About Lanstar
We're Your Ecommerce Operating Partner.
Lanstar started as one operator on Shopify and grew into the retail partner brands lean on — buying inventory, running demand planning, owning the channel, and keeping marketplaces replenished. We carry the risk so you can focus on building the product.
Our Origin Story
A disruption that changed our direction.
In 2019, Lanstar was operating its own brand on Shopify. We were learning Ecommerce from the inside: sourcing products, managing customers, operating the storefront, and coordinating every step of fulfillment.
When COVID-19 hit, our supply chain from China stopped overnight. We had to move quickly, build a more resilient supplier network, diversify our sales channels, and secure a U.S.-based replacement supplier. That experience changed how we thought about the business.
We realized that many distributors and brands were facing the same problem. They had strong products and established offline businesses, but they were not set up to operate Ecommerce channels or connect purchasing, inventory, marketplace management, and replenishment. Lanstar pivoted to make that work our core service. The first clients followed, we moved into our warehouse, and the operating systems we built along the way eventually evolved into itemIQ. We have continued scaling from there.
Today, Lanstar operates a warehouse with a dedicated operations team. Lanstar is an eight-person team running operations for partners like Monin, with proprietary technology built in-house and a seat in Canada's top startup accelerator. itemIQ holds that seat through the University of Waterloo's Velocity program.
“We built Lanstar because we wanted to be the partner we never had — one that buys your product and doesn't bill you for the results.”
— Lanstar Founding Team
400,000+
Units / Yr for Monin
1,000,000+
Ecommerce Orders Managed
99%
Customer Retention
The Build
How we got from a single seller to a multi-channel retail operator.
2019
Operating our own brand on Shopify and learning Ecommerce from the inside.
2020
COVID-19 stopped our supply chain from China overnight. We secured a U.S.-based replacement, built a more resilient supplier network, and diversified our channels.
The pivot
Recognized that many brands and distributors were not set up for Ecommerce. Lanstar made connected supply chain execution its core service, landed its first clients, and moved into a warehouse.
2023
First seven-figure year. Inflection point — proof the model works.
2024
Navigated a sweeping compliance shift — audited the full portfolio, re-listed every affected SKU. Survived tariff volatility through international supplier relationships.
Late 2024
Began building itemIQ — our in-house intelligence layer that maps any brand's catalog to live marketplace data.
Today
8-person team. Velocity Program (University of Waterloo) accepted itemIQ. Distributing 400K+ units a year for partners like Monin.
What We've Survived
The moments that taught us how to operate.
Anyone can run a clean playbook in calm conditions. The years that built Lanstar were the ones where the playbook had to be rewritten.
Survived The Compliance Shift
2024: A regulatory wave hit half the catalog.
When new compliance rules came down in 2024, they affected a meaningful chunk of the products we were moving. Instead of slowing down, we audited every SKU in our portfolio in weeks, identified which ones needed regulatory fixes, and worked product-by-product to bring them back into compliance. Nothing got dropped on the floor.
Survived The Tariff Volatility
Tariffs spiked. We didn't pass the chaos to customers.
When tariff uncertainty pushed import costs up overnight, most operators in our space either ate the margin or pushed the chaos to their brand partners. We did neither. The relationships we'd built with international suppliers and freight partners kept our cost structure intact — and product kept landing in customers' hands at the prices we'd promised.
Built In-House
Late 2024: we stopped renting intelligence and started building it.
We were tired of paying for SaaS dashboards that told us what we already knew. So we started building itemIQ — an in-house tool that maps a brand's full catalog to its presence online, surfaces pricing, listing quality, and availability across the marketplaces, and feeds the data straight into how we run channels.
It's now wired into every part of how we operate — and it's become its own product, helping e-commerce brands and distributors make better inventory decisions through real-time data.
Visit itemIQ
Featured Partnership
How we became Monin's online channel partner in Canada.
Monin makes glass-bottled syrups sold globally. Glass + shipping is the kind of operational problem that breaks most partners literally — bottle breakage means refunds, negative reviews, and ranking damage stacked on top of the product loss.
We didn't just take the work. We re-engineered the packing process from scratch — testing materials, drop-tolerance, case-pack configurations — until breakage dropped to a level where the SKU could scale.
Today, 400,000+ units a year of Monin products move through our facility on the way to Canadian customers. The partnership is exactly the kind of long-relationship business we're built for.
Units / Year
400K+
Breakage Reduction
Re-engineered
Custom packing flow built for glass at scale.
Role
Primary online-channel distributor (Canada)
Recognition
itemIQ joined Canada's top startup accelerator.
In February 2026, itemIQ was selected as one of 13 ventures in the Velocity Program at the University of Waterloo — a hub for Canada's strongest technical talent.
Since 2008, Velocity has helped the founders of more than 500 startups achieve a collective enterprise value of $40 billion. The collaboration is helping us push itemIQ further, faster — with developers who can keep up with how the catalog problem actually scales.
Read the AnnouncementHow We Think
The three pillars we operate on.
Retail Logic
We think like a buyer, not a consultant. Every SKU we purchase is a bet we're willing to make. That means we only take on products we believe in — and we go all in on the ones we do.
Tech + Data
itemIQ maps your catalog to live e-commerce demand. We catch stockouts, pricing problems, and unauthorized sellers before you do — and we act on them before they cost you ranking.
Operator Discipline
Purchasing, forecasting, listings, pricing, replenishment, and PPC - handled. You focus on making great products while we operate the complete retail layer.
The Team
From two operators to a team of eight — and growing.
Every hire we've made has been deliberate. We don't scale headcount for the sake of it. We scale when a partner's catalog needs more attention than two people can give it, and we hire ambitious operators with the discipline to own outcomes instead of inputs.
Today the team is eight strong, drawn from e-commerce operations, logistics, software, and data. Diverse backgrounds, one operating standard.
2 → 8
Team growth
Velocity
U. of Waterloo
GTA
HQ + warehouse
itemIQ
Built in-house
Why Lanstar
Built for ownership, not advice.
Lanstar combines purchasing, technology, channel execution, and physical operations under one accountable team with real skin in the game.
We buy your inventory — no consignment, no risk on your books.
We profit when you profit — every decision we make is a business decision.
We execute at every layer - from demand planning to marketplace replenishment.
Skin in the Game
We own the inventory we sell. When you win, we win.
Operator Discipline
Execution over advice. We don't bill hours — we build performance.
Data-Driven
Every decision is tied to a metric. Gut feel has no seat at this table.
Long Relationships
We grow as your catalog grows. The best partnerships compound over time.
Ready to see if Lanstar is the right fit?
We work with a focused set of brand partners. Tell us about your catalog and let's find out if we're a match.
Get in Touch