Table of Contents
** Minutes
Finding the right wholesale fulfillment partner as a retail-first brand
Starting with ShipBob’s B2B solution in just 3 days
Automating B2B with ShipBob’s EDI solution to save time
Improving retail compliance & order accuracy with automated B2B
Optimizing our supply chain with scalable distribution
Customer Profile
Peak and Valley combines scientific research and holistic medicine to create herbal supplements that support your health journey. Made with the highest-quality, transparently-sourced herbs and mushrooms, Peak and Valley supplements are designed to help balance your body’s hormonal and physiological functions, including brain activity, stress responses, and sleep. While the brand is based in Seattle, WA, Peak and Valley’s products are available in over 4,000 major US retail locations, so you can access natural remedies more easily and conveniently.
Learn how herbal supplement brand Peak and Valley leverages ShipBob’s EDI-automated retail distribution solution to save time and improve accuracy.
Key metrics
- 95% of business is B2B
- 4 retail partners
- 4,000+ retail stores across the US
- 80% time savings on Amazon FBA prep orders
- 3 days to onboard with ShipBob
- 1-person operations team
About Peak and Valley
In 2019, Nadine Joseph wasn’t just studying stress – she was living with it.
Her work as a neuroscience researcher investigating the effects of stress on humans’ learning and memory ability was rewarding. But managing two projects, commuting to two labs, and working 10-hour days had started to take its toll.
She started experiencing chronic fatigue, developed generalized anxiety, and had trouble sleeping. Even after she got her schedule back to normal, the symptoms persisted – so she knew she had to take action.
Having grown up with a mother who taught her about holistic wellness, Nadine began researching herbal and botanical solutions to her health issues. Soon, she discovered adaptogens: plant substances found in herbs and mushrooms that help balance hormones and manage stress.
She began incorporating two different adaptogens – Ashwagandha and Reishi – in her own diet. Sure enough, after three or four weeks of consistent use, her symptoms completely disappeared. Nadine then knew she was onto something that could help not just her, but millions of others.
Nadine started Peak and Valley to share her knowledge and solutions with the world. Since launching in 2019, the brand has grown through major retail channels and is currently available in 4,000 brick-and-mortar stores across the US.
We sat down with Nadine to discuss how ShipBob’s EDI-automated B2B solution has enabled Peak and Valley to save time, improve accuracy, and prepare to scale to the next level.
Finding the right wholesale fulfillment partner as a retail-first brand
As told to ShipBob by Nadine Joseph, Founder & CEO of Peak and Valley.
When I started Peak and Valley, we initially sold direct-to-consumer – but the dawn of iOS 14 and the rising costs of direct acquisition online meant DTC channels weren’t performing as well. Then, Whole Foods reached out to us, and we started selling our products in their stores. This turned out to be much more profitable for us, so we pivoted to focus on B2B channels.
As a retail-first brand, working with CVS, Vitamin Shoppe, Kroger, and Whole Foods to stock our supplements on their shelves, 95% of our business comes through retail channels. The downside to this reality was finding a fulfillment strategy that could handle our B2B volume.
I started off fulfilling B2B orders myself out of my own little warehouse in Seattle, but soon became aware of how extremely challenging it is to manage a warehouse. It would take me hours to input all the data for every B2B order. I quickly discovered that was not for me, and that I wanted to focus on the product and sales.
So after a year, we closed our warehouse and started working with a small 3PL based out of Utah – but that didn’t help, either. They weren’t familiar with a lot of the retailers that we were working with, so we had to educate them on B2B fulfillment.
With our former small 3PL, we experienced tons of fulfillment errors, simply because they weren’t versed in the complexities of retailer compliance and routing guidelines. Plus, they only had a single facility in Utah, whereas most of our retail partners had a lot of their distribution centers on the East Coast.
It wasn’t long before we knew we needed a new solution – one that had a widespread network of locations all across the US, and plenty of retail experience.
Starting with ShipBob’s B2B solution in just 3 days
Ironically, I discovered ShipBob by reading a case study like this one! It was all about how a brand leveraged ShipBob’s retail distribution and fulfillment solutions to grow, even working with some of the same retailers we work with. So I thought, “If ShipBob is a good fit for them, they’ll probably be a good fit for us, too!”
