Transcripts
Welcome everyone to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:Have we got something in store for you today?
Speaker:We are gonna be doing an EasyPost Insider episode.
Speaker:You guys know it, you know him, you love him.
Speaker:Those are the episodes where we kind of talk EasyPost specific.
Speaker:I've brought on the amazing Joe Dieter from product to talk to us,
Speaker:but I wanted to give you a heads up.
Speaker:This episode was so full of incredible tips, amazing ideas of ways for you,
Speaker:if you are an EasyPost customer, to use EasyPost this peak season.
Speaker:Or if you're not to, of course, welcome, we'd love to have you.
Speaker:But we're gonna split it into two different episodes.
Speaker:So today is episode one.
Speaker:Next week, keep your calendar, you know, marked because we're gonna get into
Speaker:episode two and we're gonna be talking about all the really cool ways that
Speaker:you can take advantage of EasyPosts to just have an incredible peak 2025.
Speaker:You're not gonna wanna miss it.
Speaker:So, Joe, to kick things off.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:First of all, give everyone a tiny bit of background about
Speaker:your role here at EasyPost.
Speaker:And then I know that one of your big, you know, spoiler alert for
Speaker:everyone, but one of the big things Joe does is speak with customers a lot.
Speaker:And so I would love to hear kind of what's the mood on the street?
Speaker:What, what are people worried about?
Speaker:And, and what are you hearing?
Speaker:So take it away.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I lead our product marketing team.
Speaker:Here at EasyPost.
Speaker:And what are we hearing from customers?
Speaker:We're hearing lots of things.
Speaker:Lori, as you were hinting at this peak season is unique and as a matter of
Speaker:fact, someone that we're not working with yet, a, a newer shipper that I
Speaker:think we're gonna be working with said it well, they said, you know, to be
Speaker:honest, we're looking at the whole situation of the months ahead, and
Speaker:it feels different compared to last peak season or the peak season prior.
Speaker:This peak season feels different now.
Speaker:What do they mean, it feels different?
Speaker:Lori, you and I know there's a lot of things they're implying there.
Speaker:We have rising costs.
Speaker:We know kind of every angle of what it means to get a shipment
Speaker:out the door is more expensive.
Speaker:It, it appears we have new peak season surcharges.
Speaker:Every peak season over the past several years.
Speaker:Those little surcharges for major carriers have increased year over year,
Speaker:and they have yet again this year.
Speaker:We of course have newer interesting things like tariffs.
Speaker:We have not faced a peak season with a tariff situation like we have.
Speaker:We also have like new dimensional weight roundups, right?
Speaker:So now we're rounding up to the nearest inch for certain carriers, and that's
Speaker:going to mean tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars
Speaker:and more costs for certain shippers.
Speaker:So when someone says, hey, this peak season, this peak
Speaker:season feels different, yeah.
Speaker:Like on a, on a practical level, it's different because there's all these
Speaker:different costs associated with shipping as peak is is on, on kinda one hand.
Speaker:There's also another element that in spite of rising costs and new things to
Speaker:consider, you also have the consumer, the shopper, who also has said, this is
Speaker:a little bit different, this peak season for us, this holiday season, how we're
Speaker:going to spend, or we're going to be maybe a little bit more cost conscious.
Speaker:We're maybe going to hold on to more of our dollars.
Speaker:That that makes sense.
Speaker:You also though have consumers who expect speed nonetheless.
Speaker:They expect to be able to get the best shipping prices ever while
Speaker:also getting it faster than ever.
Speaker:And this is why you have innovative carriers like Walmart, who are
Speaker:actually retailers, but they're really innovative carriers.
Speaker:Like Walmart is saying, hey, we're hitting 93% of U.S. households with same day
Speaker:delivery, and we want to increase that across the months and years ahead you have
Speaker:Amazon, you know, investing in several thousand rural areas to make sure they
Speaker:get kind of same day next day delivery.
Speaker:What about for everyone that's not Walmart and Amazon?
Speaker:What about for all the sellers and shippers out there that are saying,
Speaker:how do we rise to the occasion and meet these very high expectations while
Speaker:having all these new fun types of costs?
Speaker:How do you shoulder all that?
Speaker:So how do you face a peak season, unlike probably one we've ever faced?
Speaker:That, so probably more than you, more than you wanted, but that's how I'd kind
Speaker:of summarize some of the conversations you're hearing, especially with newer
Speaker:companies that approach us right now and say, hey, what, what, what do we
Speaker:do as we face kind of a very unique circumstance in, in the months ahead?
Speaker:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker:'Cause in some ways.
Speaker:You know, as you said, that was a lot of information and I think that's
Speaker:really what our shippers are feeling.
Speaker:They're feeling overwhelmed with so many variables being thrown at them.
Speaker:They're feeling that pressure of the, the demand is still there.
Speaker:And I am so guilty.
Speaker:I feel guilty every time you talk about it.
Speaker:'Cause I'm also a consumer and a mom and I shop online.
Speaker:And so I do have those high demands and, and yeah.
Speaker:So let's break these down one by one so that we can kind of focus on them a little
Speaker:by little and kind of discuss some of the options that are out there for people.
Speaker:I'd really love to start with consumer demand.
Speaker:We've done a few different surveys, and consumer demand has been one of the top
Speaker:areas that people have been worried as we moving into peak and rightly so.
Speaker:A study just recently came out that 49% of consumers say they're
Speaker:planning to spend less or as little as possible in this upcoming peak season.
Speaker:Interestingly, data hasn't shown the spending slowing down too much.
Speaker:We've seen a little bit, but not too much.
Speaker:And so it's just that uncertainty.
Speaker:It can be really hard for shippers to know how to prepare.
Speaker:Are there some tips?
Speaker:Are there tools?
Speaker:Are there ways to use EasyPost that can help shippers prepare for, you
Speaker:know, unpredictable demand and, you know, stay flexible when consumers
Speaker:keep sort of changing their mind about what they're gonna do.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it's, it's the golden question, right?
