Transcripts
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Unboxing the Trends.
Speaker:I'm your host, Tim Ranagan.
Speaker:We have an awesome episode for you today.
Speaker:I've got with me again, Lori Boyer, our host of the Unboxing Logistics podcast.
Speaker:Lori, how are you doing today?
Speaker:I'm doing so good, Tim.
Speaker:How are you doing?
Speaker:I'm doing great.
Speaker:Today, Lori, we wanted to talk about the happenings in supply chain and
Speaker:logistics over the last several months.
Speaker:I know that you've recently come back from a couple trade shows, RILA and Manifest.
Speaker:What's the overall vibe in the industry and some things
Speaker:that are trending across 2026?
Speaker:Okay, Tim first, who doesn't wanna talk about what's going on in the
Speaker:supply chain and logistics industry?
Speaker:Go on.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:I have just recently been at a couple of shows on the road with so many of you.
Speaker:It was great chatting with a lot of you that I was able to see in person.
Speaker:I do think I'm getting kind a 2026 feel, so I'm glad you asked about them.
Speaker:I think the biggest maybe baseline vibe kind of shift I'm seeing is
Speaker:disruption is kind of being felt like it's not just a phase anymore.
Speaker:It's the baseline that really came through at the shows and it's actually
Speaker:coming through in the news as well.
Speaker:I. I'll, I'll tell you just a minute.
Speaker:I recently read this really interesting article around that, but basically
Speaker:I'm feeling like when we're there, there's not a sense of like, okay, hold
Speaker:on, and when this settles down, then things are gonna go back to normal.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Instead, people are kind of like, okay, this is normal.
Speaker:And while we've had that a little bit in the past it's just even more solidified
Speaker:that, you know, people are building and designing for disruption rather
Speaker:than trying to respond differently.
Speaker:But I wanted to tell you about this article.
Speaker:It was, so the 2026 Thomson Reuters Global Trade Report.
Speaker:So this is a report that comes out every year, kind of getting a, a
Speaker:feel for everything in the industry.
Speaker:And I feel like that kind of hits on this same vibe.
Speaker:It said supply chain management is now for enterprise organizations,
Speaker:the number one business concern.
Speaker:Which is fine.
Speaker:I mean, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker:Number one, whatever.
Speaker:But what's even bigger to me is that the numbers from last year,
Speaker:at this time to this year at this time, actually have doubled.
Speaker:So last year was just 30% of people thought that it was the biggest thing.
Speaker:We're hitting way almost 70% plus.
Speaker:So supply chain and supply chain management are really something
Speaker:that people are focusing on.
Speaker:This disruption issue needs to be addressed, and so people
Speaker:are not, I feel like kind of looking for the shiny new thing.
Speaker:They're instead looking for like, what's gonna actually make a difference?
Speaker:Like, I want solutions, not just excitement.
Speaker:No, I, I love that.
Speaker:So I was also at RILA.
Speaker:We have a big retail presence at that trade show.
Speaker:And supply chain management was definitely a conversation that popped up in a
Speaker:couple of the sessions that I attended.
Speaker:One that you hosted, Lori, which featured JD Finish Line and Trew
Speaker:Automation and talking about all of the supply chain management that they
Speaker:did across their various projects.
Speaker:And then another one with Duluth Trading Company talking about some
Speaker:new warehouses that they rolled out.
Speaker:A lot of supply chain management in, in those spaces.
Speaker:Disruption seems like it's, it's top of mind for a lot of folks.
Speaker:And it's part of, in those very sessions we talked about in basically
Speaker:how do I change out my entire warehouse and modern and automate
Speaker:while keeping everything going.
Speaker:I mean, what else is.
Speaker:Disruption than that, you know, it's happening.
Speaker:Plug for the RILA one.
Speaker:we were able to shoot that as a podcast episode.
Speaker:So you'll actually be seeing it coming out here as well.
Speaker:So you'll see a live from RILA.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Not live.
Speaker:A review episode from RILA of that very session is gonna be here as part
Speaker:of our Unboxing Logistics podcast.
Speaker:So keep an eye out for that.
Speaker:It was really.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Stay tuned for that one.
Speaker:It was a, it was a great session.
