Transcripts
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lori Boyer of EasyPost.
Speaker:And today's show is totally dedicated to our SMB audience, our small to mid sized businesses.
Speaker:Today is all about you.
Speaker:I get so many questions from this segment, this target audience, this small to
Speaker:mid sized audience around peak season.
Speaker:Peak season is everyone's Goliath.
Speaker:And everyone's great opportunity as well.
Speaker:And so I brought in an incredible expert on this very topic.
Speaker:We're gonna be talking SMB and how you can just crush peak season.
Speaker:So I brought in Maxwell Bonnie.
Speaker:He is going to be sharing all his insights with us.
Speaker:Maxwell, can you introduce yourself?
Speaker:It's well, thank you for having me.
Speaker:Really excited to be here.
Speaker:Maxwell Bonnie.
Speaker:I just have the pleasure of being one of the co founders of Saltbox.
Speaker:We are basically a logistics brand for growing ecommerce from those just getting
Speaker:started in their homes to scale into a few millions, millions of dollars in sales.
Speaker:We provide warehouse space and logistic services and technology to make logistics as easy and
Speaker:accessible for growing brands as possible.
Speaker:We have spent five and a half years building this and before then spent a career just
Speaker:obsessing about diagnosing problems and understanding what drives consumer behavior.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I love how you said that you were spent all your time obsessing about figuring out what's
Speaker:driving behavior because that is my jam, too.
Speaker:If I have any hobby, I like to say that it's just learning new things.
Speaker:That's so nerdy, but that just really gets me excited.
Speaker:So, today though before we get started, a couple of things that we're gonna do.
Speaker:I'm going to ask you a question to get to know you, and then I want to hear a couple
Speaker:of key takeaways that you may have that if our audience doesn't get anything else out
Speaker:of today, that what should they remember?
Speaker:But first, this season I've been asking all of our guests, what is
Speaker:your favorite comfort food, Maxwell?
Speaker:Oh, I have a very specific answer.
Speaker:Okay, excited.
Speaker:Angel hair pasta with arrabiata sauce and shaved parmesan.
Speaker:Okay, okay.
Speaker:Is this something you're making at home or are you?
Speaker:Yes, I'm making it at home.
Speaker:Probably so that I can eat a really big big bowl and have no one judge me for the size of the bowl.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:And then I keep shaved parmesan, I keep fresh parmesan in the house almost all the time.
Speaker:And you grate it yourself.
Speaker:How did you, how was it that you came across this as a comfort food?
Speaker:Did you grow up with it?
Speaker:You know, angel hair pasta.
Speaker:I remember the day I had first had angel hair pasta and it started melting in my
Speaker:mouth versus, you know, whatever brand pasta that I would have growing up.
Speaker:It was at my friend's house in Connecticut when I was 12 years old, and
Speaker:I thought it was like manna from heaven.
Speaker:I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker:And so then I've been experimenting with different angel hair pasta dishes since then.
Speaker:And I love spicy food, so arrabbiata sauce has a nice little kick to it.
Speaker:And then the freshly shaved parmesan, it like has that little bitterness
Speaker:to it, a little bit of extra bite.
Speaker:And just the nice, like compliments the flavor profile, so.
Speaker:Oh, that sounds amazing.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I am gonna ask for our audience for a recipe.
Speaker:So you'll have to send me a recipe and maybe I'll include it here in our, our show notes
Speaker:or something, because that sounds amazing.
Speaker:Happy to do it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay, awesome.
Speaker:It's not a big secret, honey, you haven't started a restaurant where we need to
Speaker:keep the, the recipe on the down low.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So key takeaways today.
Speaker:SMB audience, they're approaching peak.
Speaker:It's upon us almost.
Speaker:What, what do you want them to remember from today?
Speaker:Yeah, I would say number one is just understand what really is peak season.
Speaker:I think, you know, education and being aware is key.
Speaker:And then taking away what's different about this year and how that's going to be explicitly,
Speaker:explicitly very important to be prepared for.
Speaker:And then I want to provide some guidance on how to ship on time and how to save on shipping.
Speaker:And I guess let's start right with the very first one.
Speaker:What even is peak season?
Speaker:We could potentially, shout out if this is you have people who have never
Speaker:even experienced a peak season before.
Speaker:So, how do you, Maxwell, what is peak season?
Speaker:How do you define it?
Speaker:Right, so I define peak season as you know, for like, from a brand's perspective, this is
Speaker:the make or break time for your brand, right?
Speaker:We in the western world are the most, some of the, some of the most generous people.
Speaker:And we were looking to brands to help us express that generosity and
Speaker:thankfulness to our friends and family.
Speaker:And so peak season is at that time where there is like 25 to a hundred
Speaker:percent greater buying activity.
Speaker:And hence there's like a rush of excitement and a rush of sort of operational burden that happens
Speaker:during this compressed period of time between mid October through the first couple weeks of January.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So the traditional peak season starts as you were saying, mid October, just even
Speaker:now, almost till the end of the year.
Speaker:My understanding in speaking with people or some businesses have multiple peak
Speaker:seasons or, or a different peak season, but can you explain that a little bit?
Speaker:Every business has a seasonality depending on sort of like, who are you selling
Speaker:to and why are they buying from you.
Speaker:You think about it, right?
