CS and FEDEX Help Rendezvous Export to Canada
The Rendezvous is a family-owned barbecue restaurant founded in 1948 in an alley in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The Rendezvous Rib Shipping company (Rendezvous) operates the shipping and distribution arm of the restaurant and sells authentic Memphis style ribs, pork shoulder, barbecue sauces, and seasonings domestically. Rendezvous was introduced to the U.S. Commercial Service in Memphis (CS Memphis), which is part of the International Trade Administration (ITA) for the U.S. Department of Commerce, by ITA’s strategic partner, FedEx Services, in order to support the company’s efforts to begin exporting their shelf-stable Memphis-style barbecue sauces and seasonings online.
CS Memphis counseled Rendezvous on developing an export strategy and connected Rendezvous with key partners, such as the Foreign Agricultural Service. CS Memphis also provided market intelligence and recommended a Website Globalization Review (WGR) Gap Analysis service to conduct a technical and strategic assessment of Rendezvous’ ecommerce sales channel. The WGR Gap Analysis identified that Rendezvous’ website was not designed to facilitate international sales. The analysis suggested modifications to the main website page to include both a domestic and international focus, improvements to metadata descriptions and keyword descriptions, and an increase in external links to and from the website to improve its visibility to international buyers online. The WGR Gap Analysis also issued recommendations to include a “shopping cart”, expedited shipping options, and a landed cost feature to calculate the total cost of shipments for international buyers. Rendezvous’ implemented all of the website updates recommended by CS Memphis and then contacted their international logistics provider, FedEx Services, to integrate FedEx shipping solutions. This integration allowed international buyers to order, pay, select shipping options, and estimate duties and taxes prior to finalizing their purchase.
As a result of implementing these website changes, Rendezvous successfully completed their first export sale in the company’s 76-year history. Rendezvous reported multiple sales of sauces and seasonings totaling $2,000 to Canada over the three-month period following the launch of their new website. According to the Vice President of Operations Anna Vergos Blair,
“The partnership of CS Memphis and FedEx Services has turned our fledgling export operation into a technologically efficient export business that is now primed for exponential growth with the ability to add other strategic countries in the coming months. We are excited and looking forward to seeing where this growth will take our family business over the next year and extremely appreciative of the guidance we have received from CS Memphis and FedEx.”