Shelf Life Management

Shelf life management is the discipline of ensuring that perishable products reach the end customer with enough remaining shelf life to be sold or consumed before expiration. It begins at production – when the "clock starts" on a product's usable window – and extends through every warehouse hold, carrier transit day, and distribution center dwell time until the product reaches a retail shelf or consumer's door.

In practice, shelf life management requires tracking expiration dates or best-by dates at the lot or batch level and making transportation decisions accordingly. A frozen meal with 90 days of shelf life and a retailer requiring 60 days of remaining life at delivery leaves only 30 days for production, storage, and transit combined. Shippers must factor this math into carrier selection – choosing faster transit options when shelf life is tight – and into order prioritization, shipping oldest inventory first (FEFO – First Expired, First Out) to prevent warehouse waste.

Poor shelf life management shows up as rejected loads at receiving docks, product markdowns, write-offs, and strained retailer relationships. For DTC brands shipping perishable subscription boxes, it shows up as customer complaints and churn. The challenge intensifies as product assortments grow and distribution networks become more complex, with multiple warehouses and fulfillment locations each holding inventory with different production dates.

Automation plays a critical role here – systems that track expiration dates across inventory and factor remaining shelf life into shipment planning eliminate the manual calculations and spreadsheet tracking that lead to costly errors.