Speaker:If you're selling to you know, kids going back to school, then your peak season
Speaker:will be when parents are thinking about replenishing their wardrobes, usually right
Speaker:before the beginning of the school year.
Speaker:And then right before the 2nd half of the year, right?
Speaker:If you're a bikini company, your peak seasons, February, April and March.
Speaker:People, no one says in that order.
Speaker:It's usually February, March, April, but, you know, I'm jumping around.
Speaker:That's your peak season because people are, they've just spent all their time in the gym.
Speaker:Now they want to have their nice bathing suit to get ready for, for their warm travels.
Speaker:And so, and then there's the global peak season in the west, which is,
Speaker:you know, the holiday time, right?
Speaker:Which is where we are all looking to, you know, buy those gifts for our friends and family.
Speaker:And or to find deals that we've been waiting for all year for that new thing we want for ourselves.
Speaker:Yeah, peak season to me, for a lot of businesses, it is the Super Bowl and the Miss
Speaker:America pageant and the Olympics and I don't know, all the big things wrapped up into one.
Speaker:I spoke with a business recently who said 90 percent of their
Speaker:business occurs during peak season.
Speaker:And, and it's huge.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:So, so for small businesses, the first peak season, as we're talking about, you
Speaker:know, that can be intimidating, scary.
Speaker:Do you have any stories maybe that you can share about a business that experienced their
Speaker:first or one of their first peak seasons?
Speaker:Yeah, I've you know, it's funny.
Speaker:I've spent the past six years just intimately spending time with thousands
Speaker:of entrepreneurs, and one that really sticks out, there's a brand called Shinery.
Speaker:It's a in home jewelry care business, right?
Speaker:They're the first ones that come up with sort of washing your hands to
Speaker:clean your ring, which is awesome.
Speaker:And I remember she came in mid October And eyes this big and just tears like, I don't
Speaker:know what to do to get ready for peak season.
Speaker:And, you know, like, my heart started melting for her.
Speaker:Because, like, I have all this stuff and I don't know what to do.
Speaker:Like, I don't know how to communicate.
Speaker:I don't know how to get ready.
Speaker:What I do with my orders and just it's overwhelming, you know, and I
Speaker:was like, you know what, like, I'm so happy to figure out how to help you.
Speaker:And, you know, I actually asked her for advice recently about, like, how did that go?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And like, what made it most successful for you?
Speaker:And she said, you know, really taking time before peak season to optimize and
Speaker:standardize shipping is the most efficient way.
Speaker:And it's crucial for a successful peak season because everything, this is her, you know,
Speaker:her famous words, everything, including your mistakes and inefficiencies will get amplified
Speaker:during time, you know, and especially when you're just, just getting started is your
Speaker:baby, you're doing most of the work yourself.
Speaker:And we're all imperfect people and so without without having some sort of plan that we can
Speaker:rely upon, it will all be exposed and lots of things kind of fumble going into peak season.
Speaker:And so she said, like, I made all the mistakes my 1st year.
Speaker:And now I know how to just to, like, be proactive as much as possible because
Speaker:that reduces the chances of errors heading into the craziest time where I'm not going
Speaker:to sleep for a month and a half or so.
Speaker:Okay, I love it.
Speaker:I heard a few really key takeaways that I want everybody to make sure you, you take note of.
Speaker:First, reach out to partnerships.
Speaker:As Maxwell said, she reached out.
Speaker:I don't know what to do.
Speaker:You have a lot of people who have experienced peak season in the past.
Speaker:So reach out to those around you.
Speaker:If you are working with a 3PL, if you are working with software solutions, if
Speaker:you are, whatever it is, somebody has probably got some resources for you.
Speaker:Get that Boy Scout motto going, be prepared, do everything you can to prepare.
Speaker:But then, the other piece I really loved that you mentioned, Maxwell, was, take it as an opportunity
Speaker:to like see where you do have those blind spots.
Speaker:Instead of freaking out over every little mistake that occurs, just think this is an
Speaker:opportunity for me to fix processes for next year.
Speaker:So take note of where the mistakes occur and see it in a positive light
Speaker:instead of just doomsday falling apart.
Speaker:Instead, that means next year I'm going to be even better.
Speaker:You said she made all the mistakes the first year, but my hunch will be she'll find some
Speaker:other hidden mistakes, even down the road.
Speaker:She definitely will.
Speaker:You know, and I love where you ended about sort of you know, put in
Speaker:my words, like, enjoy the journey.
Speaker:One of the best things about growing a brand is, you know, it's, it, you are
Speaker:going on the journey with your company and maybe with your first couple of employees.
Speaker:And so don't take that for granted, really enjoy it.
Speaker:A, it'll make it like, as opposed to fighting it, it'll make the experience better
Speaker:for you emotionally and psychologically.
Speaker:But two, by enjoying the journey, you're going to learn so much more about your business that
Speaker:you can take and help you grow in the future.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:So I really like talking with Maxwell.
Speaker:If you ever get a chance, To connect with him at a show or even on LinkedIn or something.
Speaker:He's so smart.
Speaker:He's so funny.
Speaker:He's so great.
Speaker:But in a previous conversation he and I were once having you said something
Speaker:that really has stuck with me.
Speaker:You said logistics was not built with SMB in mind.
Speaker:I have come back to that statement actually multiple times since you said that to me.
