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The challenge

Subscription e-commerce depends on consistency. Customers are subscribing to an experience they expect to receive every month without fail.

For Heartbox Scotland, international shipping had become the weakest part of that experience. Deliveries to the US were arriving late, sometimes by weeks, with limited tracking visibility and growing customer frustration.

A delayed or lost parcel was not a minor inconvenience; it was a broken promise.

The problem with traditional international shipping

Before switching to deliver-e, Heartbox Scotland relied on a traditional international carrier for cross-border shipments.

Transit times stretched unpredictably. Parcels were occasionally lost altogether. Zone-based charges, accessorial fees and peak-season surcharges made international shipping costs difficult to predict accurately.

For a subscription business built on trust and repeat customers, unpredictable pricing and inconsistent delivery performance created operational and commercial risk.

Heartbox used to experience delays due to FDA regulated sweets as a part of the gift boxes.

Where deliver-e came in

Heartbox Scotland switched to deliver-e by IAG Cargo, the cross-border small parcel delivery service powered by SmartKargo.

Rather than moving through fragmented legacy carrier networks, Heartbox shipments travelled through IAG Cargo’s scheduled airline network with integrated customs pre-clearance, real-time visibility and coordinated final-mile delivery.

Transit times to the US dropped significantly, moving from multi-week delays to a reliable 3–6 day delivery window.

deliver-e has also completely automated the FDA pre-notification process, saving the Heartbox Scotland team valuable time and effort in preparing each shipment and making shipping FDA products simple, easy and compliant.

What changed

Metric Before deliver-e After deliver-e
Delivery speed 10–14+ days 3–6 days
Parcel reliability Lost parcels Zero lost parcels
Pricing Variable surcharges Transparent pricing
Customer experience Inconsistent Predictable
  • Faster transit times to the US with delivery performance at more than twice the speed
  • Customers now receive their subscription boxes in 3–6 days instead of waiting weeks
  • Since switching to deliver-e, Heartbox Scotland has recorded zero lost parcels
  • Transparent pricing has made international shipping costs predictable and easy to manage
The bigger picture

The bigger picture

By moving away from traditional carrier limitations and adopting a modern airline-powered cross-border delivery solution, Heartbox Scotland strengthened the experience at the centre of their brand promise.

Faster delivery, transparent pricing and reliable tracking helped create a better experience for subscribers while reducing operational complexity for the Heartbox team.

"We knew our customers deserved better. deliver-e gave us the speed our subscribers expected, the pricing transparency we needed to run our business, and an account team that actually picks up the phone. Scotland gets to the world on time, every time."

— Gemma Noble, CEO, Heartbox Scotland

FAQs

deliver-e is IAG Cargo’s cross-border delivery solution built specifically for e-commerce parcels. It uses established airline capacity, integrated customs pre-clearance and coordinated last-mile delivery to move shipments from the UK into destination markets in as fast as 2 to 5 days with full visibility from pickup to final mile.

Duties and taxes are calculated upfront, so there are no surprise fees for you or your customers. Transparent landed costs mean your customers know exactly what they are paying at checkout, which protects conversion rates and builds brand trust.

deliver-e provides real-time tracking across the entire journey. From the moment a parcel leaves your fulfilment centre to the point it reaches your customer’s door, you have full visibility and control.

Yes. deliver-e is built to scale with your business. Whether you are shipping hundreds of parcels or hundreds of thousands, the platform handles increasing volumes without requiring proportional increases in your team, infrastructure or costs.
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