Transcripts
Welcome back to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lori Boyer, and we are in the middle of an incredible
Speaker:two part episode, EasyPost Insider, where we are talking all about how
Speaker:you can take advantage of EasyPost this peak season to really make
Speaker:your your shipping go smoothly.
Speaker:So without further ado, we're gonna jump back into our conversation.
Speaker:I've got Joe Dieter here with us, and he is walking us through all
Speaker:of the different EasyPost products that you can use to really shine.
Speaker:We are going to move into a little bit of a pivot, and we're
Speaker:gonna be talking about money.
Speaker:One of the things that I hear from everybody, we get to this time of
Speaker:year and everybody's talking carriers.
Speaker:Everybody's talking surcharges.
Speaker:Everybody's talking about how do I manage hidden surcharges?
Speaker:I mean last minute surcharges.
Speaker:High weight, and we've got the rounding up going on now.
Speaker:You know, there are so many ways that, again, if you're just looking at a carrier
Speaker:and you think, oh, this is the price, but then those surcharges are really
Speaker:adding up and we are seeing dramatically higher each year as the carriers
Speaker:themselves are seeking to try to offset tariffs and offset all of the different
Speaker:things that they're dealing with.
Speaker:What strategies do you recommend for our EasyPost customers out there?
Speaker:How can they be avoiding these surcharges?
Speaker:How does EasyPost support in helping them protect their margins?
Speaker:Yes, the infamous peak season surcharges, and as you said, they always
Speaker:kind of come new shapes and forms.
Speaker:Like we have this roundup thing where based on the dimensions of the package,
Speaker:we're now rounding up to the nearest whole number for some, some major carriers,
Speaker:which this could be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of extra dollars
Speaker:in, in shipping costs or certain shippers.
Speaker:And so you have all these new types of fees you're gonna get hit with
Speaker:even fees associated with certain types of packages, of certain sizes.
Speaker:This is where EasyPost Wallet has been super helpful.
Speaker:So you not only through EasyPost, Wallet get discounted rates across
Speaker:major carriers like USPS and FedEx, UPS, DHL, list goes on.
Speaker:But you're also getting really a more seamless experience
Speaker:of using those carriers.
Speaker:You're getting the information you need that's timely on, ah, this great
Speaker:carrier just added this new fee.
Speaker:At EasyPost, we pride ourselves in having the largest carrier network, but we
Speaker:keep all of our thousands of shippers that rely on a taxes that network.
Speaker:We keep 'em informed every time there's a shift.
Speaker:How those carriers are doing business and how they're performing.
Speaker:We have a whole department of our company that's just about communicating the world
Speaker:of carriers and how they're shifting, how they do business, to all of our shippers.
Speaker:So we, we notice how many great shippers are out there doing decent
Speaker:volumes that actually just don't have access to the information, like
Speaker:no one's keeping tabs on, oh, wow.
Speaker:Blank carrier just totally kind of changed the game on how they're gonna
Speaker:ship and how they're gonna charge us.
Speaker:And so we're blindly going ahead and then come Q1, we get surprise invoices
Speaker:about how much we extra we have to pay down for all that holiday shipping that
Speaker:we had no idea we're gonna have to pay.
Speaker:So when you get Wallet, yes, you're getting discounted rates that usually
Speaker:would be reserved for much larger shippers who are doing big volume.
Speaker:You don't need big volume to get great rates if you go with Wallet Carriers.
Speaker:You're getting one simplified billing, invoicing experience.
Speaker:We hear from so many shippers as they're juggling through all
Speaker:the invoices and trying to make sense of all these extra fees.
Speaker:And a lot of shippers can't even read their carrier invoices, respect.
Speaker:Like they'll tell us, listen, like, we don't even look at the depth of it.
Speaker:We just look at the total and realize that was way more expensive
Speaker:than we thought it would be.
Speaker:So with Wallet, you're putting your best foot forward and simplifying a
Speaker:lot, a lot of the process of just.
Speaker:Knowing how you're gonna be more cost effective.
Speaker:The other thing is, again, are you leveraging AI powered shipping
Speaker:intelligence in how you ship?
Speaker:Because if you do, you inherently avoid unnecessary costs.
Speaker:A tool like Luma, which came out this year, which has been very popular, is
Speaker:able to recommend the right shipping label based on your specific needs as a shipper.
Speaker:So you set a rule and say, listen, I want to ship to a
Speaker:destination in this many days.
Speaker:I wanna do it within this sort of budget.
Speaker:I prefer to work with these sorts of carriers.
Speaker:And then Luma is able to really make sure you're purchasing the right labels.
Speaker:In other words, choosing the right carriers and service levels
Speaker:based on those preferences.
Speaker:Luma is taking into account knowledge of how carriers are changing in their fees.
Speaker:Loom is able to really understand a lifetime.
Speaker:How is the landscape changing?
Speaker:Ah, there are new fees coming into play.
Speaker:Most shippers right now are relying on, often it's one person, even a large
Speaker:company, to be the all knowing database of everything all carriers are doing.
Speaker:And it's just, it's unrealistic.
Speaker:It's not how the world works anymore.
Speaker:Are you AI powered?