Speaker:I've mentioned it to other people because I think it's brilliant and it is a big part of the
Speaker:problem that SMBs experience as you go into peak.
Speaker:What do you mean by that?
Speaker:How does that impact SMBs during peak season?
Speaker:Fundamentally, logistics are about scale.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Logistics are about doing something a million times and being perfect, you know,
Speaker:999, 000 times of that million times.
Speaker:And logistics can be complex.
Speaker:There's lots of terminology, lots of sort of like key aspects to it that make the big machine work.
Speaker:And they often happen away from where people live, right?
Speaker:So, in my words, that's, it's inflexible, it's inaccessible, and it's sort of like, not human.
Speaker:And SMBs are all the opposite.
Speaker:SMBs are human.
Speaker:SMBs need flexibility.
Speaker:And then we need accessibility, right?
Speaker:We're like, small businesses can't just take up and bring it to where logistics are.
Speaker:Logistics needs to meet them where they are.
Speaker:And no one you know, like, I've thought about this now for six years.
Speaker:Like, that's a fundamental problem for the success of a small business.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The best technology in the world, the best people are thinking about things.
Speaker:And small business doesn't have access to it, right?
Speaker:Because it's inflexible.
Speaker:It's inaccessible.
Speaker:I, I, you know, something that's occurred to me since you said that as
Speaker:I've toyed with this just whole idea.
Speaker:It was just really obviously a light bulb moment for me.
Speaker:So the idea that sometimes small business.
Speaker:Ironically enough, as you said, they're the hands on, the all of this.
Speaker:Sometimes they get stuck with picking, as their partners, the very large scale organizations, who
Speaker:honestly, you are, this sounds terrible, my SMBs, you know, I love you, but you're nothing to them.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Sometimes you're going to be better off, I think, going with another sort of smaller business
Speaker:as a partner, yourself, who understands and you are a big part and a big deal to them and
Speaker:they want to hear what's working with you.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:What do you think about that?
Speaker:I would say, you know, I think fundamentally that's it.
Speaker:Lots of people forget to think about that.
Speaker:And then because it takes a little bit of work, right?
Speaker:It takes, you know, it's easy to Google.
Speaker:I find UPS, I find X company, that whatever.
Speaker:They're paying all the money in the world to be to be in front of your face.
Speaker:And so it's really, really hard to go find the right size fit.
Speaker:Sometimes it takes a lot of time.
Speaker:And when you're running a small business, you don't have a lot of time.
Speaker:One way I like to think about it is if you, if you are a brand, the brand is very important, right?
Speaker:The unboxing experience, the communications, the timeliness, all of that.
Speaker:You need a, you need a set of services that match your brand experience because you
Speaker:like, you know, because as you're handing off to somebody, you want them to, to
Speaker:your point, care about as much as you do.
Speaker:And so, the thing about that.
Speaker:You know, one way to think about it is employee to customer ratio.
Speaker:How many employees do I have versus how many customers am I serving?
Speaker:And the higher the ratio that is, meaning if, like, there's one employee only serving
Speaker:three or four customers versus one employee serving 10, 20, 30 customers, the more
Speaker:they're able to have personalized experience.
Speaker:And if, if you have one employee serving thousands, that's just not going to
Speaker:work for somebody who has, like, wants customization, wants some care, and
Speaker:wants to be flexible and change things.
Speaker:You know, in the moment, right?
Speaker:So if you're a small brand and you're looking for a service provider, it's often time, it's often
Speaker:worth your time to do a little bit of digging and say, like, this is literally who I am and who
Speaker:has, who's the right size business where I can, I know who I can call, right, to get attention.
Speaker:I know I don't like what the SLAs are to change things.
Speaker:If I want to go see something, it's very accessible for me to go see it.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So I just encourage you, don't be afraid to, you know, experiment, whether it's local and
Speaker:regional carriers or, or whether it's service providers, there are just a lot of options
Speaker:that are probably a better fit for you for many of you than the large organizations who
Speaker:were developed with other large organizations.
Speaker:Okay, Maxwell, I get a lot of questions around, obviously, one of the biggest challenges
Speaker:businesses face is getting the package from their beautiful little hands to the customer safely,
Speaker:securely, and even more importantly, on time.
Speaker:So, what the heck even is on time?
Speaker:What, what are consumers wanting today?
Speaker:What does that mean to you?
Speaker:Yes we all know Amazon, right?
Speaker:And the one of the benefits of it is we can press a button and get something sometimes,
Speaker:you know, in five hours, the worst case, quote unquote, is in two days, you know,
Speaker:and that's changed a lot of our behavior.
Speaker:So I'd say, like, that is the working hypothesis for the default of what a customer wants.
Speaker:But what they actually really want is clear communication and, and
Speaker:something that they can trust.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So if you say this is going to be available in two days, they want you to match your promise.
Speaker:If you say it's going to take me a day to provide it and then three days to ship it.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Just be very, very clear about that and then ensure that that matches your brand experience.
Speaker:If you're customizing something or whatever, they're okay if you are like
Speaker:very clear about why it takes whatever time it takes and that you match the promise.
Speaker:So on time is really matching, being clear about what you can deliver and
Speaker:consistently matching that promise.
Speaker:And I would say the more you customize, the more you have a unique brand, the more control you
Speaker:have over how much time it'll take you to like get the product from your hands to your customer.
