321. Most Brands Miss This Critical Step After Production With Caitlin Wilson, FULL GOOD

0:00Yeah, well, we can go into detail about that. There's a lot of brands that we support that only do with us influencer boxes and buyer boxes, and they dedicate, we help them set up a system within Shopify or wherever they want to process these orders so that from the beginning, they have a way to capture the costs of the program. I think the biggest problem with influencer boxes, marketing efforts, buyer boxes, free out the door is that people do not capture the programming properly. So we always encourage people to like jump on Shopify. If you do not offer a, you know, yogurt for sale online, which that would be weird.

0:49but you still need to send yogurt like express overnight with tons of ice packs to a buyer, create a ghost Shopify account for free, put our system in the back end of it so we can read, we can read the orders quickly and translate the tracking information quickly, and then use the Shopify as your CRM to capture who have you sent everything to, create, use the tools in there. So put tags on the orders. Is it an influencer box? Is it a buyer box? Is it a marketing box? Whatever it is. That's like a whole nother podcast is just talking about the efforts that brands do not take to try to capture all of that stuff.

1:35Because I don't care if you're a$300 million brand, you still need to capture that stuff. Are you ready to hear more? Welcome to the Bulk Proof Your CBG Brand Podcast, where we discuss tactics and strategies that you need to give your brand the unfair competitive advantage it deserves. Hello, I'm Dan Lohman. Be certain to comment and subscribe to get immediate access to new brand building episodes. Please recommend this to friends and colleagues and help me raise the bar in natural. Let me know what your most pressing issues are and I'll do my best to address them on future episodes. There's a free downloadable guide at the end of every episode to help you go deeper into the topics we discussed.

2:14Now, let's roll up our sleeves and get started. Caitlin, thank you for coming on today. Can you please tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you're at? And why did you decide to choose launching and running a fulfillment company? Hello, thank you for having me. Um, well, I am a farmer's daughter from the central coast of California, the Salinas Valley, and I grew up in the, grew up in the produce industry. Um, so that is where I started my career, um, was with my family's business. And then, you know, within the produce world, um, and I was always on teams or, um, drove initiatives that had to do with trucking and had to do with replenishment into retail and things like that.

3:06So that was a service that our company provided at the time was replenishment services and whatnot. So that is how I started my career. And then I left my family's business and I helped a friend of mine. I left my family's business when I became a mom and took some time. And then I helped a friend of mine who was launching a fresh frozen dog food company when he was coming to market and in helping him really discover the lack of support that that brands have after production. So after manufacturing, it's like the what now happens. And, you know, any brand at any size, that's a very important question to answer.

3:55um and so that is I of course couldn't you know I didn't find us a great partner um I you know researched and interviewed and um we worked with a number of partners actually with that brand um but really the support and transparency of like how much inventory do I have and did this order go out or not and like really basic things um just was not done in my opinion done well um to support this brand. So, um, I ended up leaving that brand and, um, chose to kind of cut my teeth with a few brands as my initial partners, um, as I developed the business model. And then, and that was in like 2021. Um, and then in 2022, um, to 2023, we, we started this, um, this, this business.

4:47So, um, um yeah we we support dry refrigerated and frozen products now so so on that note let's back out let's talk a little bit about what it is that you're doing because we need to frame that because that is what's so critically important to this this entire conversation so what do you do and why does it matter if i'm a brand why why would i reach out to you yeah so after brands are manufactured, some co-manufacturers will support a brand with storage and with orders. So fulfilling orders, shipping orders out. Some co-manufacturers do support those efforts, but most of them do not. So if you're a brand that is, let's say, just getting started pre-revenue, or if you're a brand It's a hundred million dollars.

5:42You need the execution of the orders to happen into KU, Unify, you know, Target, Walmart, and direct-to-consumer and kind of any way that you are selling your product. You need someone that is going to execute that for you. And so that's what we do here at Full Good. So we support brands by way of implementing our technology into the back end of their direct-to-consumer sales channels. So Shopify, WooCommerce, fair.com, you name it. And then also by pallet orders. So heaven forbid, you get into a massive retailer, you do need to have support to fulfill those huge orders as well. And just for clarity, I actually had the privilege of touring your warehouse, which by the way is amazing.

