Guide To DropShipping Your Protein Bar

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the way food entrepreneurs approach direct-to-consumer selling has changed forever. According to Grand View Research, there has been a drastic increase in online and eCommerce shopping, pointing to one clear fact: today’s consumers prefer to shop online. But thanks to fast-moving eCommerce giants like Amazon, many of these online shoppers have been conditioned to expect their purchase the very next day. As a result of this eCommerce acceleration, leading CPG snack brands are leaning on food dropship fulfillment, now more than ever, to get their snacks into the hands of their customers - as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Here’s why you should too.

What is Dropship Fulfillment?

Dropshipping is a fulfillment model that allows a brand or startup to sell their nutritional snacks without having to physically own inventory. Instead, the inventory lives at the dropshipper’s warehouse. 

How does it work? When a protein bar, protein shake, or cereal is sold through the brand’s eCommerce (or Shopify) site, the brand purchases the items from the food dropshipping partner. The team at the dropship warehouse will receive the order, look for the purchased snacks, pack them into a box, handle the paperwork, and directly ship the package to the customer’s doorstep. All this happens without the brand ever having to touch the product, provide tracking info, or handle any shipping or labeling paperwork. 

Benefits of Food Dropship Fulfillment

There are many benefits to leveraging dropshipping for your protein bar company. Protein bar dropship fulfillment empowers you to easily ship some of the hottest protein snacks directly to your customers, all without you directly handling the product. This allows you to invest your time, money, and effort into other important areas of your business, like growth. Plus, many dropshippers have relationships with multiple shipping carriers that you can leverage to expand your geographic reach and ship to customers that you may not have been able to before. 

Another huge benefit is that you can save on expenses and capture cash flow. Because you don’t have to deal with unnecessary costs, such as purchasing inventory or renting a warehouse, you can run a successful protein bar company (or even a protein shake/protein cookie company) without having to invest a lot of money upfront. You won’t have to worry about the time, money, and effort that will go into packing and shipping orders, managing a warehouse, handling returns and carrier claims, and constantly tracking and restocking inventory. 

How to Find the Right Dropship Partner

When adopting a dropship fulfillment model for your protein bar brand, finding the right one is critical to your success. Your fulfillment partner should be able to align their services to fit the needs of your business. A great dropship fulfillment partner will provide:

• eCommerce Dropshipping, which will seamlessly integrate into your website backend and enable you to ship your nutritional snack straight from temperature-controlled warehouses to your customers’ doorstep with the click of a button. 
• Scalable Dropshipping to help you create a dropship fulfillment ecosystem that will scale with you as you grow your business. 
• Amazon-Friendly Dropshipping that preps your inventory according to Amazon FBA requirements on your behalf so you can start selling on Amazon, one of the biggest eCommerce platforms.

4 Simple Steps To Choosing The Right Food Dropship Partner

If you’re still not sure how to find the perfect dropship partner, here are a few simple steps you can follow to jumpstart the search. 

1. Start the search: The first step is simple - just start the search! Talk to any food industry contacts that you might have or reach out to companies that offer dropship consultancy services. Then, expand your search through search engines to create a list.
2. Research each dropshipper: It is important to do your research on each dropship fulfillment partner you find, especially when it comes to dropshipping food. Dive deep into the company background, service potential, and delivery times. Check if their warehouse is temperature-controlled. See if they offer additional services like kitting or cold-pack shipping for your protein snack products.
3. Strike up a conversation with them: After you narrow your list down, start contacting the companies. You can start the conversation by introducing you and your brand as well as explaining what you need. This is also the time to ask them questions to see if they are the right fit for your business. Make sure they are able to seamlessly integrate into your website and, if you have one, work with your protein bar co-packer.
4. Test out their service: If you aren’t working with a protein bar co-packer to develop a unique formula, take the time to order samples from your dropship fulfillment partners. By ordering samples, you will be able to test their service, delivery times, packaging, and overall quality of the goods they sell. You will be able to see first-hand how potential customers will experience your product.

Key Takeaways 

With more people shopping from home, now is the perfect time to transition to dropship fulfillment. Not only can it help food visionaries grow their businesses at low costs, but the right dropship fulfillment partner can help agile brands capture market share from big brands quickly.