Selling non-perishable products online is a great market to launch into. But it can be a challenge to set up a proper ecommerce supply chain to meet customer expectations. Customers expect their online orders to be delivered accurately, quickly, and at the most affordable price.

So how does a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand that sell non-perishable products stay competitive? Partnering with a third-party logistics (3PL) provider like ShipBob can help.

“I felt like I couldn’t grow until I moved to ShipBob. Our old 3PL was slowing us down. Now I am encouraged to sell more with them. My CPA even said to me, ‘thank god you switched to ShipBob.’”

Courtney Lee, founder of Prymal

What is non-perishable fulfillment?

Non-perishable fulfillment involves the process of fulfilling online orders to ship to customers. Types of non-perishable items include canned goods, sauces and condiments, coffee, tea, soft drinks, energy bars, meal replacements, and other packaged food and beverage products that don’t have to be refrigerated and have a longer shelf life. 

How ShipBob helps non-perishable ecommerce brands grow

ShipBob isn’t your average 3PL — we offer the fulfillment infrastructure, technology, and support needed to meet customer demand. By partnering with ShipBob for food and beverage fulfillment, you can work alongside logistic experts, move into more fulfillment center locations as you grow, utilize our geographic footprint, access supply chain data using analytics and reporting tools, and focus more time on growing your business.

ShipBob partners with non-perishable ecommerce brands by offering the following.

Built-in inventory management

ShipBob’s platform comes with built-in inventory management software that allows you to closely track inventory levels at each location, view order status in real time, identify slow-moving inventory, set reorder point notifications to prevent stockouts, and much more.

Optimized supply chain

Many growing ecommerce businesses find that it’s too time-consuming and costly to manage and invest in a warehouse, labor, equipment, training, certifications, and more.

3PLs are supply chain experts that can work with you to help optimize your supply chain. Our team keeps up-to-date on the latest trends and technology that help improve supply chain processes. Unlike an on-demand warehousing company that just provides a technology platform to find warehouses that have excess space inside them, we take the entire fulfillment process off your plate.

Challenges of shipping non-perishable products

Shipping non-perishable products can be tricky. Here are some of the common issues we see with non-perishables shipping.

Safe shipping

If you’re only shipping from one location, you’re limiting your business’s reach in key markets where your customers reside — and probably paying too much for shipping. Working with a 3PL that has multiple fulfillment centers lets you split inventory across locations, meaning a package takes less time to reach its destination and therefore reduces the risk of damage during transit. When damages do occur in transit, we file claims on behalf of the merchant at no additional cost.

“Our old 3PL didn’t file claims for damaged shipments for us like ShipBob. When shipping glass bottles, especially in the winter, the longer the transit time, the more likely it is to break. With ShipBob, we see that our customers are getting their packages safer, with fewer frozen bottles exploding.”

Lindsay Louise, Fulfillment & Retail Manager at Synchro

FDA compliance

Online stores have to store their non-perishable goods somewhere, and the ideal place is inside a warehouse. However, it’s mandatory to store non-perishable items in an FDA-certified warehouse that is registered with the FDA to store food, dietary supplements, drugs (prescription/medication), and other goods that are regulated by the FDA (unless an exemption applies). ShipBob is FDA certified, and you can utilize several of our FDA-registered fulfillment centers to store non-perishable inventory safely.

How ShipBob works

ShipBob has helped thousands of companies break into new markets with ease. Here’s how ShipBob works:

• Connect your online store with ShipBob’s technology.
• Choose which ShipBob fulfillment center locations to store inventory in and ship from, and then ship your inventory to those locations.
• When orders are placed on your online store, they are forwarded automatically to ShipBob, picking lists are generated, and the retail fulfillment process begins.
• The order is picked, packed, and shipped, and tracking info is generated.

ShipBob’s non-perishable order fulfillment process

Once you sync your store to the ShipBob dashboard and we receive your ecommerce inventory, orders that come through your online store are automatically sent to one of our fulfillment centers to be fulfilled.

We use standard packing materials (e.g., brown boxes, plain bubble mailers and poly bags, packing tape, and dunnage) at no extra cost. We choose the best packing materials for each order to both protect your products and achieve the lowest practical dimensional weight. We also allow our merchants to use custom packaging to enhance the unboxing experience.

We partner with major shipping carriers to negotiate shipping rates and have them pick up packages sorted by each shipping service daily, and you can set up proper order tracking on your store to keep customers informed about their orders.

How ShipBob has helped non-perishable product companies

At ShipBob, we’ve worked with dozens of ecommerce businesses selling non-perishable products. Here are some examples of how businesses grow.

Ample Foods: a meal replacement brand

Ample Foods combines the latest nutrition science with wholesome, real-food ingredients for a great-tasting complete meal replacement with optimal nutrition. When Ample Foods hired ShipBob as their 3PL partner, the brand took advantage of our distributed inventory method to reach more customers while reducing shipping costs and transit times. 

“From expanding into a second ShipBob fulfillment center, we are excited to be able to offer 65% of our customers with 2-day shipping, up from 32% by only having a single West Coast facility. Soon, this will be 100%. Not only is this better for our customers but we also gain a 13% savings to our bottom line.”

Pablo Gabatto, Business Operations Manager at Ample Foods

Synchro: a nutrition and wellness brand

Synchro offers gluten-free, non-GMO products including keto-friendly foods, powerfoods, probiotics, and other products. Synchro originally partnered with ShipBob, but they left to try out other logistics service providers. After a poor experience, they returned to ShipBob, and we’ve helped Synchro scale sustainably ever since.

“It was a major learning experience. We had not worked with a 3PL before, so everything was new. ShipBob has made so many changes since we originally left, and everything runs so much smoother now.”

Lindsay Louise, Fulfillment & Retail Manager at Synchro

Juspy: a nutrient-dense food powder

Founder Juspy Leonie Lynch launched a nutrient-dense powder made with natural ingredients, no refined sugar, no stabilisers, and no additives. When her business grew, she soon felt overwhelmed by the time it took to pack and ship a high volume of orders herself. So she turned to ShipBob for help.

“50% of my time spent was packing boxes. Not only that, but it was a constant interruption. I would sit down to do an email marketing campaign, have to attend to new orders, and completely lose my train of thought and flow. I spent about 3 minutes per order on fulfillment. I almost didn’t want orders to come in. ShipBob was the exact solution I was looking for.”

Leonie Lynch, Founder & CEO of Juspy

Getting started with ShipBob is easy

Let our experts manage your non-perishable fulfillment while you focus on growing your business. Contact the ShipBob team below to request pricing and more information. 

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