“If another business asks why we chose Metrobi, I’d say it’s because of the seamless onboarding and outstanding customer support, the effortless Shopify integration that minimizes manual backend work, and the professional drivers with clean, well-maintained vehicles who provide a premium delivery experience and represent our brand exceptionally well.”
Introducing Oishii !
The business
Who is Oishii, and how did the business grow?
Oishii is a vertical farming company — or as some call it, an agricultural technology company — growing strawberries indoors using Japanese seeds and robotics. Robots select, cut, and quality-check each strawberry; a separate machine measures sweetness (brix level) before the fruit is graded. Anything above 13 is considered good; a reading of 16-17 sends the whole office fighting over who gets to try it.
Oishii operates two facilities: a smaller original site Nick calls the “HQ,” running four to five indoor farms, and a mega-facility in South Jersey with 10 to 15 farms supplying major retailers like Whole Foods and Stop & Shop. The company sells four grades of strawberries — Koyo, Nyoho, Omakase, and its newest and most exclusive, Condor grade — the latter reserved for strawberries left on the stem longer to maximize sweetness and juiciness. For its highest-end clients, Oishii will even fly strawberries out directly.
Oishii at a glance
Details
Oishii
📍101 Linden Ave E, Jersey City, NJ
Challenge
Oishii needed a delivery partner who could be trusted with an unusually delicate, high-value product as the company scaled past what its own trucks and drivers could reasonably cover — especially for last-minute detours and time-sensitive customer windows.
Solution
Oishii connected its Shopify store to Metrobi, automatically booking a driver as soon as an order was placed. A preferred pool of drivers ensured delicate strawberries were delivered with the care they required.
Result
Oishii relaunched its Condor grade strawberries for direct-to-consumer sale with Metrobi handling delivery from day one, while gaining the reliability to expand from wholesale and press/PR deliveries into a full D2C offering.
The Challenge
Why did Oishii need a new delivery solution?
As Oishii grew, its own delivery trucks — originally built around wholesale routes — became harder to stretch. Adding an extra stop meant either delaying other deliveries or arriving at odd hours; asking a driver already headed to Connecticut to detour through New York often meant a customer receiving strawberries at 6 a.m., which wasn’t workable.
Before trusting Metrobi with its own product, Oishii tested the platform by placing orders from another Metrobi-using merchant, a Brooklyn cake shop, and shipping them to four locations around New York City — evaluating how carefully drivers handled the product in transit and whether they followed merchant instructions on drop-off.
The solution
How does Oishii book deliveries with Metrobi?
Oishii’s Shopify store is connected to Metrobi through Zapier: once a customer selects a delivery date and time, the order automatically creates a delivery in Metrobi.
Order placed
Customer selects delivery date and time on Oishii's Shopify site.
Auto-booked
Zapier sends the confirmed order directly into the Metrobi platform, requesting a driver.
Approve & adjust
Oishii works primarily with a small pool of trusted drivers who understand how to handle delicate fruit.
The results
What changed for Oishii after switching to Metrobi?
Oishii officially relaunched its Condor grade strawberries for direct-to-consumer delivery, taking its first order on day one. Over the course of the pilot, Metrobi completed 71 stops for Oishii — 47 customer deliveries and 24 wholesale/press/PR pickups — with a 100% completion rate and zero returns.
The company ran the offering as an eight-week pilot, with expansion depending on both delivery performance and how much of the delicate, longer-to-ripen Condor grade the farms can produce.
In their words
Nick Daley is Senior Operations Manager at Oishii, overseeing the company’s direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels outside of core strawberry production.
How should a business test a new courier before switching fully?
Rather than trusting Metrobi with its own delicate strawberries right away, Oishii first tested the platform through someone else's orders. The company placed orders from another Metrobi-using merchant — a Brooklyn cake shop — and had them shipped to four locations around New York City, watching closely how carefully drivers handled the product in transit and whether they followed the merchant's drop-off instructions. Only after seeing consistent, careful handling did Oishii move its own Condor grade strawberries onto the platform.
How do you deliver fragile or high-value products without damage?
Oishii built its delivery approach around a small, preferred pool of drivers rather than the full network — people who, in Nick Daley's words, "understand the assignment," meaning they handle a delicate product with care from pickup to drop-off, not just treat it as a standard pickup-and-drop. Drivers also represent the brand directly: professional dress and well-maintained vehicles were part of what Oishii evaluated, since a courier delivering a premium product is effectively an extension of the brand at the customer's door. Over the pilot, this approach produced a 100% completion rate with zero returns.
Can Shopify orders trigger automatic courier bookings?
Yes — Oishii connected its Shopify store to Metrobi through Zapier, so the process requires no manual booking. Once a customer selects a delivery date and time at checkout, the order automatically creates a delivery request in Metrobi, which then assigns it to one of Oishii's preferred drivers. The result is minimal backend work: orders flow straight from "placed" to "booked" without anyone on Oishii's team manually scheduling a driver for each one.
What should I look for in delivery drivers for a premium or luxury product?
For a brand-sensitive, high-value product, driver quality matters as much as delivery speed. Oishii looks for drivers who dress professionally and keep clean, well-maintained vehicles — since, as Senior Operations Manager Nick Daley put it, a courier is "allowed onto your platform" and effectively represents the brand at the customer's door. Just as important is handling behavior: drivers who understand they're carrying a delicate product, not just completing a pickup-and-drop, and who follow specific care instructions the whole way through.