Speaker:Are you able to have agility and react as the carriers you trust this peak are
Speaker:changing up everything about how they might want to be charging you this peak?
Speaker:That's, that's.
Speaker:Where I'd start the conversation if you're worried about surcharges.
Speaker:I love that and I love that.
Speaker:Joe, I wanna say one of the cool things about first of all, I'm gonna shoot into
Speaker:the, the notes again into our description.
Speaker:You can subscribe to carrier updates through us.
Speaker:Joe mentioned this team.
Speaker:I meet with this team weekly who are incredibly smart.
Speaker:I was just meeting with them yesterday and I shot a Slack to a
Speaker:team member saying, man, I don't know how they stay ahead of all of this.
Speaker:We were going through huge lists of changes and what we needed to update, so.
Speaker:If you visit our website, go to carrier updates, you can read what's going
Speaker:on, but you can also subscribe to get notified anytime there's a carrier update.
Speaker:So I always recommend staying, you know aware of what's going on.
Speaker:I also wanna say we're seeing a big shift, and I think we're gonna talk about
Speaker:this to some of these regional carriers, innovative carriers, alternative carriers.
Speaker:Well, yes, our big major carriers tend to like kind of pile on
Speaker:the surcharges up the wazoo.
Speaker:We are totally carrier agnostic at EasyPost.
Speaker:We love all our carriers.
Speaker:They, I can't say enough.
Speaker:Every carrier has a place and has, you know, some are amazing rural,
Speaker:some are amazing urban, some are really great at large packages.
Speaker:Some are really great at fast, small.
Speaker:There's really cool ways.
Speaker:But when you do look, there are some of these regional and kind of alternative
Speaker:carriers that are really expanding and don't have a huge number of surcharges.
Speaker:That is maybe some of the way they're setting themselves apart, whether it's
Speaker:Sendle or whether it's LSO or I think Amazon Shipping has become super popular.
Speaker:There are a lot of really great regional carriers out there who
Speaker:maybe try to differentiate by not having so many surcharges.
Speaker:So keeping your options open I think is so important when it comes
Speaker:awareness and keeping your options open and, and being open to using
Speaker:some alternative shippers really can help soften some of those, you know,
Speaker:pile up of, of surcharges that we see.
Speaker:Joe, beyond surcharges though.
Speaker:You know, there's only so much we can always do about that.
Speaker:In general, costs in the shipping world have been going up.
Speaker:They've, they're up $16 billion, just general shipping costs since 2022.
Speaker:Unfortunately, we're also kind of seeing margins really tight.
Speaker:I'm hearing shippers say every single cent matters to us this year.
Speaker:You know, maybe in the past we'd let some things just kind
Speaker:of, eh, we'll figure that out.
Speaker:This year, margins are really, really tight.
Speaker:So beyond just kind of trying to avoid the surcharges or, or making sure you
Speaker:have this specific carrier, you know, the very lowest price or whatnot, are there
Speaker:other tools that we have at EasyPost.
Speaker:Something in billing or, you know, we mentioned claims
Speaker:earlier, that's another great one.
Speaker:Well, what are some of the tools that we have to help with all those
Speaker:kind of little penny nickel and dime savings that really, really add up
Speaker:in our industry over the peak season?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:There's two big, kind of parts of the shipping experience we
Speaker:look at, at, at EasyPost for this.
Speaker:One we can call upfront cost reductions.
Speaker:So it's a lot of what we've been chatting about in terms of, hey, how are you
Speaker:choosing what labels you wanna buy?
Speaker:Or what carriers and service levels are you choosing?
Speaker:Are you using EasyPost and our Shipping API?
Speaker:Are you using our Wallet Carriers to make sure you're getting the best discounts
Speaker:and you're also just jumping through the least amount of hoops so you protect your
Speaker:overhead, the time and money of what's being spent in dealing with carriers.
Speaker:So there, there's that kind of upfront at the moment of the shipping decision
Speaker:of who you're going to partner with to get a package out the door.
Speaker:But then there's also this really post ship moment.
Speaker:And the post ship moment, we're really talking about how are you saving money
Speaker:and time when something goes wrong?
Speaker:How are you saving money and time in terms of a package
Speaker:being lost or stolen or damaged?
Speaker:Or there's just some sort of a failed delivery.
Speaker:And this is where our Guard suite comes in, right?
Speaker:So our Shipping Insurance API, our Shipping Insurance API allows you
Speaker:across all our carriers to have the most hassle-free way to file a claim,
Speaker:to hold onto your money, to get a claim approved and to really have in
Speaker:instant coverage on a parcel package.
Speaker:Our USPS Claims program, this is being considered the safest way
Speaker:to ship USPS this peak season.
Speaker:Has this been.
Speaker:So a third party said that historically a lot of folks wanna ship with USPS
Speaker:during the holiday season, but during the holiday season, things go wrong.
Speaker:We hit volume constraints or something happens with a particular package.
Speaker:40% of claims go unfiled, right?
Speaker:So what we want to do is remove the friction from filing a claim.
Speaker:The reason a lot of folks kind of roll their eyes to the thought of
Speaker:having to submit a claim and hopefully get their money back if something
Speaker:goes wrong with the parcel, is that historically it involved lots of forms.