Speaker:As we go into the holiday season I, I think one thing, big picture, it's
Speaker:a little bit more philosophical, is if you are shipping this holiday
Speaker:season, embrace the reality of volatility, embrace uncertainty.
Speaker:To your point we have data that shows we think consumers might
Speaker:be spending a little bit less.
Speaker:We don't know for sure, but this is kind of, this is the one tried
Speaker:and true thing that every peak season, every shipper will face.
Speaker:And that is one week, one day you might have a surge.
Speaker:The next week you might be seeing lower volume of orders
Speaker:and shipments than even expected.
Speaker:And the one thing that is tried and true of any peak season is
Speaker:expect the unexpected and be ready.
Speaker:And that's the key.
Speaker:You will not be able to perfectly forecast this peak season.
Speaker:We're hearing that from lots of shippers and even some of the biggest
Speaker:sellers in the world where maybe in holiday seasons past, they felt pretty
Speaker:confident on what was going to happen.
Speaker:We hear for more and more shippers, there's a few wild cards in place, so.
Speaker:Do you have the systems in place?
Speaker:Do you have the operation in place that can really roll with the unexpected?
Speaker:And, and that's, I, I think, kind of the best you can do.
Speaker:Be at peace with, you are not in control of everything that's about
Speaker:to happen this holiday season.
Speaker:We hope everyone closes a ton of business and takes away a ton of profit.
Speaker:That should be the goal of any online seller, for example.
Speaker:But do you have the right systems in place to roll with the unexpected?
Speaker:And, you know, in, in our end, selfishly, we know this is why
Speaker:a lot of folks work with us.
Speaker:We know this is why thousands of sellers and shippers across the globe
Speaker:and some of the largest marketplaces and sellers in the world work
Speaker:with EasyPost during peak season.
Speaker:And there's a few things there of, of why they do.
Speaker:Number one, one way to roll with change is to have a really reliable
Speaker:way to generate shipping labels online.
Speaker:So if you need to make sure there's no, what we call downtime during peak season.
Speaker:You need to be using the one company that has gone through the past several
Speaker:peak seasons at 99.99% reliability.
Speaker:We like to brag about it, but it's true.
Speaker:Third parties have confirmed there's been no other solution out there
Speaker:when it comes to how do I have an API access point to 100 plus carriers?
Speaker:How am I able to choose the carriers I wanna work with as peak season
Speaker:and hopefully have multiple carriers lined up in case there's volume
Speaker:constraints with certain carriers.
Speaker:How do I get that with consistent uptime throughout the entirety
Speaker:of everything the peak season experience is gonna throw at me.
Speaker:EasyPost is the one company that has preserved 99.99% reliability
Speaker:over the past several peak seasons.
Speaker:It's hard to pull off, and we have, but there's a new thing we're bringing
Speaker:to the table that really helps remind shippers of the types of carriers
Speaker:they, they might wanna work with.
Speaker:And it's called EasyPost Wallet.
Speaker:EasyPost Wallet is a new offering we have that allows you to get discounted
Speaker:rates no matter what size shipper you are, but also most importantly,
Speaker:perhaps, allows you to have a much more seamless, less overhead type experience
Speaker:as you ship with certain carriers.
Speaker:Everyone during Peak wants to go with reliable, trusted carriers.
Speaker:I'm talking USPS and UPS and FedEx and DHL and even if internationally
Speaker:Canada you know, Canada Post and we have a few others.
Speaker:These sorts of carriers are most easily partnered with through EasyPost Wallet.
Speaker:We're we're observing.
Speaker:EasyPost Wallet is going to allow you to work with multiple carriers.
Speaker:The exact ones you wanna work with during peak while having one
Speaker:invoice, one billing experience.
Speaker:It's also a huge step for shippers, let's say from smaller shippers to
Speaker:mid-market shippers if they were to go to one of these major carriers directly,
Speaker:the reality is they're not the priority of these huge, incredible carriers, so
Speaker:they're not gonna get the best rates.
Speaker:They might get near what we call retail rates.
Speaker:That's just reality.
Speaker:They're not gonna be taken care of as something goes wrong.
Speaker:They're not gonna be able to reach out and, and have support
Speaker:tickets or issues quickly handled.
Speaker:What you need is a trusted partner, like EasyPosts that removes the friction of
Speaker:working directly with multiple carriers but allows you to almost have this
Speaker:enterprise grade carrier experience.
Speaker:And so that's what shipping with our Wallet Carriers gives you.
Speaker:You will pay less in shipping with our discount rates, but you also have way
Speaker:less overhead, way less time and money of really doing everything you need
Speaker:to do to ship with the major carriers during peak during the holiday season.
Speaker:Another element of it, of it is
Speaker:this peak, are you AI powered in the decisions you're
Speaker:making of how you wanna ship?
Speaker:So, are you actually choosing the right carrier and service level to begin with?
Speaker:What happens through the holiday season is shippers tend to go with their tried and
Speaker:true single carrier option historically.
Speaker:The average story was this.
Speaker:We're headed into the holiday season.
Speaker:The most important time of the year.
Speaker:We're an online seller, and several years ago we signed a deal with fill in the
Speaker:blank major carrier, and we will continue to ship with them no matter what happens,
Speaker:because that's all we've ever known.
Speaker:We ship with this carrier, they're the ones we rely on.
Speaker:But guess what's going to happen?
Speaker:A lot of people are shipping through that carrier.
Speaker:There's going to be volume constraints.
Speaker:There's going to be downtime.
Speaker:And then you're left saying, oh, wow, I need a backup and I need it now.
Speaker:This is why the world of multi-carrier shipping is our table stakes.
Speaker:If you are not multi-carrier how you're approaching this peak, you are going to
Speaker:be exposed, you're gonna be vulnerable when it matters most, when you have
Speaker:the most ex exciting amount of demand.
Speaker:When you're making the most amount of revenue as an online seller this
Speaker:holiday season, are you going to have downtime and we'll get into, are you
Speaker:going to have a lot of angry customers?
