IntegraMedia Ecommerce Logistics for Two Stores | Cubbo

Estimated reading time: 9 Min

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Héctor Rubio Fidalgo is no stranger to entrepreneurship or success. That alone should be more than enough to introduce him, but we can also add that Héctor is the CEO and founder of IntegraMedia Group, the group behind two successful ecommerce brands: EroticFeel.com and WebCartucho.com.

Both brands have international reach, with particularities and complexities that set them far apart from any standard ecommerce business. Neither of these two ecommerce operations is what we would call “easy” to run. And their logistics are even less simple.

However, curiously, both brands are extremely successful and share the same logistics. This is their story: a lesson in efficiency, clear thinking, and a lot of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneur DNA

Frank: Héctor, let’s start by explaining your story a little, because people may not immediately understand what an erotic products website has to do with a printer cartridge website. How and when was IntegraMedia born?

Héctor: IntegraMedia was born in 2006, in a room at my parents’ house. I founded it myself. And interestingly, it was not created with either WebCartucho or EroticFeel in mind.

In fact, it was born because of a video game I had created after finishing my computer science studies. It was a browser game called Medievol, and it had more than 100,000 players in different parts of the world.

But in the end, I could not continue with it because I only had the support of my brother, and we could not keep up with the pace required by the shift to mobile devices. So the game died in 2012.

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Frank: And how do you go from an online game to ecommerce?

Héctor: I had always had the desire to sell something online, something physical. So we decided to start selling online through eBay. At that time in Spain, eBay was the most thriving marketplace. We started selling computer products, ink cartridges, and similar items. I’m talking about 2012.

By then, there were already two of us. We had a small office and were no longer in my parents’ house, Héctor laughs. We were in the old town of León, in Spain, and the truth is that for an ecommerce business, it was not exactly the ideal place either.

Frank: So you started with a marketplace. When and why did you take the leap and create your own ecommerce?

Héctor: The year after starting on eBay, we decided to launch our own ecommerce site: WebCartucho.com, a website for selling ink cartridges online. We did it because we had already seen that ecommerce worked very well, and we decided to launch our own.

It was built on Prestashop, and I set it up myself. Before the end of that year, because of our growth, we had already had to move to a 100-square-meter space. We had a small office with a warehouse, all together, and by then we were about four or five people.

Frank: What exact date was this?

Héctor: WebCartucho was born in June 2013, and from that moment on, we sold in parallel on eBay and WebCartucho.com.

Frank: Was that difficult for you? Many brands get tangled up when they try to follow this double strategy because of the usual limitations of marketplaces.

Héctor: Yes. That is why, on marketplaces, we made the decision not to sell directly under the WebCartucho brand. Instead, we sell the products we can market on WebCartucho, but under an independent brand, so we have more freedom in terms of prices and promotions.

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From León to the world!

WebCartucho.com and EroticFeel were born in León, Spain. From there, they have conquered half the world. However, this has not been an easy task. They have had to learn how to combine rapid growth with the patience needed to understand, prepare for, and adapt to the realities of each new market.

Frank: Héctor, today you sell across half the world. When did you start internationalizing?

Héctor: We started internationalizing in 2016, obviously in Europe first, because we are a Spanish company and it was easier and more natural to start there. We expanded first to France, then Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal, and the following year, Germany. In Italy, we only launched last year.

It is worth mentioning that WebCartucho has been translated into each of the languages of the countries where we operate, both the brand and the content. So it is WebCartucho in Spain and Mexico, WebCartridge in the United Kingdom, WebCartouche in France, WebPatrone in Germany, and WebCartuccia in Italy, for example.

Frank: I imagine the 100-square-meter space soon became too small.

Héctor: Yes. And so did the Prestashop ecommerce platform. In 2016, we changed platforms and developed our own custom ecommerce, because we were born as a technology company. We then moved to our current facilities, which are more than 1,300 square meters, with a warehouse of more than 1,000 square meters. At that point, we were billing between 3 and 4 million euros.

Frank: At that time, EroticFeel did not exist yet. When did the idea of mixing cartridges with vibrators come up?

Héctor: Héctor laughs. We were bored and wanted something that would challenge us. That is why the next major milestone came in 2019, when we said, “This is all very good, but we need something that gives us a different rhythm and helps us grow at a marketing level.”

In the end, you sell cartridges on demand. It is not a product you can tempt someone into buying and taking home. Either they need it, or they do not buy it.

So we researched business verticals and ecommerce opportunities in Spain, and that is how we came across the idea of erotic toys. We believed there was strong demand, and that is how EroticFeel was born. That was around 2018, and in February 2019, we launched EroticFeel.com.

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Quality support

A strong point of EroticFeel is that it has the official support of the main brands in the erotic world. Something that differentiates them from their competition and particularly in Spain, they are the only ecommerce that has this official support.

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Frank: I think this name has not been translated.

Héctor: No. We chose a name that would work internationally, with a single domain, and we quickly set out to internationalize the brand. Because of the type of product, throughout 2019 and 2020 we were able to operate in approximately 18 countries.

