How Alice Mushrooms Boosts Customer Experience by Pre-Kitting Limited Edition Products

Alice Mushrooms is one of the fastest growing CPG brands in the mushroom supplement space. They make delicious chocolates infused with various mushrooms to give you an immediate boost to cognitive functioning.  

Co-Founder of Alice Mushrooms, Charlotte Cruze says “DCL’s level of organization has helped our business become more organized, which ultimately results in a more reliable experience for our customers.” 

Like many early-stage growing brands, the Alice team were stuck in the weeds of operations happening in the immediate, but with DCL’s organization and process, they’ve been able to pull back and think bigger about their brand growth, and it’s resulted in a much better customer experience.  

Charlotte says, “When we first launched, we had a 3PL that was kind of a start-up itself, it just wasn’t a streamlined experience. Coming to DCL has made everything feel so organized and put-together. It helped us get our ducks in a row; it’s made our business more organized.”   

Ecommerce Case Study: Alice Mushrooms

• Problem: Alice Mushrooms is a growing CPG brand managing products with expiration dates that need to go to individual customers, big box retailers, and boutique stores.
• Solution: DCL’s streamlined process for pre-kitting products (for D2C and retail sales) helps Alice ensure all products are pre-kit and ready to go, right when an order comes in.
• Result: Alice customers reliably get better customer experience, and faster delivery, because the Alice team can forecast, stock, track and manage orders in a more organized and standardized way.

Special Edition Products: Pre-Kitting for Improved Customer Experience

Like many CPG brands, Alice relies heavily on limited edition product sales, customers love the novelty, and Alice gets a bump in orders. “The pre-kitting work DCL has set up for us has been great,” Charlotte says. “We dropped limited edition flavors of our existing chocolate SKUs over the holidays, and we made special boxes with them.”   

The process of implementing a new item in your fulfillment flow can be cumbersome. The Alice team has learned that setting up pre-kit packages is the best way to make things run easier on the line, especially for limited edition sales. Charlotte says, “DCL makes it easy to set everything up. Basically, we made sure all products were at the DCL warehouse by October, and their team took care of the rest.” 

DCL’s organized process to set up pre-kit bundles has given the Alice team a standardized way to continue creating new flavors, but success lies in the customer experience. Charlotte says. “The pre-kit process was especially great during the holidays; everything is already so hectic, so it was great to get this premium product delivered the right way and on time.” 

“The DCL team goes above and beyond to ensure our products get out correctly and on time. It’s so important to work with a provider who cares about your brand, and cares about what you’re doing. I think it just starts there, and then you know you’ll be able to solve any problems.”

Managing Omnichannel Growth: Organized Lot Control Tracking for D2C and Retail

Like most CPG brands, Alice started out largely as a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand, but as their popularity grows, so does their retail business.  

DCL handles both D2C and wholesale fulfillment for Alice. Managing lot control for all distribution requires a high level of organization to ensure that each customer gets the freshest chocolates possible.  

Charlotte says, “DCL takes all the hassle out of tracking product expiration dates. The shelf life for our products is long, so it’s easy for us to have shelf life for D2C. But larger wholesalers and big distributors will only take your product with 75% shelf life left. That’s a big chunk of our product we need to set aside when it first comes in.”  

Brands need to find a balance between pre-kitting enough products to keep up with demand but also forecasting accurately to meet their actual demand. A brand doesn’t want to have too many kits on hand and have them expire, but having too few kits ready runs the risk of getting them to a retailer late, which can result in fines, or termination of a contract.  

Charlotte says, “You need your 3PL to be incredibly organized. You need them to not only track everything but give you maximum visibility. DCL makes it really easy for me to check on our inventory. They give me as much visibility and organization as possible, which is exactly what you want.”  

Dedication to Service: The Right Fulfillment Partner Helps Scalability

Starting a CPG business, some may think that shipping products is the easy part. But it actually requires a lot of care and thought and organization to get it right. Charlotte says, “What I’ve learned from running this company, is that it all comes down to making sure you’re working with good people. From the beginning, we felt that DCL was the right partner. It’s so nice to have 3PL that you can grow with and see a future with.” 

Choosing a fulfillment partner can feel challenging, and many brands look for cost when they should be looking at service or other factors. For Alice, the factors that matter to them are scalability and dedication to service.  

Charlotte says, “The DCL team goes above and beyond to ensure our products get out correctly and on time. It’s so important to work with a provider who cares about your brand, and cares about what you’re doing. I think it just starts there, and then you know you’ll be able to solve any problems.” 

About Alice Mushrooms

Alice started with one clear mission: to create a daily mushroom ritual that is both effective and delicious. Alice gives people what neither the pharmaceutical industry nor supplements have provided: safe, effective consumables that pair long-term benefits with immediate boosts to cognitive functioning. All in one chocolate bite. Backed by science, loved by taste buds, Alice Mushrooms are a powerful and delicious part of a wellness routine that you can look forward to each day.