Speaker:Are you going to have a lot of customers that churn and never buy
Speaker:from you again because you had backup?
Speaker:You had constraints, you weren't ready, you were beholden to one carrier.
Speaker:So this is the other element of if you are AI powered in how you make
Speaker:your shipping decisions, you're going to be able to have a tool like Luma.
Speaker:Luma came out this year.
Speaker:It's already being enjoyed by lots of shippers we work with because it
Speaker:allows them to look at, according to the data, here's the best carrier
Speaker:and service level, this peak.
Speaker:And we're seeing all sorts of insights that Loom is yielding for shippers.
Speaker:Certain shippers were really expecting they were going to ship with certain
Speaker:carriers and service levels for ground or two day or next day.
Speaker:They're now realizing Luma is revealing, they should be shipping
Speaker:to certain parts of the country during certain times of the year.
Speaker:If they're shipping certain types of packages with a new particular
Speaker:carrier or service level, they never would've considered.
Speaker:And if they do that, they will save hundreds of thousands.
Speaker:In some cases, we're seeing towards millions of dollars in
Speaker:savings, and they're actually gonna save a couple days in transit.
Speaker:We had a shipper who recently discovered they should be using a
Speaker:more economical carrier and near ground coverage to get expedite, what
Speaker:they consider expedited shipping.
Speaker:Now I bring this up 'cause what happens during peak season is a lot of shippers
Speaker:say we wanna be fast, we wanna be like the Walmarts and the Amazons and the next day.
Speaker:So they go with a really premium, great carrier experience just to realize where
Speaker:they tend to ship during the holiday season, they could get there even more
Speaker:efficiently, get even a better time in transit and actually pay less in
Speaker:rates if they go with another carrier they did not expect to go with at all.
Speaker:So probably giving you more nuance than than we wanted to on this question, but.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I just wanna follow that up with a couple of things that I hear frequently
Speaker:from, from our, our family out there.
Speaker:Our Unboxing Logistics family get questions.
Speaker:First of all, Wallet, it does not cost extra if you sign up with EasyPost to
Speaker:use Wallet Carriers, that's part of the part and parcel you just, that's
Speaker:part of of who we are, is you can have access to these Wallet Carriers.
Speaker:We're gonna talk a little bit later about having a multi-carrier strategy.
Speaker:You touched on that so well, Joe.
Speaker:It is critical in today's day and age.
Speaker:As we talked about these microsurges, the big surges 'cause some YouTubers
Speaker:used your product or you know, the unexpected demand and those
Speaker:mid-level shippers, you are often not the priority, as Joe pointed out.
Speaker:But being able to switch some of your volume around is important,
Speaker:but people ask me a lot, well, if I split up my volume, what is that
Speaker:gonna do to rates and whatnot?
Speaker:And that is where these Wallet Carriers and the already negotiated rates by
Speaker:EasyPost come into play, so that if you do split up your volume between
Speaker:different carriers, then you're not gonna suddenly not have a good rate
Speaker:because of that, we've negotiated those rates kind of on the wholesale side, so.
Speaker:Those are a couple of things I always get around.
Speaker:Then another question though I have for you, Joe, is here in our
Speaker:community, we also have people listening who are marketplaces or
Speaker:who are platforms, things like that.
Speaker:Maybe not just your typical ecommerce shipper.
Speaker:Is there a way to address these kind of issues for them?
Speaker:We're currently working with some of the largest, even the largest
Speaker:marketplace in the world, right?
Speaker:To your point at EasyPost.
Speaker:And so we get to see this firsthand.
Speaker:What happens with marketplaces during peak, it's, it's as you'd assume,
Speaker:they're sitting here responsible for all the sellers on their platform,
Speaker:and thus they're responsible for all the end consumers that are
Speaker:buying from all those sellers.
Speaker:We know one of the number one reasons why consumers are angry during the
Speaker:holiday season is actually tracing back to the shipping experience,
Speaker:especially for these big marketplaces.
Speaker:These big marketplaces do an incredible job of being a marketplace, of allowing
Speaker:for the trading, the transaction of all the world's goods and all, all the
Speaker:holiday gifts, but at their core, they weren't about a shipping operation,
Speaker:so we created something called Forge.
Speaker:And we released this this year and it's been a really popular solution for us.
Speaker:What Forge is, it allows any marketplace or 3PL or really any company that
Speaker:has other businesses or other sellers relying on them for shipping.
Speaker:Forge allows a marketplace to instantly set up the most reliable
Speaker:shipping software you could possibly offer all the sellers, all the
Speaker:companies relying on your platform.
Speaker:So for example, let's say you're a big marketplace this holiday
Speaker:season, you should be focused on doing what you do best.
Speaker:It's mostly around facilitating merchandising and selling
Speaker:for all your sellers.
Speaker:You should not be focused on trying to build your own 99% reliable
Speaker:shipping APIs that connect to a hundred plus carriers that allow all
Speaker:of your sellers to be multi-carrier.
Speaker:What instead happens a lot of the time, if you don't have a platform
Speaker:like Forge, is you are going right up to the brink of peak season and
Speaker:you're a marketplace and you realize you have old kind of antiquated
Speaker:integrations with certain carriers.
Speaker:You realize you have a lot of sellers dependent on one carrier that's about to
Speaker:have major downtime or volume constraints.
Speaker:You realize you have a lot of sellers who have angry customers
Speaker:and you're getting flooded with all these customer care issues.
Speaker:You realize you don't have any sort of AI powered intelligence
Speaker:to recommend to all your sellers.
Speaker:What carriers and service levels should they be using for their particular need?
Speaker:You realize you are juggling specific carrier invoices from all your sellers.
Speaker:You realize as a marketplace, you're caught in the middle having to be
Speaker:this logistics supply chain expert.
Speaker:And that's not your kind of that that's not your ultimate
Speaker:talent as a marketplace at all.
Speaker:That's not what you should be focused on.
Speaker:And so this is kind of a, a tragedy we see a lot, especially during the
Speaker:holiday season this comes to a head.
