John Accardi started CRAVEBOX in 2014. CRAVEBOX sells snack boxes and gift baskets at cravebox.com. In today’s difficult sourcing environment, John has found several ways to make the CRAVEBOX supply chain more efficient and reliable which is helping him cut costs and beat competitors.
Find Redundant Suppliers
John says he noticed the supply chain becoming very unreliable soon after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He’d place purchase orders and only about 25% of the ordered products would be fulfilled. He quickly began finding multiple suppliers to order the same products in a redundant fashion. This way he could order what he needed from, for example, 4 different suppliers and the products would likely be fulfilled from at least 1 of those suppliers. John Says, “It makes for a difficult inventory management and cashflow situation because you often find yourself with too much inventory, but it’s necessary to stay in-stock during an unreliable supply chain environment.” He noticed that this redundant supplier technique was not only great for staying in-stock while competitors were sold-out, but it was great for continuing to get the correct and accurate products, so substitutes wouldn’t need to be made and customers received what they expected from CRAVEBOX.
Source New Products
CRAVEBOX started to source more gourmet and specialty snack brands as the supply chain degraded. John explains that this was helpful because the larger, more popular brands were in high-demand and since CRAVEBOX is a small buyer for a General Mills or Kellogg’s product, there is very little quality communication or incentive to get product to CRAVEBOX. John noticed that for smaller specialty brands, however, he could talk directly to managers or owners of the company and work with them to reliably receive the products he ordered. For example, CRAVEBOX now sells several “Gourmet” snack boxes with smaller brands like “Pop Daddy Pretzels” and “Finger Licking Dutch StroopWaffel.” These products were much easier to source reliably than Cheez-its or Chex-Mix, for example. There was a second huge benefit to creating Gourmet snack boxes and that was that customers are willing to pay a higher price for these products so profit margin could be maintained in the inflationary state of 2022.
Make your Own Products
The 3rd and most comprehensive technique John employed to shore up his supply chain was to start manufacturing his own snack products to include in the CRAVEBOX snack boxes. He hasn’t gone as far as to buy manufacturing equipment yet, but he has hired film and packaging manufacturers and snack co-manufacturers to produce his own branded snack products. This is a more efficient way to source products because you’re paying for the raw materials and labor needed to make the product but you’re not buying a resold product from another brand. John said regarding co-manufacturing: “The result is a lower cost, more reliable production and fulfillment of purchase orders, and the potential to sell your own branded products separately in retail.” This is a form of vertical integration and John plans on continuing to co-manufacture private label products and someday buy the equipment needed to do all manufacturing in-house. As mentioned before, this will not only improve supply chain, but it will improve profit margin and give CRAVEBOX and edge over competition in this high-inflation climate.
About John Accardi
John Accardi is the founder and CEO of cravebox.com and starcoursecap.com. CRAVEBOX assembles care packages and gift baskets to be sold online. STARCOURSE CAPITAL is a venture capital firm that invests in young e-commerce companies. John dropped out of a PhD program at Georgetown University in 2014 to start CRAVEBOX and he says it’s the best decision he ever made. He now runs the businesses out of North Wales, PA and also lives in Manhattan part-time. When John’s not working, he enjoys sailing, playing guitar, and spending time with family.