Speaker:It was lots of back and forth.
Speaker:We'd have shippers sitting there waiting weeks or months after the holiday season
Speaker:hoping they get protection on a package that was lost during the holiday season.
Speaker:With USPS Claims from EasyPost, we have really upgraded that experience.
Speaker:We've removed a lot of the steps, and what's ultimately gonna happen
Speaker:is a shipper feels like they're not even filing a claim anymore.
Speaker:It's just nearly automated.
Speaker:Something goes wrong with the shipment.
Speaker:Boom, they're seeing that cash come back into their pocket.
Speaker:This is critical.
Speaker:When you have, we have shippers out there losing hundreds of thousands of
Speaker:dollars during a peak season just because they're not able to successfully file
Speaker:claims and everything that's going wrong.
Speaker:Now, we don't just have a super USPS, we also have FedEx claims solution.
Speaker:And then we have a Package Protection as well.
Speaker:Our Package Protection program has been really popular among, I call them
Speaker:emerging sellers, so newer sellers that are looking for a way to have a trusted
Speaker:experience for new shoppers on their site.
Speaker:You're a new seller.
Speaker:You're not an Amazon or a Walmart, but you have a really great priced
Speaker:item, or you have a new cool item that's, that's a exciting holiday gift.
Speaker:You have a new shopper come onto your site.
Speaker:They're saying like, Hey, I, I don't know if I trust this seller yet.
Speaker:But then they see the guarantee of package protection.
Speaker:They see that if they buy from you, they're gonna be taken care
Speaker:of if anything goes wrong with the shipment, which sellers are
Speaker:shoppers are skeptical by nature.
Speaker:We all are.
Speaker:If we're not buying on our preferred retail storefronts, we're not sure
Speaker:if we want to put down our credit card and complete a purchase.
Speaker:We, we just inherently are this way.
Speaker:So why not have a guarantee of protection that, listen, if you do buy from
Speaker:us, you're gonna be taken care of.
Speaker:The package will get there safely.
Speaker:If it doesn't, you're not gonna lose your money.
Speaker:You're, you're, you're gonna be taken care of.
Speaker:So this is another element of Guard that's really about, how do you hold
Speaker:on to your profits if everything doesn't go a hundred percent perfect?
Speaker:And during peak, nothing will ever go a hundred percent perfect.
Speaker:It's unpredictable.
Speaker:So have peace of mind, but also make sure your bottom line revenue
Speaker:and, and your cash situation is a business is healthy as you go into the
Speaker:end of peak and, and into next year.
Speaker:And, and so EasyPost Guard is gonna be a big part of that.
Speaker:I, you know what?
Speaker:It's so interesting.
Speaker:So we're in this peak season where, you know, as I mentioned, every penny matters.
Speaker:And I was chatting with a friend recently who oversaw kind of the
Speaker:warehouse operations for really large, large electronics brand for many years.
Speaker:And, and they had some specific goals in the warehouse to, you know,
Speaker:be able to meet, you know, certain goals for the year financially.
Speaker:And they were really struggling because it was kind of unrealistic for what they had.
Speaker:And, and he was chatting with somebody who oversaw kind of the shipping
Speaker:element and said, hey, you know what I can find, I can always find
Speaker:ways to save money through shipping.
Speaker:You might not be able to through warehouse.
Speaker:And he is like, let's work together and we can meet the, the overall
Speaker:company goals by finding ways to get your shipping less expensive.
Speaker:And I think that, similarly I've thought we can't force necessarily.
Speaker:We can use great things like advanced tracking to try to encourage people to
Speaker:buy, but when the macroeconomic forces out there are really hard and people are
Speaker:holding on a little tighter to their money it's hard to always encourage more sales.
Speaker:But what you can always do is reduce the, the money.
Speaker:That is being bled out in shipping, whether it's through the carriers that
Speaker:you're using, whether it's through the whole entire returns process.
Speaker:Claims.
Speaker:There is so much money.
Speaker:The reason I geeked out over USPS Claims specifically is because I've just,
Speaker:I've worked with so many shippers who it's just so much of a headache that
Speaker:that's money they basically write off.
Speaker:It's money you can get and, and so much easier.
Speaker:So just in this peak season where things are so tight, look for all of those ways,
Speaker:those pennies add up with your claims.
Speaker:Look into Guard.
Speaker:EasyPost customers, there are so, so many things that you can do with
Speaker:it that will help you save all the little pennies, nickels, dimes dollars
Speaker:that add up to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in the end.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Anything else you wanna say on cost, Joe, before we move on a little bit,
Speaker:we're gonna be talking visibility, which is kind of one of my other
Speaker:little favorite things to talk about.
Speaker:No, I, I think well said, Lori.
Speaker:And the other stuff I have to say, it'll be perfect to talk about it in the
Speaker:context of visibility, so we'll talk.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Sometimes I walk into the warehouses and my whole mind is like blown because
Speaker:there's just packages and I just think this is massive and it's 24 hours a
Speaker:day, seven days a week, multiplied by billions of, you know, warehouses.
Speaker:So it's understandable.
