tweetycam
It’s been almost a year since we made the move. It hasn’t been without its hiccups, but I’ve learned there’s no such thing as a perfect fulfillment operation. What matters is the team on the other side and whether you can work through problems together. We’re in a good, stable place now.
Tweetycam is a team of 12 today. I’m not the one managing the warehouse relationship anymore. One person on my team owns that entirely. That shift alone tells you how much has changed as we’ve grown.
Solving the custom packaging puzzle to ensure delightful unboxing
We ship out of one ShipBob fulfillment center in Melbourne. That location covers all of Australia’s metro markets efficiently, which was exactly the strategic fit we needed.
Because our products are electronic, we didn’t want to use standard boxes. We wanted every item to fit tightly so nothing moves around in transit. If a customer opens the box and hears their camera rattling around, that’s not the experience we want to give them.
We designed a set of custom boxes, about 10 combinations, based on the different products a customer might order. It took us a while to perfect the algorithm to select the right box for the right order combination, but we worked with the ShipBob team and eventually got it right.
We also built out diagrams so the team packing orders could see exactly how each combination should be positioned. Every order gets custom Tweetycam packaging and a thank-you card. Those are small details, but I believe they’re a big part of why this brand has worked. We pay attention to the things a lot of companies skip.
Growing into marketplaces without losing the customer relationship
We got approached by Chemist Warehouse about two years into the business. That was our first marketplace partnership, and it mattered because it builds trust with people who haven’t heard of us yet. We’re now in discussions with other Australian marketplaces as well.
That said, we’re primarily a direct-to-consumer brand, and we intend to stay that way. We’ve priced our products to be affordable for parents, which means the margins don’t leave much room for wholesale. Marketplaces will always be a smaller part of our business, and we’re fine with that.
Staying close to the customer matters to us. When a customer reaches out to us directly, we reply within two hours. If there’s a genuine product issue, we ship a replacement the next day, express, before we even get the faulty unit back. Parents rely on their baby monitor every night. We don’t want anyone stuck without one. ShipBob helps us make that possible.
What’s next for Tweetycam
We’re planning to expand internationally, most likely starting next year. The order we’re considering is the UK and Canada first, with the US after that. We want to replicate exactly what’s working in Australia: ShipBob as our fulfillment partner, paired with in-house customer service.
Knowing we can expand with ShipBob into a new country using a system we already understand takes a lot of the stress out of entering a new market. That’s a big reason we’re comfortable moving forward with those plans.
We’re also investing in the product itself. We have several new products in development and a roadmap I’m genuinely excited about. Now that the fulfillment side of the business runs well, we finally have the bandwidth to focus on building them, which is the most exciting part of running this business.
*The metrics in this case study were supplied by the merchant. ShipBob makes no representations regarding their accuracy.
Tweetycam’s team at ShipBob
Neva Forbes
Neva is the Merchant Success Manager who supports Tweetycam.
James Risos
James is the Sr. Account Executive who helped Tweetycam get started with ShipBob.
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