Chris Sherman’s story about Island Creek Oysters, which he shared on Shopify Masters, is the perfect illustration of how to win with a consumable product. They sell live oysters directly to consumers. It’s a premium, perishable, and frankly, intimidating product to ship, but they built a significant business by focusing maniacally on the things that matter for consumables: logistics and customer experience. Before them, getting that quality of oyster usually meant going to an upscale restaurant. By building out their own cold chain logistics, they created a system to bring that experience into people's homes. The business isn't just about selling a single box of oysters; it's about creating a repeat purchase habit. The entire model is built around replenishment and ensuring the customer trusts that every single delivery will be fresh and safe. That's the core of a great consumables business. It lives and dies on its ability to deliver a consistent product that people re-buy, often on subscription. With consumables, your operations are the brand.
On Honest Ecommerce, Matthew Berk from BeanBox made a similar point but from a different angle. He sells coffee, another classic consumable. He emphasized that you have two products: the physical item you deliver and the digital experience of buying it. For a consumable brand that relies on repeat orders, a frictionless online experience is just as important as the quality of the coffee beans. A customer might love your product, but if re-ordering is a pain, you'll lose them. This is a common theme. Consumables are about creating a routine, and every touchpoint, from the website to the unboxing, has to support that.
Contrast this with a traditional hard goods business. On Ecommerce Conversations, Mike Schwarz talked through the process of building an apparel brand. His challenges were entirely different from those of Island Creek Oysters. He wasn't focused on a cold chain or a 30-day repurchase cycle. His world was about sourcing and manufacturing in Los Angeles, managing countless SKUs for different sizes and colors, and navigating the much longer and more unpredictable cycle of fashion trends. For hard goods, inventory management is king. If you order too much of one size or a color that doesn't sell, your cash is tied up in dead stock. The purchase is also more considered. A customer might browse for weeks before buying a jacket, and they might only buy one from you per year, if ever again.
The guys on The EcomCrew Ecommerce Podcast have talked about the advantages of selling consumable products for this exact reason. A consumable business has a built-in engine for customer lifetime value. If your product is good and your logistics are dialed in, you create a loyal customer who comes back again and again. With hard goods, you're often starting from scratch to acquire a customer for every single purchase. One model is about perfecting a replenishment system, and the other is about mastering the art of the one-off sale and managing physical inventory against unpredictable demand.