Speaker:Lots of good information.
Speaker:Okay, Lori, so compared to last year, this is our first Unboxing
Speaker:the Trends episode of 2026.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We talked about a lot of things in 2025 across the various
Speaker:episodes that we put out.
Speaker:Are you hearing some of the same things folks are worried about in 2026?
Speaker:Did some of those trends kind of come to fruition, or did 2026 bring
Speaker:a whole new list of things that are disrupting supply chain and logistics?
Speaker:Yeah, I, great question.
Speaker:Really great question.
Speaker:In general, I would say no, we don't have new issues.
Speaker:What it is, to me, what is different is kind of our approach to those same issues.
Speaker:Those sort of disruption.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And challenges.
Speaker:So if disruption's the baseline, I think that just means that
Speaker:consequences kind of matter more.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You can't just think of it as a one-time thing.
Speaker:And I think that's what really felt different to me.
Speaker:One of the things that I saw, you know, we all know costs have gone up and,
Speaker:and that's happened over the last year.
Speaker:What I didn't realize is that businesses, enterprise size businesses,
Speaker:actually I think it's all businesses.
Speaker:Let me check my stat now.
Speaker:All businesses, all organizations, were last year at this time,
Speaker:about 13% of businesses were absorbing those costs instead of
Speaker:passing 'em on to their customers.
Speaker:So most of them pass them on to their customers today, 40% of
Speaker:businesses over last year are absorbing the cost themselves.
Speaker:So obviously with the economy being a little funky.
Speaker:Organizations are seeing that customers maybe just aren't willing to pay more.
Speaker:So costs are hitting us worse.
Speaker:And, and that kind of goes with the disruption.
Speaker:All of that to me means that people are just more serious
Speaker:about making tough decisions.
Speaker:Last year I think there's a little bit more of an energy of, okay,
Speaker:what could we try, what's fun?
Speaker:And this year it's more like, what are we doing?
Speaker:How are we fixing this?
Speaker:How are we getting direct results?
Speaker:What is the ROI?
Speaker:Basically conversation shifts from what should we try to, what happens?
Speaker:Yeah, what is happening and, and how do we do it?
Speaker:It is sort of a big maturity kind of jump.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I, it, it seems unrealistic to expect that businesses will
Speaker:onboard that cost indefinitely.
Speaker:So it seems like as we head into 2026, as we kind of wrap up Q1, these companies
Speaker:are probably looking to introduce some sort of technology or, I mean, AI's
Speaker:the buzzword going around, you know, something that's gonna save them money.
Speaker:So Lori, AI's everywhere.
Speaker:We, we saw it in in tons of sessions, we're obviously keying
Speaker:in on it here at EasyPost.
Speaker:What is the AI message coming into 2026?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I literally, I think I looked through the sessions.
Speaker:I think above like 50% have AI in the title.
Speaker:Like people are talking AI people have been talking AI and I think kind of
Speaker:going back to that idea of we're a little bit over the shiny new stuff.
Speaker:AI's there but it's not as much about novelty anymore.
Speaker:Where at one point it was really novelty and it's really about baseline changes.
Speaker:People aren't just impressed with flashy demos, I guess.
Speaker:Yeah, they, they wanna know if what AI is actually working.
Speaker:So I had so many people talking to me about Lori, what, what actually
Speaker:help me make a better decision when things come down to it.
Speaker:So yeah, a lot in decision making and, you know, less second guessing kind of things.
Speaker:It only really, AI is only of interest to people when it can
Speaker:show tangible, real life returns.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:And not just something cool and maybe this will be awesome in the
Speaker:future, but they're looking for stuff that's working right now.
Speaker:Yeah, it, one of the themes that I keyed in on during RILA, but certainly Manifest
Speaker:sessions touched on this as well, is, is that concept of, is AI an actual
Speaker:tangible return on investment, right?
Speaker:If you have companies across supply chain and logistics wanting to adopt some
Speaker:form of AI strategy, what does AI mean?
Speaker:But how is that, you are going to actually save us money?
Speaker:Is there an ROI with it?
Speaker:You know, what does that look like for any business in
Speaker:supply chain and logistics?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I mean, we're two or three years into kind of the big AI hype, everyone's past the
Speaker:hype and onto like, give me the meat, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So as we head.
