We run e-commerce for food brands. The catalog, the freight, the subscriptions.
Then we point the ads at the SKUs that actually make money.
For food and beverage brands doing $500K to $5M on Shopify. In fourteen days you will know exactly which SKUs lose money on every order they ship, at 2026 freight rates.If I do not find at least $35,000 in annual margin leakage, you do not pay.
The fee is credited toward your first month if you keep me on.
Four audits a month, that is the capacity.
It isn't your ads. It's phantom margin.
Every food brand I have worked with has been profitable on the dashboard and losing money in the box.Your reports show a healthy blended margin. Meanwhile multiple SKUs in your catalog lose money on every order they go out on. And because those SKUs are your bestsellers, your ad spend is pointed directly at them.You are not scaling a business. You are scaling a leak.Here is why it got worse this year specifically. Carriers raised base rates roughly 6% for 2026, but residential surcharges, fuel, dimensional weight and peak fees stack on top, so most DTC brands are absorbing double digits.Every one of you costs moved. Almost nobody re-ran their unit economics. So the margin number you are making decisions with is a snapshot of a business that no longer exists.
What phantom margin actually is
In most categories margin is a fixed number. Cost of goods, price, done.Food is different. Your true cost per order moves with case weight that varies bag to bag, shipping zone, cold packs and insulation, box size and dunnage, your free shipping threshold, and shrink on anything that did not move in time. None of those numbers live in Shopify. They live in your 3PL's system, your carrier invoices, and a spreadsheet somebody built once and never updated.So the margin you run on is directionally right and specifically wrong. Specifically wrong is what you are buying ads against.
The second half of the same problem
Your warehouse and your store are two separate ledgers. The 3PL calls it 950720-2 BEEF PETITE RIBEYE 3-5 OZ. Shopify calls it Petite Ribeye, 4-Pack. Nothing enforces that those are the same thing, so the counts drift and your bestseller sits out of stock for eleven days before anyone notices.A stockout never shows up in a report. It shows up as a flat month.Ads multiply whatever is underneath them. If the foundation is off by eight points, spending more digs the hole faster with better attribution.
WHAT WE DO
Fishkill runs the online store for food and perishable brands. Not as a marketing channel, as a business: SKU and inventory integrity with your 3PL, real margin per product, subscriptions and clubs that actually retain, and the email and paid programs that feed them.Most food brands do not have a traffic problem. They have a unit economics and fulfillment problem. We fix that first and grow on top of it.You are not hiring an agency team. You get one senior operator who has owned a seven figure profit and loss across six food brands, launched and sold his own direct to consumer food brand, and currently runs DTC for a premium beef company. Specialists get brought in as needed and managed by me.
PROOF
Six food brands, one P&L. 2021 to 2025.
Owned the full profit and loss across a six-brand Shopify portfolio. Revenue grew 76%, then 68%, then 65% year over year. Conversion rate 2.75% to 3.45%. Average order value doubled. Organic traffic up 400%. Email at 40% open rate and 19% CTR.
HOW TO WORK WITH ME
Fishkill is the operator you use to get to the point where the full time hire makes sense. When it does, I will help you write the job description and hire the person.
Start here. The Phantom Margin Audit. $3,500. 14 days.
Master product sheet reconciling your 3PL, production codes and Shopify catalog. Discrepancy report on every SKU that does not match. Fully loaded contribution margin per product at current 2026 freight rates. Stockout and shipping cost analysis. Prioritized 90 day plan.If I do not identify at least $35,000 in annualized margin leakage or recoverable revenue, you do not pay. You keep the deliverables either way. And if you keep me on afterward, the $3,500 is credited toward your first month.
Optional project, after the audit. Subscription Club Build. $6,500. 4 to 6 weeks.
Tier architecture and pricing, subscription platform selection and migration to standard Shopify orders, customer portal, product or flavor selection flow, churn and skip logic, and the full launch email sequence. Built for consumables, where subscription is the only retention mechanic that actually works and where 2026 churn is punishing brands that set it up carelessly.
The ongoing option. Fractional E-Commerce Director. From $5,000 per month.
I run the channel. Shopify operations, 3PL coordination, margin and pricing decisions, promotional calendar, subscription growth, affiliate infrastructure, and management of your email and paid partners. Three month minimum, then month to month, fifteen day notice.
HOW THIS COMPARES
A Shopify agency builds and designs. They will not open your carrier invoices or reconcile your 3PL. Their work sits on top of the problem.
A paid media agency optimizes spend against a margin number you handed them. If that number is wrong, they will efficiently scale your losses.
A full time e-commerce director costs $130,000 to $160,000 plus benefits and takes 30 to 60 days to learn your catalog. Right answer above roughly $5M in online revenue. Expensive insurance below it.
They were skeptical too.
More orders in one week than we'd ever seen. The systems held up.
Built and grew 3 stores to millions in revenue, all in the meat industry.
Three things you can do this week. No call required.
Fully load one order
Step 1
Take your bestseller. Add cost of goods, box, cold pack, dunnage, pick and pack, payment processing, and the real carrier charge to zone 7, not zone 2. Compare that to price after your average discount.
Match 20 SKUs
Step 2
Export your product list from the 3PL and from Shopify. Count exact matches. Under 90% means your inventory numbers are already drifting and every replenishment decision is a guess.
Check the shipping line
Step 3
Shipping should sit between 5 and 12% of revenue for most categories. And if your free shipping threshold is not at least 1.3x your average order value, you are absorbing shipping on nearly every order.
If any of those came back ugly, you have phantom margin. The good news: it is the fastest money in the business. You are not buying new customers; you are keeping the ones you already paid for.
FAQ
Are you a marketing agency?
No. Marketing is one of the things I manage. The core work is operations and unit economics: SKU integrity, fulfillment coordination, margin per product, and subscription mechanics.
Why do food brands need a specialist?
Food has the lowest gross margins in consumer packaged goods, roughly 21 to 38% versus about 57% for direct to consumer overall. Variable case weight, cold chain, expiry and shipping cost as a large share of order value mean generalist e-commerce advice frequently loses food brands money.
What does it cost?
The Phantom Margin Audit is $3,500, delivered in 14 days, and credited toward your first month if you keep me on. Subscription club build $6,500. Retainer from $5,000 per month.
How fast do I see something?
The audit delivers in 14 days. Most brands act on the SKU discrepancy report in week one.
Who actually does the work?
I do. Andres Pineiro, based in the Hudson Valley, New York. Specialists in email, design and paid media are brought in per project and managed by me.
Find out what your real margin is.
Send your product list and last month of orders. In fourteen days you will know which SKUs make money at 2026 freight rates, which ones do not, and exactly where your store and your warehouse disagree.Read only access is fine. If I do not find at least $35,000 in annualized margin leakage, you do not pay, and you keep the deliverables either way.[email protected]
Headquartered in Beacon, New York · Working with stores nationwide.