This success story highlights a ShipperHQ eCommerce BBQ merchant that sells a wide array of items online including perishable goods and how they transitioned from using a custom shipping solution to become more efficient.
Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q is known as a staple of Texas.The BBQ joint began its journey as a gas station and general store near the University of Texas. Shortly after opening, they decided to expand and offer great homemade food for a modest price.
Now Rudy’s has multiple locations throughout the South and even have an online menu featuring their famous meats, rubs and sauces.
When the BBQ company expanded to eCommerce in 2001, their developers built a custom shipping solution to sell their sauces and rubs online. But in 2011, things got a bit trickier when they decided to add meats to their online menu.
When shipping meats, you have to put specific rules that limit time in transit and restrict where items can be delivered.
With Rudy’s custom shipping solution, they were able to implement the shipping options they wanted along with the rules they needed. However, build and maintenance was very time consuming. Plus, it wasn’t the best way to receive accurate shipping rates at the checkout.
After running a custom shopping cart for 9 years, the Rudy’s team decided it was time to find a solution that would implement their rules for them, while making it easier to update and pack their products. 
Less Time Shipping, More Time Selling
Prior to ShipperHQ, the addition of a new product or changes in restrictions required a custom code change. Even a simple update could cost the company a lot of time and money.
Creed Ford, owner of Pictoric Media, explains their initial shipping challenges:
Our team would build out rules and it was open source, so we could build any rules that we wanted, but it was extremely hard to support and update. It was a big capital expense and was even expensive to update.
Since 2016, Rudy’s has taken advantage of ShipperHQ’s customization service, which completely handled implementation. This made for a quick and smooth transition. Now, configuration changes can be made in minutes.
Creed on using ShipperHQ:
The shipping options we use now are very similar to what we had before since we had a custom shipping solution and had it where we wanted it. And, having the ability to create and use Shipping Rules has made ShipperHQ worth it. We no longer have to spend hours or days making changes to our code when we have a requirement change or need to add an item to our menu.
Improvements Their Team & Customers Can Enjoy
After further use of ShipperHQ, the eCommerce BBQ company found that they could not only save time with shipping, but get better access to the data they needed. This allowed them to produce more accurate shipping quotes.
Efficiency and savings was their primary goal, and the goal was easily met.
Creed on reaching their goals:
We have the ability to have data come through the systems and not have it go through code which was painful for our team. Having a system intelligent enough to pack product into correct boxes has also helped us to give more accurate shipping quotes.
By utilizing ShipperHQ’s Dimensional Shipping and Date & Time features, they are able to charge their customers the correct amount for shipping. Rudy’s customers aren’t faced with higher than expected charges. This means the business can rest well knowing that their shipping costs are covered every time.
The Future is Looking Bright
Now that the Rudy’s team ships more efficiently online, they have even more time to focus on their company goal: to provide great tasting, homestyle food at reasonable prices.
With their shipping in order, Rudy’s holds their online store to a high standard, and remain extremely competitive in the BBQ industry. We are excited to see what is in store for Rudy’s this year and beyond!
