Ship nationwide frozen — how does FedEx Express dry-ice work?

Standard pattern: FedEx Express overnight (Priority Overnight or Standard Overnight) with the box packed in 2-3 lb of dry ice inside 1.5-inch EPS foam in a corrugated outer. Holds frozen for 36-48 hours.

Critical bits:

• ZIP transit cutoff — FedEx Express delivers next-business-day to ~95% of US ZIPs, but 2-day to remote areas (parts of AK, HI, MT, ND). ShipperHQ rule blocks any ZIP > 1-day transit so a chocolate ganache cake doesn’t arrive defrosted on day-2. Magento attribute cold_chain_class per SKU triggers the rule.
• Friday cutoff — FedEx doesn’t deliver Sunday on Express. Orders placed Friday 2pm onwards ship Monday. Cart messaging must tell the customer this before they pay, not after.
• Dry-ice IATA labeling — dry ice is regulated as ORM-D / UN1845. FedEx label must show the dry-ice weight + Class 9 marking. Magento checkout passes this metadata to the shipping label print queue.
• Packaging cost — $8-15 per box (foam + dry ice + outer). Bake it into the product price or surface as a flat ship surcharge; never as a surprise at checkout.

Levain Bakery and Magnolia Bakery both run this pattern (with Goldbelly handling the logistics for some volume). Damage / spoilage rate on a well-tuned setup runs <0.5% — the gating factor is dry-ice weight and EPS foam thickness, not the carrier.