Speaker:Yeah, I absolutely agree.
Speaker:I think that we get hung up sometimes on that two day or whatever it is I think that if you're
Speaker:just transparent about being very clear and then following up on that exactly what you just
Speaker:said, that customers are totally fine with that.
Speaker:Now how big of a window?
Speaker:So that's one of the questions like for me as a customer sometimes I like knowing
Speaker:like oh it's going to be here on Tuesday or on Friday, and sometimes I'll get a
Speaker:oh, it'll come in 3 to 7 business days.
Speaker:And I start to feel like I don't really know what that means.
Speaker:Do you have any recommendations?
Speaker:Is there a recommended window of too long of time?
Speaker:I think more than a one day window, is much, right?
Speaker:Because we want to know, which should I be home?
Speaker:If I live in a building, like, how do I tell my doorman?
Speaker:If it's a bigger thing or something very special to me, I want to make sure that, you know,
Speaker:there's not a chance that it will go missing when it gets to my door or my front steps.
Speaker:And so more than a 1 day window.
Speaker:So, 3 to 4 days, you know, 4 to 5 days.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:More than that.
Speaker:I think that leads to the sense of, well, will this really be here?
Speaker:And how do I know?
Speaker:You know, and or this customer, does this company know what they're doing, right?
Speaker:So the world has, one of the nice things about the evolution of technology is there are
Speaker:lots of plugins, whether you use WooCommerce, Etsy, Shopify, that sort of, you can display
Speaker:pretty confidently what a cutoff time is for an order and then what that window is.
Speaker:And then again, you have to make sure that you can match that.
Speaker:Whether if you're doing it yourself, you're in a like a shared warehouse space with a bunch of
Speaker:friends doing it, or you have a 3PL, you want to make sure that the cutoff window is clearly
Speaker:communicated, but then also that time is clear on when they are, when they go to check out
Speaker:and they see what the options are for them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what would you recommend?
Speaker:So let's say that you'd said it would be there in two to three days
Speaker:and it ends up being four or five.
Speaker:Do you recommend reaching out?
Speaker:I mean, obviously let them know that it's going to be late, but you know, should
Speaker:you offer them an incentive or an apology?
Speaker:How do you manage that when you did, you know, sort of miss the mark?
Speaker:Yeah, I would say the, to me, this question goes back to brand and lifetime value.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:If you are a very transactional brand, right, then you like, and that's fine.
Speaker:Like transactional is not meant to be dismissive as much as it's meant to
Speaker:be defining the relationship between yourself and your customer, right.
Speaker:Where you get lots of customers and then most of them don't come back and they're just buying a
Speaker:thing they really want really quickly versus a brand that has like lots of loyalty over time.
Speaker:So your response should match your experience with your target customer, your desired experiences.
Speaker:Transactional brand, hey, sorry, here's where it's going to be.
Speaker:Here's 50 percent off, you know, with a simple, you use your code and boom, right?
Speaker:It's very simple, easy, clear, right?
Speaker:The, the more customized brands, your message should have some authenticity to them and
Speaker:then give them a reason to sort of like extend the relationship with you through that.
Speaker:I built, I had one part of my career was in customer support.
Speaker:And the thing I learned is every time you make a mistake is an opportunity to like reinvest
Speaker:in that relationship with that customer.
Speaker:And brands don't take the time to do that.
Speaker:And it's actually one of the pleasures of having a small business is that you can do that yourself.
Speaker:You can literally write the, write the templated email or write the email yourself and say, hey,
Speaker:we had an issue, you know, factory had a flood or whatever happened, your package will be two days.
Speaker:That is not what we expect.
Speaker:Two days late.
Speaker:That's not what we expect.
Speaker:Not the norm.
Speaker:But it happened this time.
Speaker:Really sorry about that.
Speaker:You know, for your next three offers, we're happy to give you 15 percent
Speaker:off or this custom thing, whatever.
Speaker:It's just something that like shows I'm investing in this relationship long term.
Speaker:And put that in the messaging.
Speaker:That matches your brand experience, the customer would love it.
Speaker:Okay, that was huge.
Speaker:And honestly, if our viewers only come away with that, you have killed it.
Speaker:Think of those mistakes, again, as an opportunity to improve your relationship.
Speaker:A mistake can actually be turned into a way that you make somebody more loyal and, and really wow
Speaker:and excite them in a way that they're not used to from other brands, especially the big name brands.
Speaker:So wow, that was really insightful.
Speaker:I loved that.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So Let's talk 2024.
Speaker:So your second takeaway was, you know, understanding first, we kind
Speaker:of learned what peak season is.
Speaker:We've got that under our belt.
Speaker:2024.
Speaker:What things are you seeing coming with 2024 that are different?
Speaker:You know, we've got a laundry list I think we can go through here,
Speaker:Maxwell, but what should people expect?
Speaker:So we talked about, you know, peak season, all this buying activity.
Speaker:This is going to be one of the shortest peak seasons in terms of
Speaker:operating days in recent history.
Speaker:What does that mean, right?
Speaker:Really, basically, what we're saying is, if you think about peak season between
Speaker:the, the peak of peak season, no pun intended between Thanksgiving and the end
Speaker:of Christmas, there are 17 operating days.
Speaker:Between that period of time.
Speaker:That is, normally it's 20 to 21 days.
