Shipping chocolates directly to your clients is an important business strategy. However, it comes with challenges. How can you send chocolate to customers without melting it? We explain how to ship chocolate, whether you are setting up an ecommerce food business or optimizing the food shipping service.
How to pack chocolate for shipping
You put time, love, and labor into creating delicious chocolate candies, so you should sell and share them outside your immediate area. Learn how to pack chocolate for shipping so it holds its form and flavor.
Use clean, cold hands. The chocolate has a melting point that is lower than your body temperature. So, run your hands in cold water before you package your chocolate.
Store your chocolates in wine refrigerators to cool them down before shipping. Temperature planning is important when shipping chocolate because the cold causes bloom, and heat melts the chocolate. Many chocolatiers cool their chocolates down in wine coolers before shipping. Wine fridges will not cause sugar to bloom and are less cold than regular refrigerators.
Place your chocolates in a box. Take the same care when packaging your chocolates for your storefront. Positively unboxing your chocolates can go a long way towards generating brand loyalty. The chocolate box protects the candies.
Create your shipping box. Use a shipping box that is 2-3 times larger than your chocolate container. The extra space protects the truffles and keeps them from being smashed in the event that the box gets dented during transit.
Use metalized packing bubbles to line the bottom of the shipping box. They will insulate and cushion your chocolates while deflecting heat.
Determine whether you require cold packs. Determine how many cold packs (s) you will need based on the destination and distance of your chocolates.
Place a cold pack on the bottom of your shipping box. Wrap it in a resealable food bag or other leak-proof container. This will prevent condensation from damaging your chocolates and leaking into the box.
How to Ship Chocolate Without Melting
It isn’t easy to prevent chocolate from melting during shipping. At 72 degrees Fahrenheit, chocolate softens and is susceptible to smudging. It can also be damaged by fingerprints or structural damage. Chocolate’s heat sensitivity can make shipping difficult, but by using best shipping practices, chocolatiers will be able to thrive in the online market. Find out how to prevent chocolate from melting during shipping.
Choose to delay shipment orders. Certain chocolatiers choose to delay shipments if temperatures spike. If you keep your customers informed, they will be less upset by delayed arrivals than by damaged products.
Use packaging materials that are insulating or cooling. The metalized bubble packaging will insulate your chocolates while deflecting heat. By nestling your chocolate boxes in icepacks, you can keep them below the point of softening.
Do not ship chocolate orders on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. All shipments leading up to the weekend and those that arrive there will remain in warm warehouses. Tell your customers that you will not ship any orders placed during these days. You can send them an email to confirm the shipment of their order so that they are confident and clear about your process.
Send an arrival alert. You don’t want your chocolates to melt at your client’s doorstep after you’ve worked hard to prevent them from melting during transit. Update your client on the shipping status of your chocolates so they can receive them as soon as possible.
Do you ship chocolates during the summer?
Some chocolatiers do not ship chocolate during the summer. If you don’t send chocolate in the summer, you will lose business. But with the right packaging, this loss can be avoided. Sending chocolate during the summer can be expensive, depending on your size and the location of your clients. To determine if your chocolate shop can handle summer orders, ask yourself these three simple questions:
Where do you ship to? Shipping chocolates during the summer can be costly if your customers are mostly from areas with warm weather.
Does it make sense to buy chocolate shipping supplies during the summer? Additional fees could scare away customers.
What is the size of your business? When shipping chocolates in the summer months, you need to be on the lookout for weather patterns and packaging. You may not be able to handle summer chocolate shipments if you’re the only employee in your chocolate business.
You could only ship to states with cooler temperatures from June to August if you’re not confident in sending chocolate during the summer but don’t want to stop national sales. You could also include a link to your other candies that you send in the summer when a customer adds chocolate to their shopping cart online during the hot months.
Back to topHow to Ship Chocolate?
You now know how to package sweets. Now, you need to decide the best way of shipping your chocolate. Many chocolatiers provide standard shipping and expedited delivery based on the candy and season purchased. Consider requiring your clients to use UPS Next Day Air if they live in a location that is above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. USPS two-day is an economical and reliable alternative when shipping to cooler climates. Find out our best tips on how to ship chocolate.
Be aware of the average size and weight of your chocolate boxes. This will help you choose the best shipping method for your product.
Provide total transparency. It’s fair to charge extra for ice packs, special packing materials, and other items that are required by your customers’ shipments. We recommend that you include the cost of ice packs in the breakdown of shipping costs. Customers appreciate this transparency. If you explain your pricing structure, customers will be less likely to abandon the cart.
Include shipping costs in your sales price. Offer ‘free shipping’ to disclose the total cost of purchasing chocolates. It can prevent customers from abandoning their carts when they see the shipping costs.
Create a custom tracking page. You can create a tracking page after completing a purchase. On your customized page, you can include food storage tips and beverage pairing suggestions.
All chocolate candies have the same melting point?
Not all chocolate candies melt at the same temperature. To prevent your chocolate from melting, you will need to consider the type of candy that you are sending.
The darker the color of the chocolate is, the more resistant it will be to melting. Chocolate candy is made from two parts of cocoa beans: cocoa butter and cocoa solids. The cocoa butter content of most white and dark chocolate is similar. White chocolate, however, does not contain cocoa solids. White chocolate melts quickly without cocoa solids, which absorb the liquefying butter. The “darkness’ of the candy can be increased by adding cocoa solids. Dark chocolate contains a lot of cocoa, while milk chocolate has a small amount.
Can You Freeze Chocolates?
Chocolatiers don’t recommend freezing or refrigeration of chocolate. Condensation forms on the surface of chocolate when it is cooled and then exposed to warm air. Moisture dissolves some chocolate’s sugar. The sugar will recrystallize and create a white, grainy coating known as “sugar blossom.” This layer can alter the texture and taste of the chocolate. While freezing is an excellent preservation strategy for baked goods avo, avoid it at any cost when shipping chocolate.
Pro tip: Instead of freezing chocolate, store it in a wine refrigerator. Some chocolatiers keep their chocolates in wine coolers to avoid them softening. Wine coolers operate between 45 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. They aren’t as cold as refrigerators. Set a wine cooler to its warmest temperature to prevent sugar blooms and keep truffles with ganache intact.
Keep your chocolates cold before shipping to prevent them from melting. To preserve the taste of your chocolates, store them in an airtight container if you decide to keep them in a wine refrigerator. The cocoa butter in chocolate absorbs flavors and odors, so keeping blueberry truffles next to chocolate turtles will result in a flavor perversion.