Speaker:As we went into the end of 2025, I remember one of our episodes you
Speaker:talked about there's this kind of permeating quiet frustration that
Speaker:exists in supply chain and logistics.
Speaker:And you kind of left us on a cliffhanger, Lori.
Speaker:So I'm excited to learn.
Speaker:As we head into 2026, right, and businesses are wondering, you
Speaker:know, how am I going to save money, adopt better strategies, what
Speaker:technologies we're gonna bring in?
Speaker:What?
Speaker:What is that quiet frustration that you're hearing out in the industry?
Speaker:I think, people are frustrated, and I say this being a technology company, but
Speaker:people are frustrated with so many tools.
Speaker:You know, I like to kind of say, yeah, well, fatigue or, you
Speaker:know, our tech stack fatigue.
Speaker:People are just, look, I get it.
Speaker:Like when disruption is there, we're gonna feel it, it, we, we have complexity and
Speaker:so we're looking for something to fix it.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:It, it starts to pile up and, and people honestly aren't happy.
Speaker:I, I saw.
Speaker:A study recently that just said 7% of people right now in the industry are
Speaker:happy with their tech stack because either they don't integrate well, I
Speaker:think that's the number one concern.
Speaker:They don't integrate, they're not talking well to each other.
Speaker:Half the team doesn't know what other people in other divisions
Speaker:are using different tools.
Speaker:There's not a single source of truth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so everybody's kind of a little bit tired of technology,
Speaker:and yet they know they need it.
Speaker:Again, we're seeing it everywhere.
Speaker:Everyone knows what they need it but they are, they're getting
Speaker:tired of kind of stacking systems and hope that it'll all work.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Tool sprawl, I guess is another good word, word for it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It can create a lot.
Speaker:I, I love that, Lori.
Speaker:It seems like when disruption happens within the industry, it's
Speaker:adopt, adopt, adopt, new technology, new technology, new solution.
Speaker:And it kind of is like wrapping duct tape around your problem and then
Speaker:your, technology chief or the managers that are dealing with those issues
Speaker:are like, we are in over our heads with all of these different systems.
Speaker:They don't communicate with us, with, you know, our legacy
Speaker:systems inside the business.
Speaker:And so that quiet frustration turns out to be not so quiet from the ground up.
Speaker:So yeah, people need to take a look at their tech stack and just be serious about
Speaker:what is working and what isn't working.
Speaker:Don't throw another tool.
Speaker:Even an amazing tool like EasyPost I love us and I think, think we
Speaker:should be the foundation of your tech stack, but do your work right?
Speaker:Look at it and, and see, and, and work with other divisions because when
Speaker:tech stack when tech fatigue gets too high, people just stop using 'em
Speaker:and, and that becomes a big problem.
Speaker:And, and to take that a step further, the recommendation is as you look at
Speaker:your current tech stack, simplify, right.
Speaker:There are holistic end-to-end solutions like EasyPost that can
Speaker:solve those problems of having all of these different disparate
Speaker:technologies not working in sync, right?
Speaker:And before you get inundated in solutions that don't work for you, and it end
Speaker:up costing you more money you know, it's, it's good to be thinking about how
Speaker:you can fix those problems before they become too, you know, cumbersome to fix.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Great point, Tim.
Speaker:All right, so Lori disruption's not gonna go away, right?
Speaker:It's a, it's a mainstay for businesses, whether you're in this industry or not.
Speaker:But in a, in a different way, how are leaders in supply chain
Speaker:and logistics thinking about resilience, how there can offset
Speaker:disruption now versus in years past.
Speaker:I mean, you just came back from a couple conferences,
Speaker:you spoke in several sessions.
Speaker:And I'm sure you had conversations with a lot of these business leaders about.
Speaker:Some of the strategies that they're adopting to help offset those issues.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think, I love that just a second ago you mentioned simplicity.
Speaker:Because in a way I, what I was hearing, at RILA, especially, we heard this
Speaker:message quite a bit, a lot of emphasis on fundamentals like going to the
Speaker:basics, all resilience starts with making sure your basics are strong.