Speaker:That just, lemme see my numbers, 6% of companies say they actually have
Speaker:full visibility into their package across the entire supply chain.
Speaker:Research says 8 billion packages in the US every year are flying blind,
Speaker:basically shipping through the process.
Speaker:And everybody's kind of, again, praying and hoping that they show up on time.
Speaker:Visibility and knowing what's going on with packages is a
Speaker:massive pain point of shippers.
Speaker:So what tools do EasyPost customers have to kind of stay ahead of visibility?
Speaker:Make sure that they are kind of aware of disruptions, not just
Speaker:kind of reacting too late, trying to be as proactive as possible.
Speaker:What can you do to help us, Joe?
Speaker:Well said Lori.
Speaker:The warehouse and distribution center is a magical place, but
Speaker:it's also a bit of a black box.
Speaker:It's, it's a place where most shippers, even some of the most mature,
Speaker:incredible iconic brands in the world, the reality is they don't have full,
Speaker:comprehensive data and understanding of what's really happening, what's
Speaker:going right, what's going wrong?
Speaker:Where are we losing money?
Speaker:Where are we losing time?
Speaker:Some of the most incredible technology companies, actually, they may even
Speaker:specialize in data science, like they may sell hundreds of millions of billions of
Speaker:dollars in data science software to the world, but actually have they applied the
Speaker:latest data science to any part of, if they have a shipping arm to what they do.
Speaker:So it's, it's super fascinating that I think one of the hardest pillars of
Speaker:society to get visibility into where can I get more efficient in every step of it.
Speaker:One of the hardest areas to do that is the greater logistics world of moving
Speaker:stuff from point A to point B. It's tough.
Speaker:Supply chains are complex, obviously, so to your point, there's three layers
Speaker:of visibility we notice that are really going on for, for most shippers.
Speaker:One is, I call it infrastructure visibility.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Well, if you're a shipper, you're using shipping software, maybe like EasyPost.
Speaker:How reliable is that software?
Speaker:What is the infrastructure in terms of 99.99% reliability?
Speaker:It's staying up and running.
Speaker:It's working efficiently.
Speaker:Even during the biggest stress test of all peak season I, I would start with
Speaker:there on visibility and we're surprised how many shippers end up going into
Speaker:peak and they're caught off guard.
Speaker:Systems go down, they have a huge backup within certain warehouses or
Speaker:across their entire distribution center network, and lots of angry end customers.
Speaker:This is not uncommon, and this is going to happen.
Speaker:I just wanna hop in.
Speaker:When we did a little inventory of like some of the top reasons
Speaker:people do move to EasyPost, and the number one was legacy systems.
Speaker:And it is because there are these incredible systems built.
Speaker:But 10 years ago we weren't dealing with the same microsurges, we
Speaker:weren't dealing with the massive number of carriers out there.
Speaker:And these bigger systems, these older systems just weren't built to pivot.
Speaker:So yeah, I just wanted to jump in and and let people know, if you're feeling like my
Speaker:system's a little slow, you're not alone.
Speaker:That's a very common problem.
Speaker:I was chatting with a friend and it could be said who, who's, who's actually in
Speaker:AI an MIT and, and we were reflecting on the fact that shipping and logistics is
Speaker:one of the last pillars of what runs the world that is using 1990s legacy software.
Speaker:It could be, it is not uncommon for a Fortune 1000 company who one
Speaker:of their main operations of what they do as a company is shipping.
Speaker:And if you actually look at the software that runs their entire operation.
Speaker:There's good chunks of it that are what we call in the product software
Speaker:world, like 1990s legacy software is when actually the, the whole foundation
Speaker:of what you're using was built.
Speaker:And that's a major risk, and that's part of why it's not uncommon to have massive
Speaker:inefficiency in how you're shipping.
Speaker:And this is for some of the most reputable and important companies in the world.
Speaker:They're gonna be responsible for a lot of holiday gifts this year.
Speaker:So, infrastructure visibility.
Speaker:Do you know the systems you're using?
Speaker:Do you know why you don't have 99% uptime?
Speaker:Do you know why you lost X amount of millions of dollars 'cause you were down
Speaker:for X amount of moments during the key shopping, shopping part of the season.
Speaker:Key part of the shopping season.
Speaker:Another part of visibility, right, is what we typically think of at shipping,
Speaker:and I'd say it's like parcel visibility.
Speaker:So do you know package level data?
Speaker:Do you know your average cost or package?
Speaker:Do you know your average time of transit?
Speaker:Do you know every carrier and service level you're using,
Speaker:how it's actually performing?
Speaker:How many failed deliveries do you have that tried and true carrier
Speaker:and service level you use for two day or use for ground, how is
Speaker:that actually working out for you?
Speaker:And, and what we see, some shippers are actually scared to know if they're on
Speaker:it because they, they signed a fancy contract and they feel like they were
Speaker:told they got a really awesome discount and so they just need to push more volume
Speaker:through that carrier and they actually don't, oh, if I get visibility, that's
Speaker:scary 'cause they don't know the truth.
Speaker:It's like some weeks I avoid stepping on the scale 'cause maybe I just
Speaker:don't wanna know what happened.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:We, we, don't want visibility.