Speaker:Where some fantastic marketplaces and, and we work with some big ones.
Speaker:We also work with some new you know, brand new propped up marketplaces.
Speaker:Who, they come to us and say, listen, I don't know the
Speaker:world of logistics software.
Speaker:I don't know the best way for all of my sellers to generate
Speaker:a shipping label online.
Speaker:I don't know about address verification.
Speaker:I know I don't know about realtime tracking, let alone branded tracking.
Speaker:We'll get into that.
Speaker:I don't know about shipping insurance.
Speaker:We had some of the largest marketplaces in the world come to us over the
Speaker:past couple years and say, listen, we were gonna build our own shipping
Speaker:insurance 'cause we had so many failed deliveries and, and kind of shipment
Speaker:crises across our thousands of sellers.
Speaker:We looked across the market and realized you guys have built the most hassle-free
Speaker:insurance, so can we use yours?
Speaker:That's at the core of Forge.
Speaker:Forge is a way where you take the most reliable software from EasyPost
Speaker:and you extend it to any company that needs it in a matter of minutes.
Speaker:Now it's considered white labeling.
Speaker:I want to be clear, when we talk about Forge, really saying that you get ti
Speaker:put your brand name, you get to, you could to kind of put your marketplace
Speaker:experience around our great software that thousands of shippers already rely on.
Speaker:But that's, that's going to be the key.
Speaker:If you're a marketplace, this peak, you have a lot of sellers and all
Speaker:their end consumers relying on you.
Speaker:And the number one reason consumers aren't gonna be happy and not gonna buy from your
Speaker:sellers again, is often shipping related.
Speaker:If something is difficult, if something doesn't work out, if they
Speaker:don't have timely notifications.
Speaker:If they don't have easy hassle-free claims and protection, consumers have
Speaker:spoken, they will go elsewhere quickly and they'll probably write an angry
Speaker:social media post about you online.
Speaker:So work, work with the most reliable logistics software company.
Speaker:If, if we can be, you know, so forward work, work with EasyPost, we've
Speaker:we're the source behind a lot of the shipping for a lot of the marketplaces
Speaker:and sellers this holiday season.
Speaker:That's just reality.
Speaker:So we can get you set up now, in time for peak.
Speaker:I love that Joe.
Speaker:I love Joe's passion.
Speaker:You gotta love Joe.
Speaker:He loves EasyPost.
Speaker:He is our biggest EasyPost advocate out there, but in I, I, he applaud him.
Speaker:He does such good work in getting his message out.
Speaker:Platforms, marketplaces, a couple of things there that I
Speaker:really love that Joe mentioned.
Speaker:This is your opportunity to really set yourself apart for your sellers.
Speaker:That's so critical right now.
Speaker:That's what we're seeing with marketplaces.
Speaker:You can make their life so easy and that's what keeps them around, right?
Speaker:And so yeah, Forge has really been very, very popular.
Speaker:I love how Joe kinda let you peek behind the curtain and
Speaker:say, hey a lot of marketplaces really are just using EasyPost.
Speaker:So if you're looking over and thinking, man, how do they do all that?
Speaker:It's because they're, they're taking the credit for the incredible stuff that
Speaker:EasyPost does on the shipping side, and you're able to take advantage of it.
Speaker:As you're talking, one thing we should note too, we just brought in AI powered
Speaker:shipping into Forge, and this has been a big request from some of the
Speaker:biggest marketplaces we work with.
Speaker:They saw our new AI powered shipping tool called Luma.
Speaker:They saw how Luma tells any seller, here's the carrier and service level
Speaker:that's gonna be most economical.
Speaker:It's gonna be the fastest time in transit you should be using.
Speaker:All these marketplaces said, wow, we wish we had that sagelike wisdom.
Speaker:We, we want to be the ultimate advisor to all of our sellers by not just giving them
Speaker:a way to ship and fulfill, but telling them exactly how to ship and fulfill.
Speaker:And they're saying, look, we, we don't have that.
Speaker:And our competitors also don't have AI powered recommendations
Speaker:for all of our sellers.
Speaker:They said, all of our sellers are different.
Speaker:We've just been getting sweeping kind of instructions where a lot of our,
Speaker:our sellers are overly beholden on a couple carriers, and then all of them
Speaker:at the same time have the same issue.
Speaker:And so we really love the power of Luma being able to allow us as a
Speaker:marketplace to be the shipping expert.
Speaker:We're not shipping experts.
Speaker:We're, we're a marketplace.
Speaker:We're sellers, we're merchandisers.
Speaker:We don't, you know, we don't know.
Speaker:But with Luma, all of a sudden overnight we get to position ourselves as being
Speaker:the all-knowing AI powered advisor of how each of our individual sellers are gonna
Speaker:make the most amount of money and have the fastest time in transit and kind of have
Speaker:that Amazon, Walmart, shipping experience.
Speaker:We can do that with a tool like Luma, so that, that's now embedded within Forge.
Speaker:You get that within Forge.
Speaker:And, and that'll be, it's gonna be a game changer for a lot of our marketplaces.
Speaker:I just wanted to say that this peak, so.
Speaker:That was so huge, such a huge addition.
Speaker:I wanna mention as well, we have a, another EasyPost Insider past
Speaker:episode where we talked Forge.
Speaker:Super popular episode thousands of views on that.
Speaker:So I, I'll link to that in the comments, but you can or in the show notes.
Speaker:So go ahead and check that out.
Speaker:Learn about Forge, Forge for marketplaces.
Speaker:It, it, it really is an incredible product.
Speaker:Okay, so Joe, moving on from kind of that, how do we manage unpredictable delivery?
Speaker:I wanna talk about delivery speed.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I am a person who wants things fast and wants them yesterday,
Speaker:and all the community here knows I got a bazillion children.
Speaker:Seven.
Speaker:Feels like a bazillion.
Speaker:But boy, I have things down in the holidays to a spreadsheet
Speaker:minute by minute almost.
Speaker:When are things arriving?