Speaker:Do you have clear data?
Speaker:You know, are you, do you know who owns each step of the process?
Speaker:Do you know what you're going to do or do you know that your your
Speaker:tools are speaking correctly?
Speaker:Or as we mentioned, you know, that you have a single source of
Speaker:truth that everyone is looking to for their data numbers.
Speaker:You've got to have your basics down.
Speaker:You can't be resilient if your basics aren't in place.
Speaker:No tool, no cool AI, anything.
Speaker:Nothing's gonna save you if the basics are a problem.
Speaker:So there was a big emphasis on that RILA I also wanna mention once that's in place,
Speaker:when you have those basics, you've gotta start with the basics, then you use tools.
Speaker:Not like you said, like a million shiny add-ons, but tools that are actually
Speaker:working, helping you make good decisions, bringing in an ROI, even if it's not sexy.
Speaker:A lot of the really, really effective tools are backend boring accounting,
Speaker:you know, things that aren't that beautiful in, in, in sight, but
Speaker:really make a big difference.
Speaker:So that's where you put on the tools.
Speaker:Resiliency to me is a combination of the fundamentals, the basics
Speaker:being down, and the tools that then take you to the next level.
Speaker:Be able to help you respond in real time and make decisions when things go wrong.
Speaker:'Cause they will.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:Great, great recommendations, Lori.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So before we wrap up, Lori, if someone were to remember kind of one thing
Speaker:from everything we just discussed, or the buzz that they're hearing so
Speaker:far this year, what would that be?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm gonna go back to what I just said honestly about resilience.
Speaker:Get your basics down.
Speaker:Get your basics down.
Speaker:Don't let all of the shiny exciting, 9,872 sessions on AI, which I'm speaking
Speaker:at, so go to one, but don't let them distract you from the fundamentals.
Speaker:What are the key building blocks of your business?
Speaker:Make sure those are solid, and then add on.
Speaker:So yeah, my key is with disruption being the norm, disruption being
Speaker:the baseline, get those fundamentals down, and then get the tools in place.
Speaker:I do wanna say that was a little negative in terms of wow, disruption's
Speaker:here and congratulations, it's 2026, you now get to have a whole bunch of
Speaker:garbage thrown at you every day, right?
Speaker:Actually, the industry's in a fantastic place.
Speaker:The latest data that came out said that investment in the supply chain
Speaker:and logistics industry, specifically for tech, but in the industry itself,
Speaker:it's gonna jump from 72 billion this year to 147 in the next five years.
Speaker:We're doubling the amount of investment in this industry.
Speaker:So get ready for a lot of things to be thrown at you.
Speaker:That means get those basics down, but there's a lot of growth and
Speaker:opportunity here in the industry.
Speaker:It's an exciting time to be in supply chain.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If I can take away one thing from that, it's make sure you understand
Speaker:exactly what tools and services you need to offset and become resilient
Speaker:against the disruption in your business.
Speaker:And then from what you, that stat you just shared, Lori, it's
Speaker:like there is a solution, a tool that exists for your problem.
Speaker:And once you know what it, what the problem is, you can go out and source
Speaker:the correct tool for that issue.
Speaker:Tim, I love that you said that because too many companies that I'm talking
Speaker:to are starting by just saying, wow, that's a shiny, cool new tool.
Speaker:You have to start with the problem, and so that's, you said that so beautifully.
Speaker:You look at what problems you're having when your basics
Speaker:are done, then find a tool.
Speaker:Don't get a tool of any sort and just try to fit it in to your company.
Speaker:You may not even have a problem needing to be fixed from that.
Speaker:Start with your problem, then look for the tool.
Speaker:Wonderful.
Speaker:Lori, as always, thank you so much for your insights and for your opinions
Speaker:on the trends that are happening in supply chain and logistics.
Speaker:To our listeners out there, this is another episode of Unboxing the Trends.
Speaker:You can listen to all of our episodes of Unboxing the
Speaker:Trends at easypost.com/podcast.
Speaker:We'd also love to hear any comments, questions, so please get
Speaker:involved and ask us some questions.
Speaker:We would love to hear from you.
Speaker:Until next time, thank you.
Speaker:Thanks everybody.