Speaker:There's freedom in truth.
Speaker:There's freedom in knowing, oh wow.
Speaker:I was really reliant on that carrier and service level and I recently am offering
Speaker:a new type of product to a new part of the country, and I'm shipping down to
Speaker:Southwest, you know U.S. a lot and my costs are going up like crazy and my
Speaker:time in transits getting really long and I have angry customers down there.
Speaker:I need visibility into how I'm shipping.
Speaker:Like there will be a come, there will be a come to truth moment where you
Speaker:realize you need parcel visibility, so that, that's the other thing.
Speaker:You can't make smarter decisions on how you ship until you really know the
Speaker:reality of how you're currently shipping.
Speaker:So we have that through Luma Luma Insights, parcel visibility.
Speaker:We also have something called EasyPost Analytics for upper mid market to
Speaker:enterprise grade shippers that gives you comprehensive custom levels of visibility
Speaker:really across your entire supply chain.
Speaker:What's happening with your warehouse inventory?
Speaker:What's happening outbound?
Speaker:What's happening with every part of how you ship and do
Speaker:supply chain, we have that.
Speaker:Another tool we have is called Luma Advisor, and this is being considered the
Speaker:most reliable way to simulate the future.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Well, Luma is able to look at how you've been shipping historically and then
Speaker:really look ahead to tomorrow of if you continue to ship that way, if you continue
Speaker:to use these carriers and service levels and ship in the way you are here is how
Speaker:much money you're going to lose, and here's how much time you're gonna lose
Speaker:if you continue to go down that path.
Speaker:It's really interesting.
Speaker:So it gives clarity, a clear spotlight into the dark future, which, which
Speaker:most shippers just don't know what peak season's gonna look like.
Speaker:It's unpredictable.
Speaker:Luma Advisor is one of your best shots.
Speaker:Really understanding the implications if you continue down the path you're
Speaker:currently on in terms of the carriers you partner with and how you're shipping.
Speaker:And so Luma advisor being considered the most trusted simulation in the
Speaker:market of, and this has been a really buzzy, popular thing the past couple
Speaker:years in the world of shipping, and especially a lot of the biggest
Speaker:retailers in the world are starting to invest in shipping simulations.
Speaker:I just wanna say.
Speaker:The shipping simulation that's backed by billions of historical deliveries,
Speaker:the shipping simulation that's actually projecting the future based off knowing
Speaker:kind of every shipping scenario of the recent past across all the carriers.
Speaker:There's only one of those and it's through EasyPost, Luma.
Speaker:It, it should just be noted.
Speaker:If you are a large shipper and you have really custom needs, you're seeing
Speaker:lots of failed deliveries, you're seeing your time and transit averages
Speaker:are going down, your time to label.
Speaker:So how quickly can you process a, a shipping label, get it on a box, get it
Speaker:out the door if those goals, those KPIs you're tracking aren't performing where
Speaker:you want 'em to be EasyPost Analytics is really that true enterprise great
Speaker:experience that we're excited to chat with you about of, of how we can help.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:The last part of visibility.
Speaker:Customer facing visibility.
Speaker:All that means is does the customer know where the package is?
Speaker:Do they have a lifetime status of where their order is?
Speaker:Do you want to decrease WISMO, where's my order, angry customer care issues.
Speaker:Do you want a chance to, through branded storytelling, upsell in the middle of
Speaker:the tracking moment that can consumer.
Speaker:Advanced Tracking from EasyPost is going to really, really help.
Speaker:We're seeing lots of shippers as we've released this product recently.
Speaker:They're going into peak and they're already projecting more revenue, more
Speaker:profit 'cause they're noticing they can more quickly expand the lifetime
Speaker:value of a consumer the moment they buy from 'em through putting their
Speaker:best upsell branded storytelling in the tracking notification moment.
Speaker:This could be email, this could be the branded tracking page.
Speaker:This could be SMS text notifications, and instead of sending, sending them
Speaker:a spam, a spammy marketing email, put your best promotional messaging in the
Speaker:content that you know they're gonna read.
Speaker:And that's the tracking moment.
Speaker:'cause they wanna know where the heck their package is.
Speaker:So that's the other part of visibility is like, does your
Speaker:customer know what's up the moment they give you money and buy from you?
Speaker:Do they know where their their package is?
Speaker:We know that's huge to retaining customers.
Speaker:That's huge.
Speaker:To becoming like an Amazon is just this incredible, put the
Speaker:customer first, have transparency.
Speaker:Always keep 'em in the loop.
Speaker:Never leave them in the dark.
Speaker:Always make sure they know they're taken care of.
Speaker:That starts with really timely and branded tracking notifications.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:And I wanna mention as well, just on the basic API thing, something
Speaker:that a lot of customers use, you can use set up really simple webhooks.
Speaker:So at any point in your shipping journey, if you're hitting an exception, you
Speaker:could set up a rule where maybe it's been 24 hours since something has moved
Speaker:or since the label was created, but it didn't move on to the next step.