6:34We'll talk about that later. Yeah, it's really cool. So if I'm a brand, I can ship you the nuts and the bolts and all the pieces, and then you put it together in a nice box, and then you help ship that. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I think that's something that people don't think about when they're building a brand is how do I get this into the hands of a consumer? And how do I set this up so that I'm not spending literally billions of hours putting boxes together? Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of brands take, I mean, every brand, what I think is really cool about this industry is like, no brand is the same, no brand, no day is the same.

7:15You know, the weather affects a lot of what we do too. So every brand, I think like my biggest piece of advice to brands and, you know, what I want them to know coming out of this call is that it's really important to make a decision early on as to what your approach is. So if you're focusing on direct-to-consumer, is your approach that you want a really, really custom look? Or are you okay with just a standard corrugate and just throw the, you know, not throw, but place the products in a standard corrugate with just plastic tape or craft tape and slap a label on? You know, so I think some brands are okay with that because they're price-driven and they might have a product that they're not concerned about the exterior of the box.

8:01They're not concerned about the unboxing experience, but then other brands, um, you know, are very focused on that. And so they might be trying to differentiate their category or, you know, challenge someone else in the category. And this could be a leg up for them is the approach that they take either via direct to consumer or via, you know, influencer boxes or buyer boxes, um, looking a specific way. I will say that like Like with the pallet orders and kind of the wholesale, the retail stuff that we do, that's all very standard. That's all the same. And pretty much anywhere you go, things are on a pallet.

8:36It's how we communicate when orders are done and whatnot. That is our differentiator there. But as it relates to direct-to-consumer, the white glove approach and the kind of high-touch effect that we provide to brands is definitely unique. And it's something that a lot of other fulfillment centers don't want to touch. And what I mean by that is, do you want a custom box? Okay, great. I have a community of box suppliers. Let me introduce you to them. Go down that path yourself as a brand founder. Decide if that's something that you want to do. And then, do you want just to corrug it with a custom tape on top?

9:15Great. Let me introduce you to those suppliers as well. right? The tape suppliers that supply Amazon are friends of mine, you know, some other vendors. Unboxing the box, right? Do you want a card on top of your product? Do you want your product to be surrounded with crinkle paper so it doesn't move? You know, what is like, what are the details involved in actually getting your order out the door? So during onboarding, we handle a lot of those kind of questions and answers over the course of a call or two. We love to receive the product and then send out examples if we have time. Sometimes we don't have time because we're either taking on work from another fulfillment center or a launch date that's very important.

10:00And it coincides with when we're going to be receiving product. But in that case, it's like my client services team does a great job of here, let me get on like a FaceTime call with you or so that you feel as a founder that we are truly an extension of your brand and we are really helping you through this. And then once the bricks are laid and once everything's established for who you are as a brand through fulfillment and operations, we just execute. Very cool. Thank you for sharing that. So let's unwrap this even more. And the reason that I wanted to go down this path, and thank you for sharing that, is that a lot of the brands that I mentor and work with, they're struggling trying to figure out, okay how do i get this package not only how do i get this package to someone but what are the limitations what can i think what i think excuse me what i look at what are the things i need to put together my point is this a lot of companies if you go to expo us and stuff like that a lot of companies a lot of brands they look at someone who provides a label and someone who provides a bag and stuff like that and those are sort of the nuts and bolts of how they package the product get it out.

11:06What you're saying is that you might be able to offer something creative, something unique, something that's cost effective that I hadn't even considered yet. Because again, I'm just trying to figure this out on my own. Can you talk more about that? Yeah, sure. I mean, again, yeah, I think it is so overwhelming for especially new brands, like you said, that may go to expo or may go somewhere else where they're meeting a ton of vendors to even know like, how do I put this puzzle together? So what we try to do is simplify, break it down. We ask the questions that are like, what are your goals as a brand?

