Knocking is a broadcast media e-commerce platform with an award-winning production team that showcases exclusive brand deals for customers. The company creates TV shopping shows, TV ads, online segments, and radio ads — viewers watch or listen, then buy the featured products on e-commerce storefronts created and operated by Knocking.
That model creates a fulfillment challenge that’s different from most retailers: Knocking works with hundreds of brand partners across dozens of different shows and platforms, with orders coming in continuously across all of them.
“Once customers place an order, it goes into our e-commerce platform for each of these different shows that we have online, on radio, or on television. There are different websites for each. The problem? We are working with hundreds of brands,” says Junaid, a member of the Knocking team.
The Challenge: Routing Orders Across Hundreds of Brands Without Errors
Fulfilling drop-ship orders from hundreds of brands meant Knocking needed to integrate orders, invoices, and payments across all of them — while also connecting to the different shipping platforms each vendor used.
With high-profile brands like MISSION, Sharper Image, and Tommie Copper selling through Knocking, the stakes were high. Any routing error — an order sent to the wrong person, a return going to the wrong warehouse — was a direct cost and a reputational risk.
We never want wires to cross. We have millions of dollars of sales happening across different platforms with different brand partners. We don’t want issues, like orders being sent to the wrong person for the wrong item, or returns going to the wrong warehouse. It’s an extra cost to solve these issues. We were having those problems before Duoplane.
— Junaid, Knocking team
When Knocking had only a handful of brands, managing fulfillment manually was possible. But as the business scaled to dozens of brand partners across more media channels, that stopped being viable. They needed a platform that could:
- Quickly onboard new drop-ship vendors and handle high order volumes with each of them
- Automate order processing, vendor setup, and onboarding integrations across the board
- Connect to the wide variety of shipping platforms and connection formats that vendors use
“With 50 to 100 brands, it would be nearly impossible to get all of those integrations in one store. Not only that, we want to duplicate these integrations for every different store where we have the same brand partner,” explains Junaid.
The Solution: Drop-Shipping Automation Built for Scale
Duoplane is built specifically for drop-shipping, with automated multi-vendor routing and pre-built connections to warehouses and shipping platforms. That last point was what impressed Junaid and Robert Altavilla, who handled vendor integrations for the team, the most.
Without Duoplane, the Knocking team would have had to research each vendor’s shipping platform, understand its requirements, and build or manage the connection themselves. Duoplane eliminated that entirely.
“We work with so many brand partners who use all these different shipping software from their warehouses. Sometimes, we’ve never even heard of them, like Shippo. But Duoplane has it all pre-built for us. The vendor only needs to log into their account, do three steps, and they’re connected to our store,” explains Junaid.
Onboarding new vendors was straightforward: with Duoplane’s intuitive interface, new brand partners were up and running within minutes. And when issues came up, Duoplane’s support team resolved them fast.
“I can email Duoplane support at any time of the day, and their response time is very quick. Unlike other software platforms, Duoplane responds within a couple of hours with a real human. The team always brings resolutions. And if they don’t have a resolution, they give us workarounds,” says Junaid.
Another capability that reduced order errors was Duoplane’s order filtering — the ability to slice through order data to identify and troubleshoot problems quickly.
“Most software doesn’t allow you to filter your orders by features. That’s specifically important when it comes to troubleshooting issues, like if returns have gone to the wrong place, or when orders are sent with incorrect SKUs, or orders without shipping information. But Duoplane organizes the day-to-day shipment information in an extremely well-organized way that is easy to sift through and troubleshoot,” says Junaid.
“Since Duoplane took care of all of that for us, we don’t have to be on top of it. It’s so much smoother, so much quicker to get everything accomplished. We look more professional to our brand partners by providing them with more options at a faster turnaround time,” says Junaid.
The Results: 500+ Vendors, 30,000+ Monthly Orders
With Duoplane handling vendor integrations, order routing, and fulfillment tracking, Knocking scaled to 500+ vendors and now processes more than 30,000 orders every month — across 500,000+ total sales — without a hitch.
The cost savings from eliminating custom integrations have been significant. Without Duoplane, each new API-based integration would require a developer and weeks or months of work.
“Without Duoplane, each new integration done through an API requires a developer, which can take anywhere from weeks to months and cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. With Duoplane, even if they don’t have the existing integration, they can code it for us at a great value,” says Junaid.
Automation also reduced the risk of human error that had previously cost Knocking money and damaged vendor relationships. By keeping orders clean and routing correct, Knocking was able to build stronger brand partner relationships and protect its reputation.
“Duoplane helped us see whether our vendors are fulfilling orders in time to keep our reputation, as well as the reputation of the products. The interface allows us to keep track of getting these orders to customers in a timely manner,” says Robert.
Over time, Duoplane has continued to grow with Knocking — adding new integrations and features as the business’s needs have evolved.
“Duoplane is really ticking all of our boxes, and we’re really happy with them. They are easy to work with, seamless with integration, and provide real human touch with their support. They make things as easy as possible, which is awesome,” says Junaid.