Doudlah Farms B2B Shipping Strategy

Overview

Doudlah Farms operates a B2B wholesale site (WooCommerce) serving grocery co-ops, restaurants, and specialty retailers. Because their customer base spans local Madison-area accounts (delivered by farm truck) to distant buyers requiring freight carriers, a single shipping rule cannot cover all cases. The team settled on a hybrid model with three tiers, configured at the account level in WooCommerce.

This strategy was defined during the ^[1] November 2025 working session and is being implemented alongside the broader ^[2].

The Three-Tier Model

Tier 1 — Free Local Delivery (Established Accounts)

Accounts that fall on existing delivery routes receive free delivery. No shipping is calculated at checkout; the option is simply set to $0 for those accounts.

Current free-delivery accounts include:
- Metcalfe's (multiple locations)
- Willie Street Co-op
- Epic (multiple contacts)
- Outpost
- Seasonal Harvest

How it works in WooCommerce: Each account is provisioned manually when their wholesale application is approved. The free-delivery flag is set per account, so it cannot be gamed by new customers who happen to share a zip code.

Minimum order for free delivery: ~$200–$300 (to be confirmed with Lucy). Orders below this threshold should be directed to the B2C site.

Tier 2 — Calculated Shipping (New / Remote Customers)

New wholesale customers who are outside existing delivery routes are assigned a carrier plugin at checkout. Shipping is calculated automatically by weight and destination zip code.

Carrier options under evaluation:
- UPS — has a native WooCommerce plugin; currently experiencing service quality issues (lost shipments, poor claims resolution)
- FedEx — recommended by a UPS employee as a more reliable alternative; plugin availability to be confirmed
- Unishippers — covers both UPS and FedEx under one account; reviews are mixed, but worth evaluating for plugin support
- Speedy (SPEEDEE) — regional Midwest LTL carrier; significantly cheaper than UPS/FedEx for heavier shipments but limited geographic coverage

Action: Karly to research WooCommerce plugins for UPS, FedEx, Speedy, and Unishippers to determine which support real-time rate calculation at checkout.

Special case — The Root Seller (Sun Prairie): Assigned a $50 flat-rate delivery fee. They receive Tuesday delivery but are outside the free-delivery zone.

Tier 3 — Manual LTL Quotes (Large Orders)

Orders above roughly 300–800 lbs are too large and variable for automated rate calculation. These are handled manually:

1. Customer places an order (or contacts Doudlah Farms directly).
2. Mark or Jason calculates the best carrier option using ShipStation rate comparison.
3. For Midwest destinations, Speedy is the preferred LTL carrier — typically one-third the cost of UPS for pallet shipments.
4. Speedy pricing factors: number of boxes vs. pallet configuration, whether the destination has a loading dock or hand jack (adds ~$50 if Speedy must bring their own).

Real example: A 335 lb order to Oak Crepes — UPS quote was $200–$300; Speedy quote was $120, using 12 boxes (2 bags each) on a pallet.

Speedy coverage: Midwest only; does not serve all states. Mark to verify zip code coverage via the Speedy website (speedee.com → service map).

Account Provisioning Workflow

When a new wholesale application is received:

1. Review the applicant's location and order profile.
2. Assign one of the three shipping tiers.
3. Assign the appropriate price list (standard new pricing, or custom list for Mark Bernard / Piggly Wiggly / Al & Al).
4. Create the WooCommerce account with the correct shipping and pricing rules.
5. Add links to the relevant product catalog tab (e.g., L&L Foods / Woodman's links in column G of the pricing sheet).

Accounts selected for pre-launch user testing: Seasonal Harvest, Outpost, Truvian.

Key Decisions

Open Items

• [ ] Research WooCommerce plugins: UPS, FedEx, Speedy, Unishippers — confirm real-time rate calculation support (@Karly Oykhman)
• [ ] Set account-level shipping rules for all existing B2B accounts (@Karly Oykhman)
• [ ] Add $50 flat-rate shipping rule for The Root Seller (@Karly Oykhman)
• [ ] Confirm Stripe payout cadence and reporting with Mark Hope (@Karly Oykhman)
• [ ] Call Marty (farm hub) to learn how he handles shipping/handling calculations for multi-farm delivery (@Mark Doudlah)
• [ ] Send custom price lists for Mark Bernard, Piggly Wiggly, and Al & Al to Karly (@Mark Doudlah)

Related

• ^[3]
• ^[4]
• ^[5]