Who doesn’t love a decadent, yet healthy snack that helps fuel your workouts, fill your cravings, and fits seamlessly into your day-to-day routine?

Slate, an official UFC partner, is a lactose-free, high-protein, keto-friendly drink with no added sugars and all the flavor. Since it can function as a healthy pick-me-up, pre- or post-workout snack, or guilt-free midnight treat, it’s no surprise Slate products are flying off the virtual shelves on Amazon.

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MyFBAPrep knows this well because we’re in the trenches handling their FBA prep. We spoke with Supply Chain Manager Dwight Otis and Director of Operations Justin Goodwin to get the scoop on this fan-favorite beverage.

Read on to learn how Slate got started on Amazon and how logistics helped unlock their growth (and bandwidth).

Getting started on Amazon

“We had inventory shortages that prevented us from selling FBA prior. So, Tom [from MyFBAPrep] and I were in contact … [and] as inventory became available to really fund Amazon warehouses, we reached back out [to MyFBAPrep] because we wanted an easy, quick way of doing things outside our normal network.” — Justin Goodwin, Slate Director of Operations

Before they began sending regular inventory into Amazon, MyFBAPrep Co-founder and CEO Tom Wicky had already noticed Slate and reached out to see where we could help.

Once steady inventory came in — enough to meet the brand’s growing demand — Justin reached out again to Tom to begin selling on Amazon.

Initially a DTC company, launching on that vast marketplace wasn’t Slate’s top priority, but the speed and ease of working with MyFBAPrep helped lower that barrier to entry and made FBA more accessible to this booming brand.

FBA prep time cut by a week

“The volume of direct e-commerce orders we receive can make it difficult for some of our other partners to prioritize FBA builds. It could take 7 to 10 days just for items to be ready for pickup  by Amazon. With MyFBAPrep, it takes two, maybe three days to prep and pick up.” — Justin Goodwin, Slate Director of Operations

As Slate began selling consistently on Amazon, MyFBAPrep was able to turnaround inventory for FBA in less than half the time of Slate’s prior 3PL. That’s at least an entire week of sales and revenue with each shipment thanks to MyFBAPrep’s speed and familiarity with FBA procedures.

According to Justin, “For anyone that has that segmentation between DTC and Amazon, it’s beneficial to have a partner that’s focused solely on prepping and shipping to Amazon,” thanks to a strong understanding of the marketplace standards and requirements. With their original 3PL, “the deviation away from SOP and what is needed for Amazon prep is what caused the bottleneck.”

The more familiar your prep partner is with the FBA program, the faster and more efficiently they can prepare your goods for the Amazon network. It also pays to have items prepped right the first time, as every non-compliance results in a mix of fines, delays, and expensive return shipping.

Unlocking Amazon revenue

“Since having the ability to properly fund Amazon warehouses, each month live on FBA has been our strongest month ever.” — Justin Goodwin, Slate Director of Operations

Justin noted the first few months of selling on Amazon are designed to establish a benchmark of what they can expect, and since fully launching on Amazon earlier this year, each month has exceeded their previous one.

According to him, “The inventory unlock was the biggest thing. Adding on top of that a partner that can prep orders and get them into Amazon FCs in a timely manner allowing us to keep items in stock was the final piece. We couldn’t be any happier with their services.”

Amazon is a stickler for consistency and supply. To maintain your sales, it’s incredibly important to stay in stock. Once you sell out of an item, your listing suffers, and all of your hard-earned rankings go out the window, forcing you to redo that work to get back to the top.

A focus on growth, not boxes

“MFP certainly makes it easy on us. We just send in the materials that they need, and they turn everything around quickly. They certainly make the process pretty effortless…. MFP allows us to spend our time focusing on other things to assist the growth of our company … you’d be foolish not to enlist the help of experts to lighten your load.” — Dwight Otis, Slate Supply Chain Manager

Dwight emphasized how the benefit of working with MyFBAPrep is that the Slate team can focus on growing the company instead of wrangling ever-changing Amazon FBA policies. He notes that MyFBAPrep is also able to do this in an affordable way that scales.

Additionally, Dwight shared that MyFBAPrep took on the logistical hassle of monitoring accounts and inventory levels. We were able to relieve “the headache of trying to do those steps yourself and having labor for kitting and fulfillment, and things like that. It takes a lot of the things that people don’t think about off your plate … and you know not only that it’s getting done but it’s getting done correctly because of [MyFBAPrep’s] experience level.”

As an example, Dwight told us how their account manager called to check if MyFBAPrep could send items in a little earlier to save Slate time and money, and we readily obliged. He said, “Those are the things that we appreciate that you certainly don’t see everyday. People don’t make it as effortless as MFP.”

Wrapping up — The MyFBAPrep advantage

Thanks to MyFBAPrep, Slate enjoys quick inventory prep and shipping into the Amazon network quickly (up to a week faster than the alternative). They also have peace of mind that these services are efficient, as we keep an eye out for improvements and optimizations, and correct, thanks to our extensive experience with FBA. Even better, it all runs on autopilot, freeing up time to work on growing their brand.

When asked their favorite thing about working with MyFBAPrep, Dwight said, “Everyone is very responsive. Jaime [our account manager] jumps on our questions and provides info very quickly when we need it. So far, it’s been nothing but positive as far as I’m concerned.”

If you’re interested in achieving similar results or other goals, get in touch with us and see how MyFBAPrep can craft a solution tailored to your unique needs.