11:47Is it that you're very price driven? Great. Like that, that approach is going to be different. Is it that you were an appearance driven, you know, in, is there an incentive there for a really high touch look? Great. We will, you know, let's, let's hold your hands there. Um, I will say like, if you're a regular direct to consumer brand, um, and you know, you're only focused on your sales channel being direct to consumer and you're an emerging brand that's coming here. I think there's little things that you can do that have become kind of industry standard, um, because of Amazon. Um, so that is, you know, to, to talk about the, do you need a custom tape that just goes on your Corrid and it's five cents or less per box, you know, great, let's introduce you to those suppliers.

12:35But we just try to like offer you what is industry standard. And then we tell you, you know, okay, great, this is how it meets, you know, your cog. So these are all of the inputs that my team is adding to your product to try to meet you where you need to be. So what I mentioned earlier was like, you'd still have to decide as a founder, who am I? And so that's really, really important. And if you don't know that answer, that's okay. Like we can work through that with you by way of kind of the questions that we asked during onboarding. But it's important to kind of consider that.

13:13So I hope that kind of answers that a little bit. No, it does. I appreciate it. So I don't know what I don't know as a founder. So could I reach out to you or could we tell people, hey, reach out to you? Yeah, absolutely. For what's out there, what's possible. Yeah. And I do all the time. We do like audits for people. So, you know, I'm starting a brand, it's a ice cream company and it has collagen in it. And, you know, I, this is a new product to the market and I am trying to shake up, you know, whatever. Okay, great. What are your goals? Are your goals to focus on direct to consumer or your goals to focus on wholesale?

13:53So that's, that's the first question, right? Second question, if you're focusing on direct to consumer, it is let's go down the path of making sure that your ice cream arrives perfectly frozen. Okay, so that's going to be what box we use, what insulation we use, how much dry ice is added. Our team helps you figure that out. We give you examples, or we literally send you sample boxes of what we think you should do if you do not have that already. If you have, if you come to us with any level of a goal, we will meet those goals. But a lot of these emerging brands that we help just don't even know what they don't know, like you said.

14:32So, and then if, you know, hey, your goal is only wholesale retail. Awesome. Do you need us to still support you with buyer boxes so that when you're getting into Kroger, Albertson, Safeway, we can still send those boxes, you know, for you to the buyers? That's interesting to think about too. So either path, you still have to have some level of support by way of small box. So that will always be a discussion point. But, you know, again, it's, there's so many variables involved because every brand is, that's why I love this business. Every brand is different. Perfect. I love that. So one of the things that we talked about when I was there, kind of a little bit of a segue, but it makes sense.

15:14I mean, this is relevant. Is you talked about how a lot of times you get in product packaging that maybe there's misspellings and things that aren't perfect on the packaging. So my point is, with your expertise, you can help me as a new brand, make sure that everything is right, so that it looks right. And where I'm going with where I'm going here, Caitlin, is from an experiential marketing point of view, your brand needs to your packaging needs to say a lot about your product. And so being able to present at the consumer with your expertise, you can help guide me as I understand it, to help make sure that I've got the right look, the right feel, the right communication on my box, the way it's wrapped, et cetera.

15:57Can you talk a little bit about that? Sure. Yeah, we have, there's been a few cases where we've helped brands that are pre-revenue or very newly established that have come to us with kind of everything already sorted. And that's great. But every once in a while, it's interesting to consider what about another set of eyes. And so there has been a few times that we've received packaging or exterior boxes that, you know, that the spelling might be perfect and all of that stuff, but the units of measure are off or the way that they present the barcode is really interesting and should have been placed differently.

16:44Or, you know, kind of things that matter to ops, to operations, so to my group and to retailers, wholesalers, is not there. So I always encourage brands. I'm like, it's never too early. Please bring my team in to any discussion that you want. We offer it as a line item on our scopes of work. You could either pay us for your time, or I give a lot of free time away too to our brand partners. We want things to be perfect because our goal is for you to fly off the shelf because at the end of the day, that's what I make money on, right? But also you make money too. So it's a win-win partnership wise.