I only had three weeks to move my inventory out of my old 3PL’s facility, so speed to onboard was a huge factor in my deciding process. Turns out, I didn’t even need that amount of time with ShipBob – I onboarded my six SKUs with ShipBob in about three days.
I chose the self-onboarding option that ShipBob offers, and I loved how easy the process was. I did it completely on my own. I didn’t have to engage any sort of rep or anything, because it was super straightforward. The platform is very easy to use, and walks you through the process of integrating your Shopify store with ShipBob and sending ShipBob your inventory.
Automating B2B with ShipBob’s EDI solution to save time
We started out manually processing B2B orders through ShipBob, which worked for several months. A little while ago, we transitioned to ShipBob’s automated retail distribution powered by EDI using their SPS Commerce integration, and it was a game-changer. I wish we had opted for it from the start, because it made our fulfillment a lot more seamless.
“Using ShipBob’s automated B2B solution, I know that orders are going to get out on time, because they’re automatically flowing through ShipBob. It doesn’t require someone to log in, input the order manually, and generate all of the shipping labels – instead, everything is created automatically and accurately. That level of precision and time-savings is absolutely key.”
Nadine Joseph, Founder & CEO of Peak and Valley
I have one person on my operations team, and half of his job is managing all of our wholesale fulfillment. Switching from a manual B2B order flow to an automated one has saved him 6.5 hours in just the first month. With ShipBob automatically processing B2B orders, he’s free to focus on other priorities.
We’ve also saved a lot of time using ShipBob’s FBA prep automation feature for parcel. We just started selling on Amazon, but it’s already so much easier to manage with this feature. With the FBA prep automation, we don’t have to lift a finger outside of submitting the inventory transfer request in the ShipBob dashboard. Then ShipBob handles retrieving all of the box and shipping labels from Amazon Seller Central through the direct integration. Now, it takes 20% of the time it used to take to send a shipment over to Amazon.
Improving retail compliance & order accuracy with automated B2B
When fulfilling B2B orders for major retailers, you get penalized for every mistake you make – so for brands working with larger retailers like CVS, it’s important to find a partner like ShipBob that knows what they’re doing.
Thanks to ShipBob’s expertise and their EDI-automated solution, we’re seeing far fewer errors, and getting better scores on our OTIF (on-time, in-full) reports, particularly for CVS.
“ShipBob knows how to fulfill orders for major retailers, and that knowledge shines through in their EDI-automated B2B solution. With important details that differ between retailers – like freight carrier preferences or limitations on package and pallet size – ShipBob automatically complies with them. I don’t have to keep tabs on or communicate those details anymore. It’s a huge time-saver for my team.”
Nadine Joseph, Founder & CEO of Peak and Valley
Optimizing our supply chain with scalable distribution
In addition to cost-savings from improved accuracy, I’ve also enjoyed lower shipping and freight costs because of ShipBob’s distribution network.
ShipBob has dozens of fulfillment centers across the US, on both coasts and in the Midwest. By storing my inventory in fulfillment centers that are close to my retailer’s distribution centers, we minimize our shipping costs while improving transit times.
ShipBob’s network also gives us the flexibility to scale in the future. If we started shipping through a retail grocer with a distribution hub on the West Coast, for example, all we would have to do is distribute stock to one of ShipBob’s West Coast fulfillment centers. It’s fantastic to have that option of scaling so easily, while expanding with ShipBob.
Looking to the future
Now that we’ve secured retail accounts in drug, grocery, natural, organic, and specialty vitamin markets, our goals are to solidify our relationships with current retailers and focus on improving velocity.
In another year or so, we’ll be looking to add new retail partners. While all of our current retail partnerships were self-sourced, ShipBob helps facilitate retailer introductions with qualified merchants – so we’ll definitely be leveraging that perk.
We’re also starting to focus more attention on selling through Amazon, just to diversify and balance our current portfolio of sales channels. With ShipBob’s Amazon FBA prep automation feature for parcels, we’re looking forward to streamlining that process and putting it on autopilot.
Get started with ShipBob
Want to improve your B2B ecommerce fulfillment strategy and scale your business? Discover if ShipBob is the right fit for your brand and request a B2B fulfillment quote below.