Speaker:You can set up really easy webhooks with EasyPost's API that will then notify you,
Speaker:you know, we'll send you a Slack message or send you an email, or somehow keep
Speaker:your team aware that maybe you've run into some exceptions or, you know, a, a package
Speaker:has been stuck at a, at a certain carrier spot for a certain amount of time, or that
Speaker:maybe, you know, sometimes cer certain carriers don't always scan as well
Speaker:as they should when things have moved.
Speaker:So it can give you awareness.
Speaker:So that is another little tip that I know a lot of our
Speaker:customers out there like to do.
Speaker:Easy.
Speaker:Just using a webhook on the API will also give you great visibility.
Speaker:Joe, our last topic and one of my favorites because our whole life,
Speaker:our bread and butter, all our time is spent in the carrier world.
Speaker:I work with all the different carriers all the time.
Speaker:I love them.
Speaker:Honestly, everyone out there, I know it can seem tricky working with carriers, but
Speaker:they really are, for the most part, trying to figure out great ways to help you.
Speaker:So carrier diversification is what we're gonna talk about.
Speaker:Interestingly, so we kind of diversified a whole bunch around COVID when packages
Speaker:exploded and everybody needed more and, and nobody had space, nobody had capacity.
Speaker:And so we got a lot of new carriers in there and, and people kind
Speaker:of thought maybe they'd die off.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:The opposite has happened.
Speaker:As people have been seeing the value of all these other carriers, regional, final
Speaker:mile carriers, alternative carriers to the big ones now are carrying one fourth
Speaker:almost of all package, all parcel volume.
Speaker:They, they're not like the backup anymore.
Speaker:They're an essential piece of it, and we have been seeing
Speaker:some really innovative ones.
Speaker:Really love a couple of our partners.
Speaker:I'm gonna shout out Amazon Shipping.
Speaker:I'm gonna shout out Maersk.
Speaker:They are two really, really cool ones that have entered the market
Speaker:here in the last year or so.
Speaker:So Joe, how can our listeners learn more about some of these carriers?
Speaker:How do they balance, you know, the big carriers with regional
Speaker:and innovative carriers?
Speaker:And of course.
Speaker:How do they use EasyPost to do that and, and not make it such a giant headache?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Lori, you mentioned regional final mile carriers.
Speaker:We're seeing, right, 23% of parcel volume is that it is
Speaker:actually going through those.
Speaker:So a lot of shippers might not even know where to start in getting
Speaker:access to a carrier network.
Speaker:It's kind of a consolidated one experience where I have access to all of these newer
Speaker:regional final miles, but then also all of the standard major trusted carriers.
Speaker:But then also how do you get access to new innovative rising carriers?
Speaker:What do we mean by, what do we mean by rising innovative?
Speaker:Well, one obvious example is Amazon Shipping, so Amazon Shipping just
Speaker:to, to be transparent was one of our most highly requested new
Speaker:carriers we've ever seen at EasyPost.
Speaker:Amazon is obviously this incredible tech forward company who redesigned, rethought,
Speaker:what it means to move a parcel package.
Speaker:But perhaps most importantly is they came in and said, listen, we're gonna
Speaker:do seven day a week pickup and delivery.
Speaker:We're going to decrease the amount of surcharges, we're gonna
Speaker:remove residential surcharges.
Speaker:We're gonna have hassle-free claims.
Speaker:We're gonna have just lower prices across the board.
Speaker:We're gonna have better around the clock support.
Speaker:Like they, they just looked at the whole game and said, how do we look at all
Speaker:of the challenges that most shippers face in shipping with really popular
Speaker:carriers, and how do we remove as many of those challenges as possible?
Speaker:So we applaud what they've done and we've just, you know, out of candor,
Speaker:seen a lot of our shippers allocate a lot of volume to Amazon Shipping.
Speaker:And we're excited to see that continue to grow.
Speaker:We also though have other rising carriers where we have exclusive relationships.
Speaker:Like Maersk is a really interesting thing that's taking shape
Speaker:over, over the, the time ahead.
Speaker:Maersk is going to become, it appears if, if you ship through Maersk with EasyPost,
Speaker:one of the most cost effective ways, especially for smaller shippers or SMB
Speaker:shippers to move packages within the U.S.
Speaker:We're seeing they're coming in with some of the most, pleasant pricing for smaller
Speaker:shippers we've ever seen in, in terms of moving, moving parcel within the U.S.
Speaker:And so we have a number of other carriers that we would put under our EasyPost
Speaker:innovative carriers that are specializing in next day, same day as well.
Speaker:And we're excited to make more announcements there.
Speaker:So what it means is that when you ship with the largest multi-carrier
Speaker:network, which is EasyPost, so you have a hundred plus carriers, including
Speaker:from the regional, the final mile, to the biggest, most trusted carriers.
Speaker:When you ship with EasyPost, you very quickly get access
Speaker:to all of those options.
Speaker:And what's really key during peak season is you're getting good
Speaker:discounts with all those options.
Speaker:And if you use our Wallet Carriers, you're quickly getting
Speaker:up and running and integrated.
Speaker:You're not juggling multiple logins.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:We have our FedEx account login.
Speaker:Oh, we have our UPS login.