Speaker:How am I making sure.
Speaker:If anything falls apart, there's chaos at the Boyer household, so.
Speaker:Delivery speed.
Speaker:I'm probably driving it myself.
Speaker:We got a few stats here.
Speaker:It says, over the past five years, same day shipping demand has grown 164%.
Speaker:Next day demand, 58%.
Speaker:Think this is, you know, we already wanted a lot, a few years ago.
Speaker:84% of merchants out there are saying, this is driving up our costs, you
Speaker:know, six figures plus simply trying to get the packages to people quickly.
Speaker:Especially in a peak season like this where people are already being picky
Speaker:and already being like, I don't know where I wanna spend my precious dollars.
Speaker:How, how can shippers manage these high fast delivery speed expectations?
Speaker:Stay on their timeline and not blow their budget.
Speaker:It's a constant balance.
Speaker:So how can we address that, Joe?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I mean, first off, just to highlight your point speed matters.
Speaker:You already see, as we mentioned, those big retailers, those innovative carriers
Speaker:like the Walmarts and the Amazons, rising to the occasion, not just being
Speaker:able to deliver quickly to major urban areas, but basically they're covering.
Speaker:All of the U.S. is now able to get near same day shipping if you're, if you're
Speaker:buying through a Walmart or Amazon.
Speaker:So again, what do you do if you're not an Amazon or Walmart?
Speaker:What about all the other awesome online sellers and marketplaces
Speaker:and shippers this peak season?
Speaker:How do you hit speed?
Speaker:Well, it's not just about speed.
Speaker:It's also how do you hit speed while still having a great seamless experience
Speaker:in retaining the trust of the consumer.
Speaker:That's something to keep in mind.
Speaker:It's not just about at all costs, let's hit same day, let's hit two day.
Speaker:How do you do this efficiently?
Speaker:So a couple things at EasyPost, we have to say about that.
Speaker:One is the most reliable shipping APIs during peak season.
Speaker:Again, to say it again, it's EasyPost.
Speaker:It's our shipping APIs.
Speaker:If you want the largest carrier network, if you wanna go multi-carrier
Speaker:quickly, the most seamless way to do it is going to be us.
Speaker:And, we now have Wallet.
Speaker:To to mention Wallet again.
Speaker:Wallet's going to allow you to quickly get up and running with those carriers
Speaker:and service levels that are going to allow you to hit the speed without
Speaker:breaking the bank, without juggling a lot of carrier relationships.
Speaker:We work with a lot of shippers who just don't have a sizable team that can go
Speaker:directly and do, and jump through all the hoops and do all the important
Speaker:partnership steps to work with some of these major carriers during peak.
Speaker:So the great thing about East Post's Wallet is that when you work with
Speaker:one of our Wallet Carriers, you're working with the trust, the largest,
Speaker:the most reliable carriers, without having to do all the enterprise
Speaker:grade carrier handling, if you will.
Speaker:So you're able to quickly be nimble and you're avoiding even certain extra
Speaker:charges that are stacking up this peak.
Speaker:You have one simple billing experience.
Speaker:You have one invoice experience.
Speaker:You're not having to submit all these customer care or support
Speaker:issues directly to carriers.
Speaker:We also have things again to mention like Luma AI.
Speaker:Luma is going to be able to look and say, listen, you're overpaying
Speaker:by using this carrier and service level to get it there fast.
Speaker:You think this two day or this next day service is your answer to speed.
Speaker:It is not.
Speaker:Actually, if you went with this carrier service level over here, you're gonna get
Speaker:it there just as fast, but you're gonna save X amount of dollars per shipment.
Speaker:So you need to be data-driven and you need an AI that's seen billions of historical
Speaker:shipments, which is what Luma is.
Speaker:It's the only shipping AI that was trained and fed on billions
Speaker:of historical deliveries.
Speaker:And says listen, if you're shipping to this part of the country and you're
Speaker:trying to ship it as fast, and you're trying to ship within this budget.
Speaker:Here's the label you need to buy.
Speaker:That's huge.
Speaker:Most shippers across peak season are in the dark.
Speaker:They don't, they don't know how to hit this speed you're, you're referring to
Speaker:Lori, and so they end up overpaying and come January they get surprise invoices.
Speaker:Hey, we were faster than ever this holiday season.
Speaker:They look at, oh wow, we just lost X percentage of our profit, of all our
Speaker:sales, during our most important time of the year because we were so fast.
Speaker:This happens all the time.
Speaker:So yes, be fast, be wise about your speed.
Speaker:Do not overpay for your speed.
Speaker:Don't compromise your profit because you were speedy.
Speaker:You aren't one of the big giant retailers maybe, but how can
Speaker:you nimbly ship like them?
Speaker:We think EasyPost is, is one of the ways.
Speaker:I'd also say that when it comes to speed, what we see happen a lot during peak is
Speaker:people try to go above and beyond and have the most seamless shipping experience.
Speaker:'Cause they know that's key to keeping consumers happy and even
Speaker:getting repeat purchases in the same holiday season from a consumer.
Speaker:But what about when something goes wrong and things do go wrong during peak?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Even for the very best shippers.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:To the very best.
Speaker:A package is lost.
Speaker:A package is damaged.
Speaker:A package is stolen off the front porch.
Speaker:We all see the headlines.
Speaker:Something will go wrong, and when it does, how do you react?
Speaker:How quickly do you get money back in your pocket, in terms
Speaker:of a hassle-free claims process?
Speaker:This is something that historically, lots of shippers lost, lots of money,
Speaker:we're talking millions of dollars.
Speaker:Not even with enterprise shippers lost during from, from all their
Speaker:holiday revenue, profit were lost because something went wrong
Speaker:during the shipping experience.
Speaker:And so if you're gonna go fast, please do, but also know, ask, am I protected?
Speaker:Am I being reckless?
Speaker:Am I overspending?
Speaker:And, and then if something goes wrong do I have hassle-free claims?
Speaker:We have a new product called Guard.
Speaker:Guard brings together all our most popular protection solutions.
