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Learn how Australian-based pancake mix brand The Protein Pancake outsourced to ShipBob to scale their fulfillment without sacrificing customization.

Customer Profile

The Protein Pancake is an Australian brand serving up high-protein pancake mixes packed with flavor, with as much as 10g of protein per pancake. Made with natural ingredients and no added sugar, the ready-made mixes come in indulgent flavors like buttermilk, chocolate, salted caramel, and more (including gluten-free options). With stack bundles including accessories like pans, spatulas, and waffle makers, they make it easy to level up your breakfast game. 

Key metrics

• 2X increase in order volume YoY 
• 3 employees 
• 2 ShipBob fulfillment centers in 2 countries 
• 3 custom gift note templates used 

About The Protein Pancake

When the COVID-19 pandemic kept us inside in 2020, lots of people picked up hobbies; Luke Rolls picked up a pan.  

With restaurants closed, the Australian native was cooking breakfast for himself and set out to try some healthier recipes – but none of the DIY pancake ones he found were up to par. He decided to create his own pancake mix, and in doing so, found a formula he knew others would love.  

After a year of development, the Protein Pancake mixes launched online to rave reviews. The brand has only picked up steam since then, with demand for their delicious mixes and ever-expanding product catalog growing higher by the week.  

We sat down with Luke Rolls, Founder of The Protein Pancake, to discuss how outsourcing fulfillment to ShipBob helped the brand scale while enhancing the delivery and unboxing experience.  

Outsourcing fulfillment to experts who support scaling order volumes with ease 

As told to ShipBob by Luke Rolls, Founder of The Protein Pancake.  

I did some research into 3PLs in Australia, and I found ShipBob. Initially, I had only considered smaller, more local fulfillment providers, but ShipBob has a fulfillment center in Melbourne (where my company is based) as well as had all the capabilities I was looking for. I decided to give ShipBob a shot, and we’ve done nothing but grow ever since! 

“Our growth’s been rampant, and we’ve at least doubled last year’s sales already. Because we outsource fulfillment to ShipBob, I’ve only needed two part-time employees besides myself. We can all focus purely on marketing and still keep up with our order volume, thanks to ShipBob – I actually wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise.  

With ShipBob picking, packing, and shipping orders for us, we don’t have to stress about how we’ll scale our operations to meet demand, because ShipBob can handle huge volume increases, no problem. That capacity has helped us scale massively.”  

Luke Rolls, Founder of The Protein Pancake 

Choosing a partner with a global fulfillment network to expand into new geographies, cut delivery times, and delight customers 

Australia is by far our biggest market, so we absolutely needed a fulfillment partner that had a local fulfillment center, and ShipBob fit the bill.  

Fulfilling orders out of ShipBob’s Melbourne facility has been exceptional for delivery speed. Most of my customers are already on the East Coast of Australia anyway, so shipping orders from a local fulfillment center means they can get their orders in just a couple days – much faster than Australians are accustomed to. It’s also made some of our international shipping quicker, since Melbourne is quite close to New Zealand (which is our second biggest market).  

We also get a lot of customers in the UK. From the very beginning, I knew we would need a partner that also had fulfillment centers in or near all the countries we sell to – and the ones we want to expand into – so that I could cut shipping times and costs for those shoppers as well.  

That’s part of why we went with ShipBob: they have a huge global presence, including fulfillment centers in key markets like the UK, the US, and Canada. They had great coverage for the places we were selling and the places on our growth roadmap, so we could scale without a lot of complications.  

We recently started leveraging one of ShipBob’s UK facilities, so that we can reduce cross-border complexities and make shipping faster for UK customers by storing stock there. It’ll also make shipping a lot cheaper, which I’m excited for. Australian shipping is generally pretty expensive, but the UK shipping rates are better – so shipping locally within the UK will save us a fair bit of money long term. 

“I totally get why consumers prefer local deliveries: shorter wait times, less expensive shipping, and avoiding surprise tariffs or fees. That’s why it’s so important to have fulfillment centers in areas that I wanted to grow into, so that customers aren’t deterred and can get a fantastic delivery experience no matter where they live. With ShipBob’s global network, we can achieve that.”  

