How Unified Manufacturing connected fulfillment with ChannelDock

“We’re literally saving hundreds of hours a month that we can put towards getting more clients.”

Unified Manufacturing, based in downtown Los Angeles, provides back-end logistics for independent musicians and record labels. Before ChannelDock, fulfillment was a set of systems that did not talk to each other. There was no real fulfillment system, and one person held most of the operational knowledge.

The challenge

James went looking for software when it was clear the stack was broken. As a small business, having one person in control of all that information was a risk. Unified Manufacturing needed a system clients could use themselves, with white labeling, and an integration path into the tools they already ran — especially ShipStation.

US vendors were not willing to sit alongside ShipStation the way the operation needed. ChannelDock was. After speaking with the founder, the decision was straightforward: flexible, quick to integrate, and willing to adapt the product.

What changed for the business

• ShipStation connected quickly, and became something ChannelDock works alongside rather than a system the team has to fight.
• Switching invoicing from euro to dollar was handled within a day.
• Shopify reports turn into customer invoices automatically, including each client’s own shipping costs and setup.
• James estimates the invoice and reporting work cut accounting time by about 80%.

That time goes back into winning clients. Unified Manufacturing is also opening overseas, working with warehouse partners worldwide. ChannelDock is the place those locations connect, and the place clients stay updated without someone doing it by hand.

“Without ChannelDock, there was no chance we’d be able to do that.”

On the warehouse floor

“Having everything automated from start to finish is a game changer.”

Adam has run warehouse operations at Unified Manufacturing for about four years. Before ChannelDock, he says about 80% of the operation lived in his head. Everything had to come through him, and switching off after work was difficult.

Day to day is now a smoother inbound flow. Labels for picking and manufacturing print from one place, through to shipment. Colleagues pull their own work and only come to Adam when something is actually stuck. That frees him for the harder problems.

During onboarding, questions were answered immediately, including requests he was not sure he had until the same day. ChannelDock pulls orders in instead of Adam searching through dozens of ecommerce sites in ShipStation. A print program other vendors could not connect was running within 36 to 48 hours.

“I would have liked to have had it four years ago, when I started. It would have given us a strong foundation instead of playing catch-up.”