Speaker:This includes our Shipping Insurance, API.
Speaker:This has been, one of our most successful products, to be honest, over the past
Speaker:few years, because so many shippers spent years dealing with really long-winded
Speaker:claims processes, what does that mean?
Speaker:A package is lost, is damaged, it's stolen.
Speaker:It was not uncommon that historically if that happened for a major carrier
Speaker:shipment, a shipper would spend weeks or months waiting for claims
Speaker:to go through, waiting to get their money back in their pocket.
Speaker:And so what do we do with our insurance, API?
Speaker:We really simplified that we're in some cases, in a matter of minutes.
Speaker:Claims are processed, they're approved.
Speaker:Money's back in your pocket, you're taken care of across our carrier network.
Speaker:We also have a part of guard called USPS Claims.
Speaker:This is my favorite part, Joe, I'm getting excited.
Speaker:So just spoiler for everyone.
Speaker:USPS claims is one of the coolest, best things.
Speaker:If you are an EasyPost customer and you ship by USPS.
Speaker:Please right now is whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker:Listen up.
Speaker:'Cause Joe is gonna tell you about something that is one of
Speaker:the Lori Boyer starred favorites.
Speaker:Joe, tell us about USPS Claims.
Speaker:Lori, you and I are, are some of the few logistics nerds who
Speaker:really care about shipping claims.
Speaker:And I'll be honest, I didn't think this was the most exciting thing to talk
Speaker:about during peak until I looked at the numbers and talked to enough shippers.
Speaker:I'm like, oh wow.
Speaker:This is one of the most important things we should talk about.
Speaker:So what happens with USPS Claims?
Speaker:Well, USPS is one of the most popular carriers during the holiday season.
Speaker:They're going to be one of the most economical, they're one of
Speaker:the most reliable historically.
Speaker:If you talk to a lot of sellers, they want to use USPS, but as we said, during
Speaker:peak, it's the ultimate challenge.
Speaker:Something will go wrong.
Speaker:And so with USPS claims, what we've done is we've really
Speaker:removed a lot of the steps.
Speaker:Historically, 40% of shipping claims never even get successfully filed
Speaker:a process that means millions and millions and millions of dollars isn't
Speaker:going back to a shipper's pocket when something goes wrong with the package.
Speaker:Did you guys hear that?
Speaker:40%. You, you know that it's out there, you know that you deserve a claim.
Speaker:They, they don't get filed.
Speaker:40%. Because it's such a pain in the, you know what?
Speaker:Sorry, Joe, I just wanted.
Speaker:No, it's, it's true.
Speaker:And why is that?
Speaker:Well, 'cause there's forms and there's back and forth and we're
Speaker:reaching out between the shipper and, and the vendor they're using
Speaker:or directly with the carrier.
Speaker:And, and it's, it's very kind of antiquated the way we would
Speaker:protect a shipper if something went wrong with a shipment.
Speaker:And so with USPS Claims from EasyPost, it's being considered the easiest
Speaker:way to have peace of mind because we've removed a lot of the steps.
Speaker:And so as we go into the holiday season, it could be said, if
Speaker:you are shipping USPS, how do you sleep peacefully at night?
Speaker:How do you know?
Speaker:Okay, I, I'm, I'm gonna have the easiest way to have a shot at getting my claim
Speaker:filed and getting money back in my pocket and holding onto my profit, EasyPost.
Speaker:USPS Claims is being considered the main product.
Speaker:It's, it's the easiest way to get protection on USPS shipping.
Speaker:We also have a FedEx Claims program that's very similar.
Speaker:We also have Package Protection, and this has become popular for
Speaker:emerging sellers, we call them.
Speaker:This could be what's considered an SMB seller, a newer seller, all
Speaker:the way up to mid-market sellers.
Speaker:They're finding value in offering package protection, but also kinda
Speaker:offering a reminder Package Protection throughout the shopping experience.
Speaker:This has been proven to actually increase new customer conversion rates.
Speaker:They'll actually buy more from you when you plant throughout the shopping journey
Speaker:a reminder that their purchase is going to be protected as something goes wrong.
Speaker:And this is something that you, you don't pay up front for.
Speaker:Same with our claims program.
Speaker:By the way.
Speaker:This isn't like immediately your, you're paying for this premium
Speaker:service, but it's something that as soon as the, the consumer opts into
Speaker:it, then there, there's a small fee, but with this Package Protection, it
Speaker:is really a game changer for certain type of sellers that might be new.
Speaker:They don't have that major retail brand name.
Speaker:They're not an Amazon, they're not a Walmart, but they have really great
Speaker:prices that are a really cool offering this peak season, this holiday season.
Speaker:They get a lot of new shoppers on their site and they see they convert
Speaker:more of those shoppers if they have a trusted Package Protection program
Speaker:that's just planted there as a reminder throughout the shopping journey.
Speaker:So that, that's another part of our Guard suite.
Speaker:Ship fast, don't ship reckless, be protected.
Speaker:And, and we, we can help with that.
Speaker:I, I love that.
Speaker:And I wanna make another point as well.
Speaker:So you talk about, I, I love how you broke it down, ship fast,
Speaker:don't ship reckless, be protected.
Speaker:So ship fast, but smart.
Speaker:One of the great things that I personally have really enjoyed about Luma our
Speaker:AI tool that you mentioned is the fact that it can tell you, you know, what
Speaker:is the percent probability that this shipment is gonna arrive within two days.
Speaker:Or, you know, looking at the historical data so you're not just
Speaker:like, well, it probably should.
Speaker:'Cause this is a big name.
Speaker:Or it, maybe it won't, 'cause this is a name I'm not as familiar
Speaker:with that does pull the data.
Speaker:So you mentioned being data-driven.
Speaker:I love, love, love that.
Speaker:I wanna say, well, I'm gonna switch us a little bit here, Joe though,
Speaker:because as the consumer myself the shipping experience is really important.
Speaker:I do have to say, but like I don't really care what carrier brings it.
