Say Cheese! A Snapshot of Cabot Creamery’s Strategy to Lower Shipping Costs

High-Priority Shipping and Delivery Challenges

Diverse Shipping Requirements

Due to the mix of perishable and non-perishable goods available on Cabot Creamery’s ecommerce site, the retailer needs a way to quickly choose the most cost-effective shipping service for each order while meeting time and temperature requirements.

Small Team, Big Shipments

Cabot Creamery’s small but mighty warehouse team ships thousands of pounds of cheese each month. In addition to the cheese, gift boxes, branded apparel, and other orders from the ecommerce website are shipped too. “Imagine 2,000+ pounds of cheese, separated into multiple shipments and packed in individual cooler boxes with ice, going out in a single day,” explains Kim Abbot, Corporate Fulfillment Coordinator.

Cabot Creamery’s Strategy to Lower Shipping Costs

The dairy cooperative leverages Descartes XPS Ship multi-carrier parcel shipping software to speed up operations and lower shipping costs.

Discounts and Automated Shipping

To overcome the challenge of diverse shipping requirements and reduce costs, Cabot Creamery uses discount shipping rates, rate shopping, and custom business rules for shipping automation. “With Descartes XPS Ship, we’ve cut costs by taking advantage of the more cost-effective USPS for shipping small parcels, such as t-shirts and other branded merchandise, while using FedEx to send time- and temperature-sensitive cheese orders that require next-day delivery,” said Abbot.

With multiple carrier options in one shipping platform, the Cabot Creamery team can easily compare rates and print shipping labels for USPS and FedEx. Business automation rules perform tasks such as shipping service and package type selection, tagging, and billing shipments to the correct department. This reduces manual labor and related costs.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity

Cabot Creamery runs a tight, efficient operation without friction in the warehouse. New orders seamlessly flow into the shipping solution via the Shopify shipping integration, and shortcuts such as bulk CSV-format address uploads and prebuilt box options simplify the shipping workflow. Shipping labels print automatically to prevent bottlenecks at the shipping station.

Because the shipping software is so easy to use, training new employees is a quick process. Cabot Creamery can quickly scale shipping operations to keep up with order volume and ensure on-time delivery, even during unusually busy seasons. The increased efficiency and productivity result in reduced labor costs, fewer mistakes, and happier warehouse workers for less turnover.