How Fellow built a $2M+ marketplace on Canal

Completing the experience for growth

Amongst coffee lovers, the Fellow brand is synonymous with exception design. Its core product, an award-winning kettle, as well as its grinders and drinkware have amassed a cult following over the years. In 2022, Fellow began thinking about their next stage of online growth. Recommending complementary products such as accessories and coffee, hand selected by their team, seemed like a natural way to expand their sales by building on the trust they had earned over the years.

As Fellow explored this growth initiative, their team realized people would want to purchase products they were recommending. Not by walking out the door to a grocery store, and not by clicking a link to another site, but from the brand’s trusted storefront. With this approach, Fellow could introduce more buying opportunities for their customers and create a new, incremental revenue channel.

Automating third party sales with Canal

Canal facilitated ecommerce between Fellow and its rotating collection of partner products with its brand partnership tool. Fellow used the supplier onboarding feature to introduce their brand partners to Canal and the proposal feature to negotiate terms and commissions.

After proposals were finalized, Canal automated product data syncing, commission payouts, and order pass-through so these partner brands could fulfill orders on behalf of Fellow. The best part? Onboarding took minutes, without timely integrations or steep upfront costs.

Attribute influence directly to revenue

As Fellow’s audience and marketplace grow, so do the number of orders with partner products and inventory-less revenue. Recommended products are also accessible by everyday site visitors through an evergreen marketplace that is enriched as new items are recommended to the community. Items are purchased directly from the marketplace, included in product bundles, and recommended in cross-sells to increase AOV.