Luke Rolls, Founder of The Protein Pancake 

I used to pack and send inventory to Amazon myself, and it was a huge annoyance, so I would put off doing it for a lot longer. Now with ShipBob, it’s just really nice to just go into the dashboard, create an order, and upload the labels. It’s so much easier to have them take care of it and transfer the inventory.  

Leveraging ShipBob’s Customization Suite to deliver personalized, curated unboxings (and reward small business shoppers) 

Bending over backwards for our customers is part of our brand identity. If a customer is choosing to spend their dollars with my business, I want to go out of my way to make each customer’s experience as personalized as possible. This can be really hard to do with a 3PL – but ShipBob actually has a whole Customization Suite that makes it easy.  

For example, when I was packaging orders myself, I would include a handwritten card in every single order. It wasn’t sustainable as our order volume grew, but I still wanted to preserve that element of the unboxing experience.  

Luckily for me, ShipBob supports custom inserts and gift notes! They’re stored separately as a SKU, and I can use ShipBob’s rules logic to automatically tag which orders to include them in. The notes are even printed in a handwriting font, so it retains the sense of a personal touch while being a lot more scalable. 

“ShipBob’s Rules Logic for customizing orders is really easy to use. All you have to do is set up the rules in the back end, tag the orders, and the system automatically determines which new orders should get which inserts, gift notes, packaging, or other personal touches.  

It’s so simple to create new rules; I’ve already set up rules for three custom inserts, and have them going out with a customer’s first, second, and fifth orders to promote retention. Even if it costs a little extra, I still think that personalizing customers’ orders and making that impression is so worth it.”  

Luke Rolls, Founder of The Protein Pancake 

We also use custom banded packaging for each order, and ShipBob supports that, too. I even recorded GIFs of me packing each product into a custom box, and that video is attached to all of my orders that then get tagged with that box. When it’s time for a packer to pack an order in ShipBob’s fulfillment center, they see that GIF and know exactly how to place everything so that the order is packed perfectly.  

It’s things like that that prove that ShipBob has built a high level of care and attention into their fulfillment process, and I really appreciate it.  

Improving inventory forecasting, reordering, and lot management with ShipBob’s dashboard 

One of my favorite parts of ShipBob’s solution is the analytics I get through the ShipBob dashboard. I use the reporting constantly, especially to track my stock. It’s even helping me get better at inventory forecasting.  

Before, I was just fumbling through the demand planning process and just ordering inventory based on what sold out. But now I have insight into metrics like SKU velocity and inventory days on hand, and I’m using that to decide what to reorder and how much of it I need. That helps a lot, especially now that the brand is scaling and I’m ordering my products in bigger batches.  

My business’s pancake mixes are shelf-stable, so I also manage lot tracking through the ShipBob dashboard. It’s been good to track different lots (which have different expiration dates) to make sure I’m never shipping out expired product.   

Enjoying localized support that’s available when you need it 

ShipBob’s support is top-notch. When shipments are lost or damaged and we open a support case, they’re always resolved quickly and easily. If there’s ever a problem with shipping, they have a backend claims process to determine if it’s worth a credit and then they follow up with the couriers on our behalf.  

It’s excellent to have support available all the time, too. Our Merchant Success Manager is great, and serves as our direct contact to ShipBob. I can just message her if something requires her attention, and since she’s in Australia too, I don’t have to worry about waiting hours for a reply.  

What’s next for The Protein Pancake 

Our goal is global pancake domination, starting with ramping up operations in the UK and hopefully expanding into the US soon!  

The tariff exemptions closing in July of 2025 threw a bit of a wrench in things for shipping to the US, but that only makes us more thankful to have a global fulfillment partner like ShipBob that can help us fulfill orders locally in the US and bypass a lot of the complexities. It gives me options that I wouldn’t have if I had kept managing fulfillment myself. Having ShipBob in my corner is invaluable, and I’m so glad they’re a part of the “flipping family!” 

The Protein Pancake’s team at ShipBob

Get started with ShipBob

Want to improve your ecommerce fulfillment strategy and scale your business? Discover if ShipBob is the right fit for your brand and request a fulfillment quote below.