Back in 2010, The Crackerjack Shack decided to dip its toes into the world of ecommerce.
At first, it felt exciting… more customers, bigger reach, the promise of smoother workflows (emphasis on promise).
But behind the storefront it was like sticky notes doing their best impression of confetti.
“Marker boards, sticky notes, spreadsheets, and our hosting service’s order system,” recalls Sandy Higgins, owner of The Crackerjack Shack. “Way too much manual work! It was not only confusing, it was incredibly time-consuming.”
The tipping point
Ecommerce wasn’t the easy add-on Sandy had imagined. What seemed simple in theory quickly spiraled into daily disorder. Orders were getting tangled between spreadsheets, fulfillment was slowed to a crawl with clunky handoffs, and online sales became far more complicated than they should have been.
“We needed a piece of software that could basically run in the background,” Sandy admits.
The team was spending more time managing the mess than serving customers. And without a fix, scaling would’ve been nearly impossible.
Discovering Order Desk
That’s when Sandy stumbled across Order Desk in the BigCommerce app portal.
It wasn’t about reinventing her entire workflow. It was about automating what was already working (and stripping away the clutter).
“Order Desk automated what we were already doing,” says Sandy. “We had to tweak it a bit so it would fit our business, but we couldn’t operate without it now! From order entry, to production scheduling, to fulfillment and shipping… it’s an integral part of our entire operation.”
Life after marker boards
The shift was immediate.
“It created a central location for all of our online orders,” Sandy explains. “It’s allowed us to integrate both with our web hosting site and our shipping sites. It also allows us to communicate with clients in bulk instead of individually.”
Not only did the central hub save time, but it saved payroll and overhead too.
“I don’t have employees leaving their workspace just to figure out what’s going on with orders. It’s all right there in the software, and every employee has access to it.”
The first big win?
“Tossing the marker boards and spreadsheets! Ha!”
Scaling with ease
Today, Order Desk powers the entire flow for The Crackerjack Shack. From capturing every sale (including one-off promos or long-running merch drops) to keeping it all neatly sorted with folders and integrations, the process just… flows.
“Order management with the folders is key for us. The integrations are also such a time saver! From order capture to shipping… it’s SMOOTH.”
Without it? Sandy jokes that she’d probably be selling pre-set up spreadsheets to other businesses just to cover the cost of extra staff.
Instead, she has something better: freedom.
“Relieved :)” is how Sandy describes the feeling. “It removed the stress of keeping everything written or in our heads.”
What’s next
The Crackerjack Shack isn’t just surviving—it’s thriving!
“We are expanding in the area of merch for content creators. Social media has taken our little company from a local shop to a nationwide provider of apparel. The relationships we’re building are some of the most exciting and fun to date!”
And Order Desk is coming along for the ride.
“We will continue to use Order Desk as we have to keep our order/production system efficient and on track.”
Advice for anyone on the fence
“I highly recommend this software! It’s relatively inexpensive for what it does, and it’s such a great way to keep everything on track!”
Order Desk didn’t just save Sandy time, it also helped her turn down the noise. Clear systems, calmer days, and finally the room to grow her business the way it was meant to.
Ready to ditch the sticky notes and spreadsheets?