Speaker:There are only 17 operating days.
Speaker:That means the same amount of activity, buying, shipping, packing, sorting, delivery, all of that.
Speaker:The same amount of activity normally happens in 20, 21 days.
Speaker:It's going to happen in 17 days.
Speaker:And then including to that is like, you know, this is going to be a record year for ecommerce.
Speaker:Then, you know, every year is getting more and more ecommerce.
Speaker:So there's going to be even more packages than normal during a shorter period of time.
Speaker:That's going to translate to a little bit of a mess this year.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:It's going to translate to I would say you can expect a slightly higher delay time
Speaker:in terms of when orders, like how orders either might get lost, or just like if if,
Speaker:if any provider is 99.2% on time, that 0.
Speaker:8% is actually going to turn to a decent amount of packages of when they are off time.
Speaker:Another thing that is changing this year that's going to make this shortened peak season tough is
Speaker:the Post Office is going through a 10 year plan right now, where they're just trying to revamp the
Speaker:Post Office, make it more operationally efficient and very frankly, stop losing money, right?
Speaker:That's really what the 10 year plan is about.
Speaker:So they're making changes to improve their, what their value chain and one of the changes they've
Speaker:made is really reducing the amount of places and increasing the cost that people can what's
Speaker:called inject packages into the Post Office.
Speaker:Meaning the Post Office is one of the best in the world.
Speaker:It is the best in the world of delivering packages to any address in the United States.
Speaker:A lot of carriers, you know, UPS, FedEx, DHL used the Post Office to do some last mile
Speaker:delivery and then big brands often go directly to Post Office, Walmart, that sort of thing.
Speaker:Post Office said, great we're going to make some changes and those changes are going to
Speaker:affect now and that's going to, we're really going to feel the pain of it during peak season.
Speaker:And so two things are going to happen.
Speaker:It's going to be a glut of activity in the same amount of space in less days.
Speaker:So that's going to lead to again, delays and more errors.
Speaker:And then two, brands are going to be shifting a little bit away from the Post
Speaker:Office and go trying to go directly to FedEx and UPS to sort of mitigate that risk.
Speaker:So, then that means FedEx and UPS are going to be busier than they've
Speaker:ever been in previous years as well.
Speaker:And those big brands are going to get their on time delivery.
Speaker:Us small guys, they're going to forget about us a little bit because we're not the ones paying the
Speaker:millions of dollars to deliver packages to them.
Speaker:And so, in short story, short heightened peak season, potentially lots of errors, and then
Speaker:the big guys are going to be very, very busy.
Speaker:And so, the advice there is for this peak season, see if you can diversify the mix
Speaker:of carriers that you can use for different ways to get the packages to your customer.
Speaker:And then two, think about shipping earlier, right?
Speaker:Having earlier cutoff times than normal with your holiday orders to ensure that you build in some
Speaker:buffer so that your customer gets the package on time to have underneath the tree, underneath
Speaker:the mantle, whatever they do for the holidays.
Speaker:Yeah, I think everything you said, spot on, and I want to get a little bit more
Speaker:into diversification of our carrier mix and multi carriers and how you manage that.
Speaker:But, you know, kind of going back to what you said earlier about creating a great experience.
Speaker:Plan now for if packages are late, what is it, what is your game plan?
Speaker:How are you approaching that assuming as as Maxwell said, you know, we may have a
Speaker:little bit of a higher rate of some of those.
Speaker:So how are you going to approach it if your package is late?
Speaker:And I would think as well maybe a little bit of a suggestion reminding.
Speaker:As a consumer sometimes we just in our minds think of black friday to christmas
Speaker:as being just this straight period.
Speaker:Maybe reminding some of your customers if you have a list or you have social
Speaker:media following of hey, it's you know, Chris, thanksgiving's late this year.
Speaker:Maybe you want to get a little shopping in early.
Speaker:Anything you can do to educate customers is always great.
Speaker:But let's talk multi carrier.
Speaker:What can, how, how do SMBs best take advantage of diversifying their carriers?
Speaker:I think I read something online once that said a small business feels like, oh, well,
Speaker:if I just picked FedEx as my carrier or UPS or, you know, any of the big ones and there's
Speaker:a mistake, nobody's going to get mad at me.
Speaker:But if I've picked somebody else, then I'm scared.
Speaker:And they'll be like, why did you pick this person?
Speaker:And I, so sometimes those fears again, get us just stuck with, I'll just pick the big person.
Speaker:How can, how can they navigate the whole world of picking a multi carrier mix?
Speaker:Yeah, and this is one of those places where, like we talked about in the beginning,
Speaker:logistics can be complex and hard to understand.
Speaker:And then hence, you don't always make the right decision for yourself if you don't understand.
Speaker:So, happy to spend a couple minutes here.
Speaker:So, I think about carriers, right?
Speaker:People who take your small packages from what's called distribution center and
Speaker:deliver to the door of your customer.
Speaker:There's three buckets.
Speaker:There are like the big three carriers, like we all know, FedEx, UBS, And the Post Office,
Speaker:then there are what's called emerging carriers.
Speaker:These are creative companies, usually veterans who've left some of the bigger companies who
Speaker:are using a mix of different technology and different ways to think about delivering packages
Speaker:to have an advantage over the big three.
Speaker:And that advantage usually comes with a little bit of cheaper cost and more visibility.
