How Lotus Wheel Built a Scalable US Fulfilment Operation

A New Zealand Health Brand With a Fast-Growing US Customer Base

Lotus Wheel is a New Zealand health and wellness brand selling therapeutic back and neck wheels to customers across the globe. The product addresses a problem most people know personally: the chronic neck and back pain that builds up from desk jobs, long hours, and postures the human body was never designed to hold all day.

Since launching in 2023, Lotus Wheel gained international traction quickly. The US became its strongest market by some distance, with demand growing faster than the brand’s existing logistics setup could support. Manufacturing in South Korea made sense for quality and cost reasons, but it created a fundamental distribution problem: every single US order was being fulfilled as an international shipment, from the other side of the world, one parcel at a time.

That model works at low volumes. It stops working the moment a brand starts to scale — and Lotus Wheel was scaling.

The Problem: Why Shipping Every US Order Internationally Was Holding Lotus Wheel Back

Lotus Wheel was growing fast in the US but their logistics setup hadn’t caught up. Every order placed by a US customer was being fulfilled as an international shipment from South Korea, which created a cost and speed problem that got harder to ignore as volumes increased.

International shipping rates on individual DTC parcels are significantly higher than domestic equivalents. Those costs either get passed to the customer, which hurts conversion, or absorbed by the brand, which eats into margin. Neither is a sustainable position for a brand trying to scale in a competitive market.

Delivery times were the other issue. Customers buying a health and wellness product are often dealing with real, ongoing pain. Waiting two to three weeks for an international shipment to arrive is not an experience that builds loyalty or drives repeat purchases. US consumers have been conditioned by domestic ecommerce standards to expect fast delivery, and anything that falls short of that standard reflects on the brand, not the carrier.

Lotus Wheel knew they needed a US-based fulfilment operation but had no existing warehouse relationships, no in-country infrastructure, and no experience setting one up from the other side of the world. What they needed was a logistics partner who could build it, manage it, and own the outcome end to end — covering everything from inbound freight forwarding out of South Korea through to last-mile delivery at the customer’s door.

The Solution: How Wayfindr Built Lotus Wheel’s First US Warehouse and End-to-End Fulfilment Operation

Wayfindr set up Lotus Wheel’s first US warehouse and took ownership of the entire logistics operation from inbound freight through to the customer’s door.

The starting point was freight forwarding from South Korea. Rather than shipping individual orders internationally, inventory now moves in consolidated shipments into the US warehouse. That immediately reduces inbound freight costs and creates a stable, predictable stock position on the ground in Lotus Wheel’s biggest market.

From the warehouse, Wayfindr manages inventory levels and replenishment cycles, coordinating inbound shipments to keep stock consistent and prevent the gaps that disrupt sales. Orders are picked, packed, and dispatched the same day they come in. That same-day fulfilment standard isn’t something every logistics operation can deliver. It requires the right warehouse processes and a partner who treats it as a baseline rather than a best-case scenario.

Last-mile delivery runs through Wayfindr’s US carrier network, routing each shipment to hit a three to five day delivery window for customers across the country. For a brand selling into a market where fast domestic shipping is the expectation, that capability is what makes the US operation commercially viable.

The end result is a complete US supply chain that Lotus Wheel didn’t have to build themselves, manage themselves, or staff themselves. Wayfindr owns the operation. Lotus Wheel owns the growth.

The Outcome: Faster Delivery, Lower Shipping Costs, and a US Fulfilment Operation Built to Scale

The move to a US-based fulfilment operation changed the numbers across every metric that matters for a growing DTC brand.

Delivery times dropped to two to four days domestically. For customers who were previously waiting weeks for an international shipment, that is a fundamentally different experience. More than 95% of orders now leave the warehouse the same day they are placed, which means customers get a dispatch confirmation quickly and their order shortly after.

Stock stability improved significantly. Consistent inbound freight from South Korea keeps inventory levels predictable, which allows Lotus Wheel to plan replenishment with confidence rather than react to shortages. Fewer stockouts means fewer lost sales and fewer customers who ordered, waited, and then cancelled.

Shipping costs came down. Domestic carrier rates and shorter last-mile distances cost considerably less than international shipping on individual orders. That saving flows directly back into the business, giving Lotus Wheel more room to invest in growth rather than absorbing logistics overhead on every single parcel.

The cumulative effect is that Lotus Wheel’s US customers now get a domestic-standard experience from a brand that manufactures on the other side of the world. That gap between where a product is made and how fast it arrives is exactly what a well-run fulfilment operation is supposed to close.

Wayfindr continues to manage and optimise the US operation as Lotus Wheel scales, keeping inventory positioned close to customers and adjusting the logistics setup as demand grows and new markets come into scope.