CASE STUDY of Bella Viva Orchards
Bella Viva Orchards goes with HandiFox to minimize shipping errors and maximize fulfillment personnel productivity
Background: Bella Viva Orchards
Bella Viva Orchards is a family-owned and -operated business that grows, harvests, and dries fruits in the heart of the most productive fruit-growing region in the world.
Growing on a family farm, Victor always had a soft spot for dried fruit and occasionally dried a certain amount of it for personal use, which by the time he got married gave his wife an idea to start selling. They named the company after their daughters, Belle and Vivian, who from an early age contributed to their parents’ life’s work. The Martino family, Victor and Angela, have been developing and honing their proprietary dehydration technology since the late 80s and ended up leading the production of natural additive-free dried fruits, selling their products nationwide.
“Growing the fruit that we dry and market enables us to have complete control over the fruit quality from the initial growing phase on through the final packaging and delivery.”
Elliot Gage, Technical Solutions Consultant at Bella Viva Orchards
The challenge
For 3 years their internet sales channel sales kept growing significantly through consistent delivery of their high-quality product to new and existing customers. At the time, they were managing their internet retail inventory with QuickBooks Enterprise, while doing manual counts on inventory sheets. Somewhere along the line, the owners’ concerns about order fulfillment/shipping errors started growing.
“We needed a way to send the right products to the right customers in a fool-proof way. Our old system involved checking off hard copy pick slips then generating packing slips/invoices and labels with a shipping/accounting integration solution from Webgility. Minimizing shipping errors was key as well as increasing our fulfillment personnel productivity.”
The solution
HandiFox tied into Bella Viva’s existing fulfillment processes perfectly. The company would go with Webgility for taking orders from the website and sending them over to QuickBooks Desktop - that's where HandiFix would step in.
The orders now can be picked and packed, in batches if necessary, using a handheld device with barcoding scanning. Every single order is checked twice which ensures the right items get to the right customer.
“We had explored options in the past that would have required significant rework of our accounting backend with a significant dollar investment as well. Handifox was selected because it fit our current operations, we didn't have to alter our procedures much; the flow just worked.”
Bella Viva Orchards have been using the HandiFox software since October 2020. It took the company one month to transition to HandiFox. The warehouse personnel emphasize that the software is very easy to use.
Key benefits
- Automating inventory auditing, order fulfillment/shipping
- Using barcode scanning for speed and as an extra layer of validation
- Updating quantities takes seconds as opposed to manual lookup and entry on an inventory sheet
- Smooth work in trio with QuickBooks Desktop and Webgility, no need to uproot current processes
What’s next for Bella Viva Orchards?
Bella Viva Orchards are proud to run a sustainable business and be putting healthier choices on shelves. To continue expanding and making their superb product to a wider market, they stay committed to continuous process improvement for quality, quantity, and process efficiency.
Case Study Bella Viva Orchards (PDF)