Speaker:And that is something that I think that our, our shippers
Speaker:don't always think about.
Speaker:I just want my package to arrive.
Speaker:I don't care if it came by FedEx or UPS or USPS, whatever, as long as it arrives.
Speaker:But I have expectations for, you know, what this process is gonna be like.
Speaker:It, it's become kind of this settled, like, I buy something
Speaker:and I'm expecting notifications.
Speaker:I'm expecting to know where my, my package is all along the route
Speaker:if there's a problem with it.
Speaker:If something's damaged, I'm expecting you know that you're gonna take care of it.
Speaker:And you're gonna take care of it.
Speaker:Well, so you mentioned the, the Guard suite, that's awesome for,
Speaker:you know, claims and problems.
Speaker:What about that kind of visibility piece?
Speaker:With expectations so high, is there, what are your recommendations,
Speaker:especially for EasyPost customers, making sure you get a great experience?
Speaker:Yeah, it's a key buzzword, right?
Speaker:Visibility.
Speaker:And there's several layers of visibility a shipper needs to be concerned with.
Speaker:When it comes to like visibility for the consumer and to your point of,
Speaker:hey, where the heck is my package?
Speaker:We're going back to the big topic in the room of tracking notifications, right?
Speaker:So tracking notifications is kind of redefining itself in, in a
Speaker:few interesting ways right now.
Speaker:And it's happening right in time for peak.
Speaker:It used to be that great tracking notifications were about real-time
Speaker:updates of the consumer understanding, ah, here's where my package is.
Speaker:Thus you would decrease the amount of WISMO issues.
Speaker:What's WISMO?
Speaker:We all know in, in the world of selling WISMO is where is my order?
Speaker:So think of the angry customer care email or the angry customer care call,
Speaker:or the really nasty social media post.
Speaker:It's kind of like I will never buy from this seller again because I thought
Speaker:I was getting X days in in shipping delivery, and it's been a week past that.
Speaker:So tracking notifications was how you gave the consumer visibility, and then
Speaker:as a means to make sure you didn't have an angry consumer on your hands.
Speaker:And now what's happening with tracking, it's much, much more strategic.
Speaker:That's table stakes.
Speaker:If you don't have real time updates and notifications to your consumer, we need
Speaker:to talk 'cause we can help at EasyPost.
Speaker:But what we're really seeing is now hundreds, and we're pushing
Speaker:towards thousands, of our shippers are engaging in a new tracking
Speaker:offering called Advanced Tracking.
Speaker:So we just recently in time for peak released advanced tracking, which
Speaker:not only gives you realtime updates, it gives you comprehensive branded
Speaker:AI powered predictive tracking.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Well, no matter what size seller you are, you can deeply customize across
Speaker:an email, tracking page, or even text message notification basis, the exact
Speaker:tracking story you want to send.
Speaker:And I wanna emphasize the branded element of this.
Speaker:It's not just about, here's the latest update on all your packages.
Speaker:It's also, here's a story we want to tell you that's going to further build
Speaker:that relationship with you, the consumer that just bought from us, but remind you,
Speaker:here's an accessory, here's a warranty.
Speaker:Here's a similar item you might want to consider.
Speaker:We are seeing with advanced tracking nine to 12 x ROI fairly quickly.
Speaker:Because of two things.
Speaker:One, the decrease in the amount of angry.
Speaker:Where is my order?
Speaker:Emails and that that plummets, but what increases is profit and revenue.
Speaker:The lifetime value of a consumer, in other words, how much you're
Speaker:able to successfully sell a consumer starts to go up.
Speaker:Because it happens that consumers read your tracking notification
Speaker:communication way more often than your marketing emails or any other
Speaker:spammy communication you wanna send them to actually sell them something.
Speaker:Imagine that.
Speaker:They're actually wanting to read where their package is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're seeing within advanced tracking, we have an SMS text notification feature.
Speaker:Didn't seem like a big deal until we started realizing, oh my gosh.
Speaker:Consumers read the text.
Speaker:If you're a brand or seller sending a text message, consumers are much more
Speaker:likely to read the text if it's tracking related obviously, than if it feels
Speaker:like a random, spammy message I don't want you to bug me with as a consumer.
Speaker:So what we're seeing is marketing and brand departments love advanced tracking.
Speaker:They're like, oh, wow, this holiday season, we know more customers are
Speaker:holding onto their money, but we have consumers that if they do buy from us,
Speaker:we can generate more lifetime value.
Speaker:Or I'd even say peak season value.
Speaker:Or does that mean I, let's not, not even talk about a lifetime, let's say
Speaker:within the same peak season, what is the total value I can get outta a consumer?
Speaker:I can get outta a shopper?
Speaker:Well, that's going to totally depend on how you upsell 'em the moment they buy.
Speaker:How about the moment they buy, the first point of communication is
Speaker:that tracking notification message.
Speaker:So make it strategic, make it your best brand in storytelling.
Speaker:There's a really great example of a brand that's been around for decades.
Speaker:I wanna say like it's a hundred year old classic consumer brand.
Speaker:We would know it, we'd love it if, if I said the name.
Speaker:They found with advanced tracking, their most beautiful, it reminded
Speaker:me of their old holiday catalogs.
Speaker:You remember those old holiday catalogs kinda like, ooh, what,
Speaker:what are we gonna buy this holiday?
Speaker:These, these, they kind of put that really cool holiday catalog experience within the
Speaker:header and footer of their tracking email.
Speaker:They would have strategic upsell moments of selling similar items, and they saw
Speaker:notable revenue growth from putting, again, like their best promotional
Speaker:message in the tracking moment because they knew that was the moment that
Speaker:they had the attention of a consumer.
Speaker:Of their customers.
Speaker:So this is really strategic and it's so interesting 'cause this
Speaker:is just a shipping notification.
Speaker:It is kind of a boring, like, yeah, you, you don't want angry, mad customers, so
Speaker:you gotta get 'em real time tracking.
Speaker:It's an inconvenience.
Speaker:You just gotta do it.