Speaker:And there are what's called regional carriers, right?
Speaker:A set of a set of companies who specialize in only delivering in the Southeast or only doing
Speaker:runs from New York to Boston, or only doing I5 in California, where their advantage there is,
Speaker:I'm very, very good at doing this one region, we know the region very well, and then hence, we can
Speaker:deliver excellence at a reasonable cost for you.
Speaker:Right, so those are, that's the three buckets of the carry mix.
Speaker:So then the question becomes, okay, great, those are three buckets.
Speaker:What do I do about that?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So the best thing to do is to ensure that you're where, however, you purchase labels,
Speaker:whether that's on your own through through through an app, whether that's through your
Speaker:3rd party logistics provider, that that technology they use has access to all of
Speaker:the calories that are available, right?
Speaker:All these, all these carriers now are very tech forward.
Speaker:They all have, you know, things called APIs and connections, whatever that is, right?
Speaker:Technical term is they are, you are able to purchase a label in one
Speaker:digital platform from any carrier.
Speaker:And then also make sure that technology has what's called some logic, right?
Speaker:Where you can apply rules.
Speaker:That's a this is what I want.
Speaker:I want to optimize for speed or costs or weight and then pick the right carrier
Speaker:that matches the rules that you want.
Speaker:And so that's the thing, right?
Speaker:It's those 3 big buckets for your business itself.
Speaker:You say, do I have technology I'm using that gives me access to these carriers?
Speaker:And then do I understand what am I trying to optimize for?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Do I have heavy packages?
Speaker:I want to optimize for care.
Speaker:Do I have oblong packages and I want to optimize for minimizing the cost of shipping something
Speaker:oblong, but ensuring it still gets there on time?
Speaker:Or are all my customers actually, do I have a local brand?
Speaker:And a lot of my customers are actually within 100 miles of me.
Speaker:Okay, maybe then, actually I need to look at a regional carrier.
Speaker:Because I am sending something to a national brand that's bringing it right back locally.
Speaker:I'm paying too much money for that.
Speaker:Yeah, it's exactly right on.
Speaker:I think that sometimes that can sound complicated, but you know, there is technology as, you know,
Speaker:EasyPost obviously is just an example, but where you simply, you just get this one account and
Speaker:then you can access all the different carriers.
Speaker:You don't have to get a million APIs.
Speaker:It's not as technically difficult.
Speaker:You use technology to simplify all of this for you.
Speaker:There's a lot of options available for you.
Speaker:Do you have any examples of, you know, maybe a small business who has used the
Speaker:multi carrier diversification strategy?
Speaker:Yes, there's a really awesome home goods brand we've worked with for three years.
Speaker:And they were going through this process as they were growing, realizing, wait,
Speaker:I have orders that are sub one pound.
Speaker:And then I have, that's about 50 percent of my orders.
Speaker:And I have another set of orders that are between two and five pounds.
Speaker:Right, and if you think about the carriers, carriers charge you for the weight
Speaker:of your packages and the size, right?
Speaker:There's a thing called DIM weight, right?
Speaker:And we have to go into deeper into that.
Speaker:It's a weird made up term in logistics.
Speaker:But essentially they just say how big and heavy is your package and then boom, we're gonna charge
Speaker:you whatever's higher, not whatever's lower.
Speaker:And so this company realized that, okay, I have this, this pattern is emerging
Speaker:of sub one pound things, very small and easy and then two to five pound things.
Speaker:And so what they did is they went into their shipping application and they said,
Speaker:great, I'm going to set rules that anytime I have something less than a pound, I'm
Speaker:going to use USPS Ground Saver, right?
Speaker:USPS is the best for like less than a pound if you are not optimizing for the next day.
Speaker:And set up a simple rule, less than a pound, USPS Ground Saver.
Speaker:And then they did all their packages two to five, two to five pounds set up a
Speaker:rule where they're going to use OnTrac to set up those packages there, right?
Speaker:They did that.
Speaker:They just rate shops, look at the history and said, great, OnTrac, by and
Speaker:large, gives me the best rate for these, you know, two to five pound orders.
Speaker:Some of them set a rule on my technology that led to about 10% increase to the bottom line for
Speaker:their orders that are two to five pounds, right?
Speaker:10%.
Speaker:Sure, like, oh, does that sound a lot?
Speaker:It actually is a lot of money.
Speaker:If you think about sort of like, how much it costs after your cost of goods to
Speaker:sort of store, handle, and ship products.
Speaker:And so they were able to just by adjusting the carriers add an additional
Speaker:10 percent to the bottom line in two to five pound orders by doing that.
Speaker:It was really awesome to see
Speaker:I there's so many examples exactly like that where you can find ways to save money.
Speaker:A lot of times I feel like SMBs I was at a show recently and actually was speaking with a large
Speaker:carrier and they had shared with me how you know a lot of SMBs will will see a certain rate.
Speaker:They see just the advertised rate and then they find just a slightly lower rate and
Speaker:they're like, oh great I saved some money.
Speaker:But they didn't know that there are a lot more rate options that are available.
Speaker:And so that rate shopping really is critical.
Speaker:You can find out.
Speaker:It can make a huge difference for you in your bottom line.
Speaker:So I often hear as well questions about how do you balance being really cost sensitive,
Speaker:trying to cut your costs and be really good that way with the customer experience in general.