Curiously, with ink cartridges, we did not make the leap to Latin America until last year. With EroticFeel, however, we made the leap in 2020.

Localized and efficient logistics

One of the biggest points of friction for both brands has been the legal and logistical challenge of taking their products across Europe, the United States, and Latin America.

In that area, they found a key ally in Cubbo.

Frank: Why did EroticFeel make the jump to Latin America faster, and why did it take longer with WebCartucho?

Héctor: First, because the product at EroticFeel is the same for every region. With WebCartucho, it is like with games and movies: they are region locked. Cartridges from Spain do not work in Latin America, and vice versa. There are regulations that make them different, and they have to be produced specifically for each region.

Frank: Logistically, WebCartucho must be extremely difficult to manage.

Héctor: Yes. It is also a low-ticket, on-demand product, and that makes logistics very complicated. For example, it prevents you from offering free shipping, handling returns more easily, or using other types of strategies.

A high-ticket product gives you much more room to maneuver logistically.

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Own manufacturing

WebCartucho sells its own ink cartridges. They produce them themselves in China and adjust the specifications so that they meet the qualities and demands of each region.

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Frank: You manage the logistics of both brands together, correct?

Héctor: Yes, correct. What both EroticFeel and WebCartucho have in common is that the packages are very small and non-perishable.

Frank: And how did you find Cubbo?

Héctor: The problem with Latin America is that you need to ship from the United States or directly from Latin America, because shipping from Spain is very expensive. For it to make sense, you need a high-ticket product, and when I say high, I mean more than 50 euros. Otherwise, you are not competitive.

On top of that, there is the customs issue. For example, in the United States, we can send products with a declared value of up to 800 euros without any customs process. But in Latin America, that is not possible.

And it is not only a legal problem. It is also an administrative and efficiency problem. In Europe, no customs process takes more than two days.

At the beginning, when we operated EroticFeel in Mexico with shipments from Spain, we had customs problems with around 20% of packages. They would stop them for any reason. That is why we decided to establish ourselves there.

We created a subsidiary in Mexico and started looking for a fulfillment partner. We began talking to Josu and decided to bet on Cubbo. And the truth is, things are going very well.

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Frank: And what is your current logistics process with Cubbo?

Héctor: Originally, for EroticFeel, we imported the product from Europe and brought it to Mexico. For WebCartucho, we took it from our supplier in China, where our factories are located, directly to Mexico, and distributed it from our warehouses there.

Today, after fine-tuning the machinery, we already manage both fulfillment operations from Mexico with Cubbo. What caused us the most problems was fine-tuning the local payment methods in Mexico.

Frank: Has operating locally in Mexico with Cubbo caused you any problems?

Héctor: Yes, but not because of Cubbo. The issue we have is that the EroticFeel catalog is smaller there. Due to the type of product it is, it requires certifications that we do not yet have for all the brand’s products, because we have to obtain them from the Mexican authorities.

That is why, for now, we have reduced the catalog to 300 references out of the more than 2,000 we have. But we hope that, little by little, this will be resolved.

Frank: And with WebCartucho?

Héctor: With WebCartucho, having logistics in Mexico, which is what Cubbo gives us, has opened up the possibility of having the business there. Otherwise, with WebCartucho’s very low ticket, it would be crazy to operate everything with shipments from Spain.

Frank: Héctor, you are an entrepreneur with a lot of experience. What convinced you about Cubbo? Why did you decide to give them the opportunity?

Héctor: Honestly, it was Josu. Speaking with him and seeing how passionate he was about ecommerce was what convinced me.

It was not a company that simply offered a service under certain conditions, where you either take it or leave it. There was a genuine interest in offering a solution.

They also shared their vision for growth across Latin America with us, and we immediately thought: it would be very good to grow with these people.

Frank: And have you continued growing in Latin America with Cubbo?

Héctor: We are now arriving in Chile, and unfortunately we cannot do it with Cubbo because they are not there yet. But in Colombia, we are going to do it with Cubbo, and we are not worried because we know Cubbo will do just as well as in Mexico.

After we have those two countries, I do think we will wait a few months to establish those three markets properly. What will come next? Logically, I think Brazil, but without ruling out other markets that could also be very interesting.

Frank: To close, what advice would you give to an entrepreneur who wants to start an ecommerce business to sell in Latin America?

Héctor: I think the first thing I would tell any entrepreneur who wants to create an ecommerce business is to rely on a marketplace at the beginning.

It is true that a marketplace does not allow you to do the cool things you can do with your own ecommerce, but it gives you momentum at the start, and that matters a lot.

The second thing, regarding Latin America, is that while it is true that the market is not as mature as Europe or the United States, that is precisely what makes it interesting. There is a lot to do and many opportunities.

I believe Latin America has enormous potential, and whoever positions themselves now will be like those who positioned themselves in Europe ten years ago.

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Are you looking for an ally that improves your delivery process, compliance, and customer satisfaction?

Contact us. Cubbo is a fulfillment center for ecommerce brands in Mexico and Colombia.

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