How Kettle & Fire Reduced Order Turnaround Time By 25% While Saving on Shipping

The Results

Challenges

Kettle & Fire faced numerous issues with their original 3PL partner, including a lack of supply chain and inventory reporting, an inability to keep up with complex fulfillment and order volume, and increasing freight costs. Kettle & Fire decided they needed a new 3PL provider that offered real-time inventory and order visibility, complex fulfillment capabilities that scale, more than one warehouse location, and a 3PL that would treat them like an actual partner – and not like a transaction.

Lack of Communication

For Kettle & Fire, working with their previous 3PL provider required a lot of hand-holding. Because the 3PL did not offer a dashboard or portal where Kettle & Fire could easily build automation or workflows, any changes the ecommerce business wanted to make to their inventory or processes involved sending an email to the 3PL’s team and having to wait for their response. 

When requested changes were interpreted or implemented incorrectly, Kettle & Fire would have to jump through communication hoops in order to have anything corrected. This lack of communication made the partnership between Kettle & Fire and their previous 3PL feel transactional. These difficulties not only impeded Kettle & Fire’s operations but forced their customers to wait for issues to be resolved before they could receive their orders. Throughout their partnership with their former 3PL, Kettle & Fire did not feel valued as a client.

No Inventory Visibility or Reporting

When Kettle & Fire wanted any insight into their inventory or orders, they were unable to access that information. Their previous 3PL did not offer any visibility into inventory levels and data or order statuses, which also meant they did not receive inventory notifications. 

Any of the few reports that Kettle & Fire were able to access from their previous 3PL were incomplete, with hard-to-interpret data that didn’t offer them the information they needed and were not available in real time. This meant that if any of their inventory was running low or out of stock, or if backorders were piling up, Kettle & Fire were not aware of it right away – and were unable to fix the issues before they got worse.

Inability To Support Complex Kitting Needs and Order Volume

Amazon orders make up a large portion of Kettle & Fire’s order volume, and their previous 3PL just couldn’t keep up. Their former provider was unable to keep pace with Kettle & Fire’s increasing order volume and the complexity of kitting required for Amazon FBA prep. When Kettle & Fire switched to Shipfusion, they had to catch up on the thousands of backorders their previous 3PL had failed to fulfill.

Increasing Freight Costs

As Kettle & Fire’s order volume increased, so did their freight costs – as a direct result of their previous 3PL having only a single warehouse location. Kettle & Fire’s former provider’s only warehouse was located on the West Coast, but as the ecommerce company grew, orders began to pour in from all over the country. The lack of strategically located warehouses meant every Kettle & Fire order shipped from the West Coast, no matter the order destination, leaving them with having to pay unnecessarily high freight costs.

Solutions

When Kettle & Fire were searching for a new solution to their fulfillment issues, they didn’t have to look far. The founder of Kettle & Fire, Justin Mares, owned another DTC ecommerce company already using Shipfusion and spoke very highly of them. The Kettle & Fire team knew that Shipfusion had the tools and solutions they needed to grow, and would treat them like a true partner – the most important factor.

“There are a lot of other competing companies that can execute the same core processes, but the value that we get from Shipfusion’s partnership is a true partnership, not a business transaction. It feels like the Shipfusion team is a true extension of Kettle & Fire. That is the true differentiator.”
– Leslie Alvarado, VP of Supply Chain at Kettle & Fire

Real-Time Inventory Visibility and Advanced Reporting

After partnering with Shipfusion, Kettle & Fire was able to enhance operational efficiency through advanced reporting tools. Kettle & Fire consistently uses Shipfusion's out-of-the-box reporting to view inventory levels, track logistics, and view order status in real time. The Kettle & Fire team is also able to take advantage of return notifications to proactively reach out to customers and quickly address any issues related to returned or damaged goods, adding to their excellent customer service and building brand loyalty.

The seamless integration of Shipfusion's API means that Kettle & Fire can easily access detailed reports and even adjust rate limits on the fly, ensuring no delays in data handling. With Shipfusion’s inventory management and advanced reporting tools, Kettle & Fire has not only eliminated previous backorder and inventory challenges but also found a partner that is able to scale with them as they grow.

Warehousing and Shipping Solutions to Minimize Costs

Kettle & Fire has been able to leverage Shipfusion’s multiple strategic warehouse locations to streamline fulfillment processes and enhance delivery efficiency. By having inventory in Shipfusion’s Chicago and Las Vegas warehouse locations, Kettle & Fire has been able to significantly improve freight costs and shipping times. Shipfusion’s advanced routing technology automatically identifies which warehouse to fulfill an order from based on the recipient’s address, meaning Kettle & Fire no longer worries about the unnecessary freight costs that come with shipping from one coast to the rest of the country. 