17:23There's just so many little mistakes that I've seen and that I've, you know, you and I, when we were here, we, yeah, we had a great discussion about that. It's just, there's two approaches. It's how many cooks are in the kitchen. That's too many cooks in the kitchen. But then the other approach is, well, what about a different perspective? And so while you may have had five people look at your label or your packaging or your approach, have you thought of who in that circle, you know, is offering that guidance? Is anyone from the operational side? And if they're not, maybe consider asking someone in your network or me.

18:03I'm happy to provide guidance to people that I don't work with all the time because I want to see good things on the shelf. to give some guidance. So, um, yeah, that's been really interesting. You know, it's also something that I also talk all the time with brands about is why are you a 50 count versus a 10 count? Or why are you, you know, just kind of asking the questions that, and I'm not afraid to ask those questions. And I think sometimes it's, it comes off like harsh, but I want just what is good for everyone. So, um, and while I'm not a, you know, product creator, I am seeing a lot of products, hundreds of products, hundreds of brands, every single solitary day, I'm seeing what's working.

18:49I'm seeing what's not working. So, um, and for the brands that I help that are not working, they, they want to work. So we're riding those ships quickly. Um, yeah. So that's invaluable. And on that note, a lot of products, when they get to retail, there's a lot of friction because of the stuff you're talking about. And so the goal here is to make everything frictionless so that the retailer can onboard it, get it in the shelf and start selling it. That's critically important. So thank you for that. But one of the things that you mentioned is the count in the boxes. This is something I don't think a lot of brands think about.

19:30You've got slotting in almost every retailer, unfortunately. Slotting is. I could go down that path. You get distracted there. But the point is a lot of brands charge slotting in terms of free fill, a box or two boxes or something like that. So if you have 20 or 30 items in a box and that won't fit on the shelf, then they have to have back stock. Anyhow, a lot of things to consider. or sometimes you don't have enough in the box. You got to bring in two boxes. So you can help brands with that as well. Yeah, I mean, I think I know enough to be dangerous about like all the categories in the grocery store at this point.

20:06I obviously grew up in the produce world. So I really know that category very, very well. But as it relates to dry, refrigerated, frozen products, I think what's interesting is that a lot of brands And I'm going to like answer your question, but I will say one thing. A lot of brands focus so heavily on getting into a retailer. And I know that you're in the same camp as me. I would heavily focus on finding the right retail partner first, identifying who that's going to be with your brand very early on. That should be part of your ICP or, you know, ideal client profile. If you don't do not know that answer, don't don't go into business yet.

20:51You need to know exactly who you're selling to. And that involves the retailer. Secondly, it's once you're on the shelf, it's velocity and getting off the shelf. So how are you positioning yourself to do to do that? If you have a box that is as long as the shelf and, you know, you and I both know when you're grocery shopping and there's something in the very, very, very back and it's dark back there, I'm as a consumer, I'm not even going to be able to see what's back there. So I don't know. It's just really basic things that people are forgetting about right now. Founders are forgetting about right now.

21:29I think a six count is better than an 18 count all day long. Right. I you know, your your discussion earlier about the, you know, slotting fees and all of these various fees and all these things. That to me goes back to who your ICP is. You know, what is your goal as a brand? Who are your ideal clients? And are you positioned properly? And if you are, then, you know, you're going to have to deal with some of those slotting fees and some of those chargebacks and some of the things. The beauty of AI, the beauty of kind of all the things that are a lot of this like darkness in retail is being uncovered like quickly.

22:11Um, and what I mean by that is there's a lot of software out there and a lot of technology out there that is really brand forward. Um, and I'm, I'm really excited to see how brands are going to come ahead. Um, I hope, um, pretty soon. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of really cool groups out there. Um, I had a call and I'll pump them on this podcast. I had a call with a group called Retail Ready. And their whole premise is that they support EDI. So whenever, for people that are listening that don't know, you know, whenever you receive an order from a retailer, a lot of times it's either via PDF, so just like an email, or, and this is part of your contract, you either receive orders via email or you receive orders via EDI.

23:03And you must, that's yet another layer to the cog. So you must create, you must have an EDI partner that can translate those electronic documents for you. Retail Ready is one of those groups that I've, you know, they're up and coming. They're out of, they're awesome. They're female founded. So of course I love them so much. They're out of the Bay Area. What they're doing, that's interesting that a lot of other like EDI partners aren't doing is like they are translating and I'm not going to say it as good as they can, but they are translating how to avoid chargebacks, how to avoid certain things.

