How Dirty Labs prevented stockouts and increased revenue by up to $200,000

The search for an efficient Amazon shipping solution.

‍

Dirty Labs is a cleaning innovations lab and retailer on a mission to make petrochemical cleaning obsolete. The company creates, manufactures, and distributes a variety of green cleaning agents like its allergen-free Bio Laundry Detergent.

‍

Dirty Labs uses Amazon to distribute over half of its green products, but delivering to the retailer hasn’t been a walk in the park. According to Director of Operations, Carlos Estrada, “Amazon has a very precise appointment-setting process. Getting our product to them can be tricky, even when leveraging their own carrier network.”

‍

As a growing company, Dirty Labs doesn’t have a lot of extra inventory, so shipping setbacks can cost huge amounts in lost revenue. Estrada remembers a time when a delayed pickup and delivery left them out of stock on some of their highest-selling SKUs for weeks, and resulted in unexpected warehousing fees — a double blow to their operations.

‍

Estrada was on the lookout for new strategies and partners to improve operations, but he expected a long process of trial and error.

An affordable solution that keeps inventory moving like clockwork.

‍

That’s when a call came in from Flock. Estrada received quotes for our terminal-free FlockDirect® service and was impressed by the rates provided, as well as the promise of a more efficient Amazon shipping solution.

Today, Dirty Labs consistently books FlockDirect® to keep inventory moving and deliver into Amazon distribution centers with ease. Small shipments can move as soon as they are ready — so stock no longer sits in warehouses for weeks at a time, waiting for the right truck to coincide with delivery appointments.

FlockDirect® is powered by our patented Shared Truckload technology, which combines multiple shipments into a single truck and moves freight along the most efficient route. Shipments skip the damage and delay-prone LTL network and remain on one truck from pickup to delivery, allowing for increased control and predictability.

As a result, Flock is able to provide Estrada’s team with reliable delivery dates and helps them meet strict appointment times. Estrada says, “Things are running like clockwork. It’s freed up more time for me to focus on optimizing other aspects of our operations.”

Another benefit of working with Flock has been the increased speed of Amazon deliveries. Previously, Dirty Labs partnered with a large LTL carrier that delivered goods in about 10 days. But with Flock, shipments arrive in 2 to 3 days consistently — amounting to a 70% reduction in transit time, according to Estrada.

‍

‍

Dirty Labs’ Flock Freight experience.

By moving their shipments via FlockDirect®, Dirty Labs enjoys seamless delivery without the fuss — which allows them to focus on growing their business.

‍

Preventing stockouts helped achieve sales milestones sooner ↘

‍

Estrada believes working with Flock Freight has played a huge role in moving the business forward. “If it weren’t for having such a dependable partner that gets inventory delivered on time, we might not have reached our revenue milestones this quickly,” he says.

As Dirty Labs continues to hit new sales targets — like its recent $1M of sales in a single month — the operations team has improved its prep processes to ensure they always have product ready to move.

Estrada also credits Flock. By helping prevent stockouts and delivering inventory to Amazon more efficiently, the startup has made up to $200,000 in sales that it might otherwise have lost, he estimates.

Estrada says, “Delivering to Amazon can be difficult. But Flock does it painlessly — every single time.”

Reliable service for fuss-free Amazon deliveries ↘

‍

Estrada enjoys working with the Flock team, and has come to count on Flock for great service and exceptional communication. Quotes and rates have a quick turnaround time, and the options are typically exactly what Estrada is looking for. If issues occur, the Flock team works to quickly resolve them and incorporate feedback into future processes, so the same concerns never arise twice.

‍

More importantly, meeting Amazon’s delivery requirements has become a breeze. Appointment scheduling used to make his life difficult, but now, the Flock team is proactive and keeps his team informed. “Before I even send the BOL to the pickup location, I already know the appointment time for when it’s going to deliver. That visibility changes everything,” says Estrada.

‍

Now, when shipments are time-sensitive or have tricky instructions, Estrada immediately thinks of Flock.

A like-minded partner with an eye on the environment ↘

‍

Dirty Labs’ cleaning agents are biodegradable, packed in fully recyclable materials, and designed to reduce environmental impact. The business was built on sustainability.

‍

So it makes sense to work with a logistics company that also values sustainability. With ultra-concentrated solutions, Dirty Labs’ products are more compact and can be transported in much smaller loads than many of its competitors, which goes a long way to reducing their environmental impact.

‍

With Flock Freight, Dirty Labs can reduce their footprint even further. By booking FlockDirect®, they take advantage of emissions-slashing Shared Truckload technology which maximizes vehicle capacity, avoids energy-intensive hubs and terminals, and reduces carbon emissions by up to 40% — all while meeting tight delivery requirements.

‍

In fact, Dirty Labs’ FlockDirect® shipments have skipped approximately 175 terminals and avoided an estimated 6 metric tons of CO2e emissions* from being released into the atmosphere, according to Flock’s internal data.

‍

_{*Emissions avoided are an estimation of the emissions that pooling freight prevents from being 
released into the atmosphere.}