Speaker:Do you have any just sort of tips for our businesses out there?
Speaker:Yeah, I would actually say this is the one of the more complex questions to answer, right.
Speaker:Because if you're a small business, you know, the number one thing for you is
Speaker:make sure you don't run out of cash as you're looking to invest in your business.
Speaker:And so you could spend all the money in the world having the best
Speaker:packaging, the fastest cost, whatever.
Speaker:But like, if you don't have enough cash, you know, from your free cash
Speaker:flow in your business to do that.
Speaker:It probably doesn't make sense.
Speaker:And most of us, unless you're selling diamonds online, you know, not like
Speaker:do not have the free cash flow in your business to optimize for everything.
Speaker:So the first thing I would say is what does your, what is the most important part of
Speaker:your brand experience to your customer?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I would understand that.
Speaker:What are some examples?
Speaker:Yeah, so if you sell pillows, right your customer, your customer does not care about
Speaker:the unboxing experience of a pillow, right?
Speaker:They really don't care, right?
Speaker:They, you can shrink wrap it, get it, you know, suck all the air out, get it
Speaker:into the smallest package as possible.
Speaker:And that that pillow will not be damaged if it's in a softer versus a hard package, right?
Speaker:And so then you can reduce weight that you can put in a poly bag and then like, you
Speaker:know, vacuum seal to get all the air out.
Speaker:They, the customer just wants when the pillow gets out of that package, doesn't smell.
Speaker:And it's like, when they rest their head on it, it it's like, it's going to be
Speaker:comfortable and they can fit whatever size king or queen size or they want.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's on the pillow side.
Speaker:If you, you know you know, custom sneakers, right.
Speaker:Where there's like different tissue paper and then the you want the sneaker to like
Speaker:present a certain way when you open the box.
Speaker:And then your branding and the tape all that.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:What do you really care about there is ensuring that the packaging maintains the shape of
Speaker:the shoe, obviously, and the thing doesn't move in the packaging that when they open it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:They're like, oh, great.
Speaker:That's what I bought.
Speaker:I saw that thing online.
Speaker:It's a shoe.
Speaker:And now I am so proud of myself for buying this thing when I open it up.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So then there you need to understand, okay, like I'm going to make sure that my pricing
Speaker:model accounts for the cost to fully ship this beautiful brand experience to my customer.
Speaker:And especially understand what that unboxing experience should look like is your first
Speaker:step to know where you might want to put money and where you might want to spend it.
Speaker:Anything else around saving money?
Speaker:There's a really weird, interesting rule for most carriers.
Speaker:There's the rule of 32.
Speaker:Basically, anything greater than 32 inches.
Speaker:Like in length, length or width, but really like, well, length.
Speaker:Or automatically go into a special tier pricing that drastically jumps
Speaker:up the price per order of shipping.
Speaker:That's because of the, you know, they use sorting machines and they're a certain size and they
Speaker:want to make sure they can take a box or any sort of package, put it in the machine, let it just
Speaker:run through seamlessly through the processing.
Speaker:So, I would totally say, like, if you have any large or items, things that need to be rolled up,
Speaker:things that need to kind of be laid, lay flat.
Speaker:We try to keep the packaging size to 32 inches or less in terms, in length.
Speaker:And then that you will not be penalized for it, right?
Speaker:You know, like it may be hard.
Speaker:Say you're like, oh, I, you know, I have this poster and it's 8 feet by 6 feet.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:They may be hard to figure out how to roll that less than 32 inches, but we can probably
Speaker:figure out creative, creative things to do.
Speaker:But most of us have the ability to make sure we're keeping our packages below that rule of 32.
Speaker:And that just like found money if you're not thinking about that right now.
Speaker:Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker:The rule of 32.
Speaker:Keep that, write that down.
Speaker:Remember it.
Speaker:Let's talk in general about the shipping experience.
Speaker:What are some ways that SMBs can make a really great shipping experience for their customers?
Speaker:What are, what are consumers really looking for?
Speaker:Oh, man, they're looking for everything.
Speaker:They don't want to pay for it.
Speaker:That's the same.
Speaker:The noncynical version is as a small brand, you have ways to experiment and
Speaker:to sort of delight them while while sort of like controlling your costs.
Speaker:So one of them is sort of like, you know, gamifying and or encouraging or
Speaker:your customers to bundle items together.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so there's lots of plugins now in, on all the major shipping, but major ecommerce
Speaker:platforms where you can sort of have a, you know, hit the 75 dollar, hundred dollar mark,
Speaker:and sort of unlock, you know, free shipping.
Speaker:But also in the buying experience, show a little heat meter or show them how much money
Speaker:they would save if they go to that next thing.
Speaker:So they feel good about buying another item, you know,
Speaker:I totally get sucked in by those.
Speaker:I totally get sucked in.
Speaker:So yeah, gamify, encourage people.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:In relation displaying flexible shipping options on the checkout, you know,
Speaker:and be very transparent about that.
Speaker:But like, hey, there's this free option.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:It's going to take three to five days.
Speaker:But if you're really in a rush, you know, if you want to really don't, you know, surprise
Speaker:your partner in two days for 7 dollars, they'll be the happiest person in the world,
Speaker:you know, and just like displaying those really clear options, which is like sort of,
Speaker:I think oftentimes we feel afraid to show as a small business, like, will they value, will
Speaker:they not buy if I show them in full price?