23:43So whether it be the product sticker placement on a pallet, you know, are all the clicks correct when you're accepting an EDI order? These are all steps that brands have to know how to do. Their software, it breaks it down so that any retailer that you go into, they bulletproof it so that you essentially, by an act of God, do not receive chargebacks. It's cool. So those are the kinds of pieces of technology that are out there that I'm really amazed with and that I meet with as an operational partner to brands. I want my brands to get as much money from retailers as possible. I want them to succeed because at the end of the day, it keeps me in business too.

24:27So, um, we have to break the cycle, um, and give as much back to the consumer as possible by way of, you know, cheaper food, you know, cheaper, great food, by the way, like great, sustainable, awesome, natural products. So that's what I'm really passionate about. Yeah. Love that. I appreciate it. And if, if people knew how much wasted spend is just getting the stuff onto the shelf. They would be dumbfounded. And yeah, there's a partner, not to interrupt you, but there is a partner that I'm helping right now that is going through this. A brand partner of mine that is going through something with a big retailer by the name of Walmart.

25:09That, you know, on the back of their product, they have a QR code and they're having to place a sticker over that QR code because something on the QR code, Walmart's not happy with. that would have been so lovely for this brand to have known prior to you know the placement of all of these qr codes on on their existing packaging you know so just little things like that that it's like these big retailers have so much control over these brands people don't realize yeah i mean and so now my team is having to go back and touch that product yet one more time to make sure that they don't receive chargebacks from walmart and it's like i've got to pay my bills.

25:47So I've got to then charge the brand. Right. So then on the shelf, how much money is either going back to, and in this case, it's, it's a farmer owned brand, which is a really cool brand. So how much money is, and that's a whole nother discussion, but going then back to the farm, literally, you know? And so it's just, it's just interesting. I mean, we could talk about it all a day. It's, you know, it's really interesting. Well, thank you for sharing that. One of the things that I talk a lot about is business leaking, leaks in terms of your business. And the point being is that those leaks, what you're talking about are so critically important to shower up.

26:24So most deductions are a hundred percent preventable. And that's what you're talking about. And so even if a brand were to pay someone to manage the deductions for them, that's an expense one. And then two, that's cashflow. You don't have control. So with that on mine. That's why this matters so much. So having the right amount of stuff in the box so that you're not putting too many, you know, enough boxes to fill the shelf so that you can reorder it and make sure you've got more coming in without putting back stock in the stores. There's so many things to consider. So thank you for bringing all that up.

26:59One of the things I think the other, like really quickly, Dan, I think the other important thing to note is that your buyers don't have the control that you think that they have. So if that you have an order that comes across from a buyer and it's absurd and you, you have the data, you have the wherewithal to know that that order is absurd, please push back as a brand because they're trying to play a game with you. Right. And I don't want this podcast to like evolve into like a, the retailers are the devil. But I just think that brands need to be equipped to know that conversations must happen at every single step of the process.

27:42And that if something funky comes across from a major retailer or a broker or whatever, ask the questions. Just ask the question back. I think that's something that is also critically important for brands to know. Thank you for sharing that. And let's put distributors in that bucket too, because I think they're some of the biggest violators of these problems. And they actually, they create, in my opinion, a lot more of the issues that we see at retail. And so, yeah, that's something brands need to control is be aware of all this. So thank you for sharing that. So let's say that I start, well, let's talk a little bit about your warehouse.

28:22It is unbelievably clean. I was so thoroughly impressed it looked like well it i mean my hat's off to you honestly it looked like you had just built it hadn't done anything you know no dirt no dust it had a chance to land or anything i was so impressed at how clean it was i was shocked because i mean it you could tell someone spent a lot of time on it let's talk about why that matters from my perspective that shows a lot of care a lot of quality and it shows that you're putting my products my consumers first. What else, why do you do that? What is, what's, why is, why do you make such a point to make sure that your facility looks so great?