Speaker:We recently spoke with one of the largest companies in the world, an iconic brand,
Speaker:who admitted that they have carrier logins and account numbers that are
Speaker:floating even across their party vendors.
Speaker:And I say that respectfully , this is an incredible brand that has,
Speaker:has done amazing things, but when it came to their shipping operation,
Speaker:even just doing something as basic as like, and I say basic in terms of
Speaker:you wouldn't think this would be a huge issue for shippers, but listen.
Speaker:If you are shipping volume and if you're using multiple carriers,
Speaker:you may underestimate the amount of overhead and work it takes to
Speaker:successfully use multiple carriers.
Speaker:And you have to, 'cause you're gonna hit volume constraints if you just choose one.
Speaker:So they were like, yeah, no, honestly, just having the right login information
Speaker:and like having the right account number that was attached to certain
Speaker:discounts, we realized that was in the hands of third parties and we realized,
Speaker:you know, there was all these issues.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Why do I bring this up?
Speaker:Well, Wallet just simplifies so many things you forgot, need to be
Speaker:simplified about using carriers and it removes the challenge of going
Speaker:directly in, in multiple ways.
Speaker:And especially with billing and invoicing, this has been a nightmare where folks
Speaker:end up losing a lot of money and a lot of hours just trying to make sense of, of
Speaker:the billing and invoicing situation with our various carriers and service levels.
Speaker:So that's where we start when we think about what does it
Speaker:mean to diversify carriers.
Speaker:It's one thing to say, yes, I want to use a few different, or a couple different
Speaker:carriers even during this holiday season.
Speaker:So I'm not experiencing downtime.
Speaker:It's another thing to actually manage that successfully.
Speaker:And it's another thing to be able to do that in one simplified, I, I would say
Speaker:kind of consolidated experience, which is what you get through our EasyPost core
Speaker:API suites, our flagship product that thousands of shippers rely on during peak.
Speaker:Because they can nimbly get access to all the carriers they wanna
Speaker:work with, and they don't have to like, use seven different products.
Speaker:It's all in one experience.
Speaker:So I, I would, I would start there.
Speaker:You also need an AI that lets you know this is how you diversify carriers.
Speaker:You need, don't just rely on your own expertise.
Speaker:You don't have time and capacity if you're a shipper.
Speaker:You're worried about your core business.
Speaker:You're worried about your main business.
Speaker:Leverage data.
Speaker:Leverage an AI that's seen every scenario, how every carrier and service
Speaker:level's performed in recent history, and let it recommend, ah, here's
Speaker:gonna be the best carrier mix for you.
Speaker:Here's gonna be the best kind of breakdown as you're going
Speaker:expedited, as you're going ground.
Speaker:We no longer have to be beholden on our own finite human minds.
Speaker:We, we have too much stuff going on.
Speaker:We have too many priorities.
Speaker:Let a trusted advisor that's seen every shipping scenario, that's seen
Speaker:every success, every failure across every carrier make recommendations
Speaker:for you on how you diversify.
Speaker:That's the other element you can get through EasyPost, Luma.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:And I just wanna say as well, for those of you listening, we often
Speaker:mention, you know, these massive world class huge brands, but we also have
Speaker:some really tiny shippers out there.
Speaker:So if you're a tiny shipper, signing up for EasyPost is free if you're
Speaker:shipping under a certain amount.
Speaker:Luma is free if you're shipping under a certain amount.
Speaker:There are still tools and options from the smallest person to
Speaker:the largest brand out there.
Speaker:That is something that is really cool about EasyPost is it
Speaker:will completely grow with you.
Speaker:You can scale really well when you're needing to add new carriers, and there's
Speaker:pricing points that work for everyone within their budget, depending on where
Speaker:you are in your life cycle as a shipper.
Speaker:There's just really some incredible options.
Speaker:I love our carriers.
Speaker:There are I, I love talking about all the different options with carriers.
Speaker:We've got a couple of great webinars that we have just done recently that are
Speaker:gonna be all around picking carriers and which ones are best in which scenarios.
Speaker:But as Joe said, if you just wanna try it yourself, look at some of
Speaker:those Luma simulation options.
Speaker:You can really kind of see what will happen if I move over to zone two or if
Speaker:I, you know, shift this amount of volume.
Speaker:And play those scenarios out because we hate uncertainty.
Speaker:So getting a little bit more knowledge is always helpful.
Speaker:Okay, Joe, this has been fantastic.
Speaker:We have learned so many great ways that our EasyPost customers out there should be
Speaker:taking advantage of new EasyPost programs and just the regular old, and of course,
Speaker:if anyone isn't an EasyPost customer.
Speaker:We love you too.
Speaker:We're always happy to talk about EasyPost and if you have any questions
Speaker:for us, feel free to reach out.
Speaker:We are just here to try to help you in your peak journey, this 2025.
Speaker:Joe, before we end, I would like a quick sum up, maybe of just the top products
Speaker:that you feel like are, are new and may really help people who have forgotten
Speaker:through this last couple of episodes here that they may wanna look into as
Speaker:they are journeying into peak 2025 here.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Well, I, I think one theme across all these is that shipping
Speaker:this peak doesn't have to be a dreaded, unpredictable cost center.
