CS Helps 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 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 by its strategic partner, FedEx Services, to support the company’s efforts to begin exporting their Memphis-style barbecue sauces and seasonings online.  Rendezvous used CS Website Globalization Review (WGR) Gap Analysis services to conduct a technical and strategic assessment of Rendezvous’ ecommerce sales channel.  The analysis suggested many modifications to the main website.  Rendezvous implemented all 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.

“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.” -Rendezvous VP of Operations