Kettle & Fire has also been able to take advantage of Shipfusion’s industry relationships with major carriers to obtain exclusive shipping rates. Kettle & Fire has also used Shipfusion’s packaging optimization expertise to identify the most efficient box sizes for their DTC orders. All of these solutions combined have resulted in Kettle & Fire saving on packaging materials, dimensional weight shipping costs, and freight shipping rates.

Strategic Warehouse Locations to Improve Fulfillment and Shipping Times

Kettle & Fire frequently uses Shipfusion’s split inventory logic and multiple warehouse locations to fulfill orders more efficiently and quickly. If an item is out of stock at one warehouse, they are able to seamlessly fulfill the order using inventory from another warehouse. This has allowed Kettle & Fire to improve their in-transit times and minimize delays and backorders while maintaining customer satisfaction. 

This, combined with Shipfusion’s scalable fulfillment processes, means Kettle & Fire’s order fulfillment and in-transit times have improved by 25% since switching to Shipfusion, with orders being sent out in under 2 days. The speed, accuracy, and efficiency of Kettle & Fire’s fulfillment is maintained even through peak season.

Seamless Solutions For Complex Fulfillment and Kitting

Kettle & Fire frequently uses Shipfusion’s advanced warehouse projects and kitting solutions to enhance their creative marketing and sales strategies. From creating influencer boxes and VIP gifts to sending out holiday cards, Kettle & Fire actively engages with their dedicated Account Manager and the rest of Shipfusion’s team, who are always ready to support and implement new ideas. This collaborative approach allows Kettle & Fire to continuously innovate and test improvements that directly benefit their customers. 

Kettle & Fire is also able to use Shipfusion’s kitting abilities to leverage a combination of Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) alongside Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) for Amazon order fulfillment. This ensures that Kettle & Fire is able to continue running Amazon ads and seamlessly fulfilling orders, even if Amazon is facing issues with stock or delays with FBA. If Kettle & Fire has to ship a large amount of product to Amazon for FBA, they are able to plan with their Account Manager to coordinate the kitting for the FBA prep that needs to be done. Being able to seamlessly sync all ecommerce orders with Shipfusion across many platforms and utilize FBM alongside FBA has kept Kettle & Fire’s Amazon operations highly efficient and responsive. 

This strategic use of Shipfusion’s integration services has been a cornerstone of Kettle & Fire’s growth in direct-to-consumer and Amazon channels. Their continued success has led Kettle & Fire to recommend Shipfusion to other companies seeking reliable fulfillment solutions.

“We have recommended Shipfusion to several companies who have asked us for suggestions for DTC and Amazon Fulfillment … [Shipfusion is] a key reason why we were able to survive COVID-19, grow our DTC business (and optimize it), and has been a springboard for our growth in Amazon due to their FBA kitting!”
– Leslie Alvarado, VP of Supply Chain at Kettle & Fire

Dedicated Account Management and a Collaborative Partnership Approach

Kettle & Fire was able to use the services of their dedicated Account Manager and Shipfusion’s collaborative partnership approach from day one. When leaving their former 3PL partner, Kettle & Fire had a “rip the bandaid” type approach to their transition, and Shipfusion’s team was able to assist with transferring and receiving their inventory as quickly as possible. Working with their new Account Manager, Kettle & Fire was able to resume operations quickly and seamlessly during the transition, with any request they had swiftly implemented. This was followed up with ongoing weekly calls to ensure that all of Kettle & Fire’s needs and expectations were met.

If Kettle & Fire is facing any issues or has any questions about their product or the fulfillment process, they can now expect a quick response from an Account Manager who knows their business, rather than having to wait for an email from an outsourced team unfamiliar with Kettle & Fire’s products. Since Shipfusion’s Account Management team is on-site and actually in the warehouse, they are able to interact directly with Kettle & Fire’s inventory to assess and implement the best solutions possible. 

“[Having a dedicated Shipfusion Account Manager] has been great. We always get very fast replies and solutions for the problems we face.”
– Niccolo Gloazzo, Director of Ecommerce at Kettle & Fire

For Kettle & Fire, being treated like a partner, not a number, was a priority when searching for a new 3PL provider. They have now found that Shipfusion’s support team, who are always quick to help with Kettle & Fire’s best interests in mind, operates like a true extension of the ecommerce company. For Kettle & Fire, feeling valued in their partnership is the true differentiator between Shipfusion and other 3PLs, and is the reason why they recommend Shipfusion to anyone who asks them for fulfillment service suggestions.

Results

Since partnering with Shipfusion, Kettle & Fire has seen impressive growth in their direct-to-consumer and Amazon FBA pursuits. Switching to Shipfusion and using multiple strategic warehouse locations means Kettle & Fire have been able to reduce both their order turnaround and in-transit times by 25% while also saving on shipping and freight costs. Kettle & Fire are able to meet customer demand with real-time inventory visibility and reporting and have a great relationship with their dedicated Account Manager. Most importantly, Kettle & Fire feels valued in their partnership with Shipfusion, and no longer like a number.