How the Co-founder of an eCommerce Business Automates Contacts, Invoices, and Orders

Our stories explore how Zapier's users build unique solutions to common problems. From marketers to CEOs, educators to real estate agents, millions use Zapier to automate their most tedious tasks. If you haven't yet, try Zapier for free to see what we're all about.

Repetition might make you an expert, but it can also drive you crazy. Before they discovered app automator Zapier, the team at Glo—the liquid-activated light cube for your drinks—had to repeat a lot of their work to keep their systems in sync.

"We were entering the same information at least three times into three different systems, which was just so wasteful" Hagan Walker, Glo co-founder, says.

Now, they save two hours—every day—with automated workflows.

About Glo

Born from tinkering on the floor with some hot glue, electronic components, toothbrush protector, and a bit of soldering, Hagan Walker created Glo in partnership with Mississippi State University. Hagan created a cube that lights up your drink without the need for switches or buttons; once a liquid hits Glo, the drink gets a splash of color.

Endorsed by Tipsy Bartender, Glo offers both wholesale and individual orders—complete with options for customizing the cubes. Managing their eCommerce orders quickly and efficiently makes all the difference for the small Glo team.

Create and Manage ShipStation Orders from Wave Invoices

If you run an eCommerce business like Glo, you know how quickly order fulfillment complicates, especially if your tools don't talk to each other. That was the situation Hagan found himself in when Glo first started.

When they received a new order, Hagan and the team copied the order information into three separate platforms. First, they'd create an invoice in Wave, an accounting app. Next, they'd build the order in ShipStation, where they could manage shipping. Finally, they'd make a contact and deal in Freshworks CRM, a customer relationship manager.

That's a lot of manual work for one order and if you've spent time copying information from one system to another, you know that copy/paste lends itself to mistakes. But with Zapier now automating these steps, the Glo team doesn't waste time on orders.

"Our sales process is much more streamlined," says Hagan. "We now have a pipeline and we know Zapier is handling several steps of the process, so the team isn't stepping over each other wondering what's been done and what hasn't."

Here's how Hagan and the Glo team automate their sales and orders pipeline.

Glo's Tools

The Workflows

With a customizable product and wholesale options, Hagan and the team use Zapier to instantly take new invoices in Wave and create orders in ShipStation. With a Zap, our word for automated workflows, Zapier takes the customer's information from the invoice and builds an order in ShipStation.

"As soon as the invoice is completed, the customer's information goes directly to ShipStation," Hagan explains. "Which cuts five minutes per order—and that adds up!"

Another Zap creates or updates a contact in Freshworks CRM—and a separate Zap updates the contact once the order ships through ShipStation.

Now, just to be safe, Hagan built an order backup database in Google Sheets. When a new invoice comes through, Zapier adds the details to a Google Sheet row. Once the team ships the order, Zapier takes the tracking information from ShipStation and updates the Google Sheets row.

In case a system can't be accessed, the Glo team has a way to look-up invoice and order information in Google Sheets.

With these few Zaps, Hagan streamlined invoicing, order creation and shipping, and contact management. With ten hours back in the team's week, Hagan says they focus on expanding awareness of Glo, closing sales, producing cubes, shipping orders—and building more Zaps.

Want to automate your work like the Glo team? Give Zapier a try for free.

All images courtesy of Glo.