Speaker:If you communicate it very clearly, customers are very happy that they understand what it
Speaker:is, and then they have the choice, and now they've made the choice, and you've given them
Speaker:the option to flex their own independence, and they'll, they'll thank you for that.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I completely agree.
Speaker:Giving options is so great.
Speaker:That can cover so many things, from whether it's you know, whether you offer insurance to cover
Speaker:your packages, whether you, you know, are offering free shipping versus, oh, well, you could get it
Speaker:later, but it's going to cost a little money or whatever it is, customers appreciate options.
Speaker:So I totally agree with that.
Speaker:I want to add to that.
Speaker:There's a big debate.
Speaker:You show all the options at once, or do you have multiple screens?
Speaker:There is no easy answer.
Speaker:I think the answer is like, what do you want the buying experience to be for your customer?
Speaker:What fits?
Speaker:If customers mostly on mobile and and it's like a very quick process to get
Speaker:something from the website into the cart.
Speaker:Then you probably want a very, like, fast way to go through to get the different options.
Speaker:If it's a much more considered purchase where they're browsing oftentimes, they'll
Speaker:have multiple things in the cart, take two or three things out, then you can have a
Speaker:bit more of a prolonged process because that's a more thoughtful buying experience,
Speaker:so you're matching them where they are.
Speaker:Right, so there's no easy, should I show all the options at one time,
Speaker:should I have multiple screens?
Speaker:It is what's the user experience you're looking to give to your customer and then
Speaker:match that checkout experience to that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I completely, I just want to echo that.
Speaker:You've got to know your audience, you know, Maxwell and I can't get
Speaker:into every little niche market.
Speaker:So you need to understand your customers.
Speaker:You need to understand what it is, as you said, are they mobile?
Speaker:Are they buying things on their computer?
Speaker:Are they older?
Speaker:Are they younger?
Speaker:But also then test.
Speaker:You know, it's, don't feel bad about doing some testing.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Try it one way and if it's not going well, switch it up and try something else.
Speaker:So, that's all part of that experimentation and, and the learning that you mentioned
Speaker:earlier, that all of the mistakes or challenges you see are opportunities to just kind of
Speaker:optimize and hone in what you are doing.
Speaker:Exactly right.
Speaker:Okay, awesome.
Speaker:So, we're running up on time, so it's just been, there have been so many incredible
Speaker:takeaways you could have from today.
Speaker:But there's a couple of things I want to go into.
Speaker:First, if you have any final tips, any, you know, last things, and then also, I would love to hear
Speaker:a little bit more if you want to share a little bit about Saltbox and about what you do to help
Speaker:SMBs and, and how they could reach out to you if they're interested in learning more about you.
Speaker:There's a famous quote, plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
Speaker:Dwight D.
Speaker:Eisenhower, World War II.
Speaker:I, I've kind of lived by that motto right now, right?
Speaker:You need some sort of plan, but know that it's not going to go to plan.
Speaker:And that is completely okay, but take the time to put something on paper so that
Speaker:you are prepared for this season, right?
Speaker:Even if it's a half an hour, and it's just a piece of white paper that you put on the
Speaker:wall to if you're like Excel, you want to plan everything out with multiple conditions.
Speaker:Whatever it is, create a plan, but also know it's not going to go to plan, but you can
Speaker:respond so much better and you'll be mentally at ease if you have some sort of plan and
Speaker:you're going into the peak season, but.
Speaker:Mic drop.
Speaker:That is so true.
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:And tell us about Saltbox and how to get a hold of you.
Speaker:Yeah, so you can reach out to myself directly I'm, very happy to talk to anybody
Speaker:about logistics and sort of helping grow and scale the operations of your brand.
Speaker:That's why we started this business, right?
Speaker:We want to be accessible and flexible.
Speaker:And sort of invest in sort of how do I actually make smart decisions to grow?
Speaker:You know, I want to measure the success of Saltbox by how many brands do we
Speaker:change their failure rate, right?
Speaker:Do we say that, like, we helped them have more working capital in their business
Speaker:and reach, like, demanding customers while being a good operating partner?
Speaker:So you can directly email me anytime, maxwell@saltbox.com, or you can just reach
Speaker:out directly to our team, info.saltbox.com, and just start with a question.
Speaker:Hey, I am in X position and I'm looking to achieve Y, and how can Saltbox help me?
Speaker:And we'll be happy to answer that question and engage with you in a conversation.
Speaker:Yeah, and I love working with Maxwell.
Speaker:He is who he says he is, he's transparent.
Speaker:And he's gonna tell you, we'll work well for you, we won't work well for you.
Speaker:Here's suggestions of what you can do.
Speaker:That's one of the other final takeaways.
Speaker:I want to say for all of you, reach out to the resources that are available in the industry.
Speaker:There are so many who do know so much and are willing to help just like Maxwell.
Speaker:So give Saltbox a look.
Speaker:Thank you so much for all of the amazing insight you gave us today
Speaker:so so just pleased to have you on.
Speaker:I really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker:This is awesome I'll do it, I'll do this as many times as you'd like.
Speaker:Okay, I may take you up on that.
Speaker:So we'll see everybody next time.
Speaker:Thanks so much.