Speaker:No, no, no, no.
Speaker:Your best opportunity to generate more profit is actually that
Speaker:tracking notification message.
Speaker:So I, it, it's like a total mind shift from even some of the most
Speaker:incredible sellers in the world.
Speaker:We'll talk with them or like, tell us about your communication.
Speaker:Is it lifetime?
Speaker:Is it like that Amazon Prime, like the moment you buy, you know, the
Speaker:status, like, no, we don't really see the value and, and, you know,
Speaker:investing in that and we're like, ah.
Speaker:It's not about angry customers, it's about are you generating as much
Speaker:profit as possible, this, this peak?
Speaker:Joe, my whole career.
Speaker:So I've spent decades, yes, I'm gonna age myself working in brand and working
Speaker:in marketing and I can't tell you, this is so, so critical and so cool.
Speaker:You need to get your brand your, even just your logo being shown.
Speaker:Even just that communication there is this whole psychological piece where
Speaker:your brand needs to be in front of someone five to seven times in order
Speaker:for them to, you know, start trusting you and thinking I'm gonna come out.
Speaker:That's why you're seeing ads like a whole bunch of times.
Speaker:And then on the sixth time you're like, maybe I'll look at this.
Speaker:Having this in something that is so read.
Speaker:You know, again, I've worked in marketing forever.
Speaker:I've worked when email marketing was so awesome because
Speaker:everybody read all their emails.
Speaker:Not anymore, they don't do that.
Speaker:But these are things, both emails and text messages that people are really reading.
Speaker:They're paying attention to it.
Speaker:What's also really, really cool, we talk about those hiccups.
Speaker:So I was talking to one of our customers recently who uses advanced
Speaker:tracking, and so if there is a hiccup.
Speaker:Immediately sending a notification, hey, it looks like your
Speaker:package is actually delayed.
Speaker:We are so sorry.
Speaker:Here's a 25% off coupon.
Speaker:Hop back on the site, and you could actually get a lot of
Speaker:opportunities for people to purchase more to if it's a return.
Speaker:Same thing, you know, you can actually build that loyalty.
Speaker:There, it, there are so many opportunities, so I say work with
Speaker:your marketing teams on this.
Speaker:We have the standard just notifications as well.
Speaker:We've had this forever.
Speaker:Of course, everyone wants to know where their package is.
Speaker:That's part of the sort of basic level of having a a, a good experience.
Speaker:This is taking it to the next step where you, you are getting
Speaker:your brand in front of them.
Speaker:You're, you're getting that awareness, but also the opportunities to
Speaker:upsell to get them coming back.
Speaker:And yeah, it is really, really crucial from a marketing standpoint.
Speaker:So I'd love the advanced tracking product that we've got going now.
Speaker:To your point with, with a product like this, a lot of sellers of
Speaker:varying sizes assume, oh, it's too late, we're already into the fall.
Speaker:In the fall, I, I have to make all the my decisions for how I'm gonna ship
Speaker:this holiday season, this peak now.
Speaker:And how long does it take to get onboarded with something like this?
Speaker:Well, we just brought this into our core experience.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Well, if you are one of our shipping API customers and a lot of sellers out
Speaker:there, a lot of three pls, a lot of the shippers this peak season are using
Speaker:EasyPost shipping APIs to be multi-carrier through the exact same UI, through
Speaker:the exact same product experience.
Speaker:You can quickly onboard into advanced tracking, and it's just
Speaker:a few cents more per shipment.
Speaker:So it's, it's a per usage.
Speaker:It's like pennies.
Speaker:It's so worth it.
Speaker:It's important to note 'cause there's a number of great, what we call
Speaker:post-purchase players out there.
Speaker:There's a number of great brands that take from tracking to returns that really have
Speaker:this very slick enterprise grade, I call it experience to get started with them.
Speaker:It's lengthy.
Speaker:It's like, okay, we, we have to do all these custom contracts and, and
Speaker:it's gonna be months of integration and it's this very fancy thing.
Speaker:The brilliance of advanced tracking is that it's, we're having folks
Speaker:that within a matter of seconds, like, wait, I'm onboarded.
Speaker:And now I have these really cool custom branded logo tracking notifications
Speaker:that I immediately have access to.
Speaker:Whoa, immediately.
Speaker:So this is why it's been a really popular product and we're excited
Speaker:for everyone using EasyPosts, put your best foot forward.
Speaker:Have the best way to retain, trust and communicate and, and keep an
Speaker:air of transparency on all your shipment activity with all your,
Speaker:all your customers, this peak.
Speaker:And, and you have it right there in your dashboard and in a matter of
Speaker:minutes, sign up and, and put your best foot forward with your customers.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:I, I love how you said transparency as well.
Speaker:Shippers out there, I'm gonna give you a best practice advice that
Speaker:sometimes feels a little scary.
Speaker:Don't just, hold and pray and hope that maybe the package
Speaker:will end up showing up on time.
Speaker:I think we're gonna get into visibility a little bit later.
Speaker:'Cause sometimes we are kind of just crossing our fingers.
Speaker:If there is an issue, your consumers will rank your experience astronomically
Speaker:higher if you're simply transparent.
Speaker:That reaching out and notifying them, letting them know there was
Speaker:an issue, how can we make up for it?
Speaker:Simply being transparent.
Speaker:Research again and again and again shows people will say
Speaker:that that experience was fine.
Speaker:So I. This is a really awesome opportunity.
Speaker:I love that Joe mentioned that it is something that you can still do now.
Speaker:I know peak is here almost upon us.
Speaker:It is something really easy, really quick to do, and honestly really puts
Speaker:you up there in some ways, even ahead of some of the biggest companies out there.
Speaker:I see some of their tracking notifications and they're not that impressive.
Speaker:So this is a really, really great way to kind of set yourself apart.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Well, we are gonna stop there.
Speaker:Everyone stay tuned.
Speaker:Next week we're gonna have part two of this incredible episode with Joe
Speaker:Dieter talking EasyPost and peak 2025.