Speaker:Historically, shipping is something that absorbs a company's time and
Speaker:money and the theme across everything, EasyPost is offering right in
Speaker:time for peak is that, no, no, no.
Speaker:It's not a cost center.
Speaker:It's a strategic growth lever.
Speaker:Do you wanna make more money this holiday season?
Speaker:It can actually happen through how you ship through each step of the shipping
Speaker:and supply chain journey, you can actually increase profit if you have the
Speaker:latest and greatest tools and systems.
Speaker:And we here at EasyPost, we've worked hard to assemble the latest and greatest
Speaker:and build the latest and greatest tools across every step of the supply chain
Speaker:and shipping journey, to be honest.
Speaker:So what are some of the new stuff we're, we're, you know, we, we have
Speaker:in store number one, Wallet Carriers.
Speaker:How do you get discounted rates?
Speaker:How do you have a simplified billing experience?
Speaker:How do you not juggle multiple logins?
Speaker:Use EasyPost Wallet Carriers.
Speaker:From USPS to UPS, to FedEx, to DHL, to Canada Post, the list goes on.
Speaker:The carriers you wanna ship with this holiday season, this peak, the
Speaker:seamless way to ship through them is through EasyPost Wallet, and you
Speaker:can get that through our Shipping API, our our most popular offering.
Speaker:Another key thing is when the package goes out the door, are you taking
Speaker:care of, are you taking care of the consumer with lifetime status
Speaker:updates with lifetime tracking?
Speaker:That's possible through advanced tracking.
Speaker:We have lots of shippers that like our tracking APIs, but just for a few cents
Speaker:per package, you add in this next level branded tracking that has 9 to 12 XROI.
Speaker:When you plug it in on average.
Speaker:And the reason it gets that sort of return on investment is because you can
Speaker:tell your best branded storytelling, plus have AI powered estimated delivery
Speaker:dates so you and the consumer have a real time, really valid projection of
Speaker:when the package is gonna get there.
Speaker:But then you also tell your best branded kind of promotional storytelling
Speaker:to get the consumer to consider an accessory, a similar item, maybe a
Speaker:warranty, whatever you need to do to bring the consumer further value
Speaker:the moment they purchase from you.
Speaker:Put that message within your branded tracking experience and you can get that
Speaker:through advanced tracking at EasyPost.
Speaker:This has been a very popular product.
Speaker:We recently launched it.
Speaker:We're seeing a lot of sellers immediately take advantage of it.
Speaker:No, no upfront costs.
Speaker:And it, you can get onboarded within a matter of minutes, right?
Speaker:So this is the other big one.
Speaker:And then lastly, I just wanna bring up EasyPost Guard.
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:Well, it's how we guard and protect you when things go wrong during peak.
Speaker:When you ship, no matter who you ship with, no matter which carriers, you will
Speaker:have packages that maybe get damaged.
Speaker:Maybe they get lost, maybe they're stolen off the front porch.
Speaker:Something's gonna go wrong with a delivery.
Speaker:Have peace of mind.
Speaker:Sleep well and peacefully during peak season knowing that you're not gonna
Speaker:lose a ton of money when things go wrong, because with Guard, we have
Speaker:really simple near automated claims.
Speaker:For example, USPS Claims is going to be how, if you're shipping USPS,
Speaker:you nearly just remove all, all the forms, all the back and forth, all
Speaker:the cumbersome process that led to 40% of claims never getting filed.
Speaker:Historically, 40% of the claims never got filed historically,
Speaker:but with USPS Claims at EasyPost.
Speaker:You have this more automated system where money comes back into your
Speaker:pocket if something goes wrong.
Speaker:Super key thing that a lot of shippers shipping, USPS and a lot of people
Speaker:love to ship with USPS as they should during the holiday season.
Speaker:They're like, I, I finally know I have my best shot at holding onto money for
Speaker:those few circumstances where, where the, the shipment has a, has an issue.
Speaker:So those are the big things we'd wanna highlight as well as, one last thing,
Speaker:Forge Forge is our product that a lot of marketplaces and even a lot of 3PLs
Speaker:are turning to, to white label the most reliable shipping software for all of the
Speaker:businesses that rely on them for shipping.
Speaker:If you're a big marketplace, we work with some of the biggest in the world.
Speaker:We work with some of the newest.
Speaker:We, we just had a startup come to us last week and sign up for Forge because they
Speaker:created this really cool new marketplace to exchange a specific type of item.
Speaker:But they didn't have anything in terms of shipping expertise, they say
Speaker:we don't even know where to start.
Speaker:We know we have to offer awesome, reliable shipping to everyone that's
Speaker:trading this good on our platform.
Speaker:But I don't have a logistics engineer.
Speaker:I don't even know.
Speaker:I've never generated a label online, they told us.
Speaker:And so we're like, okay, you're gonna white label EasyPost through
Speaker:one simple platform called Forge.
Speaker:In a matter of minutes, they're up and running with the most 99% reliable
Speaker:shipping software that exists.
Speaker:And they can now have all their sellers have a really cool, like
Speaker:almost Amazon esque, if I dare say, like a really cool quality, big
Speaker:enterprise experience, even though they're a startup that just started.
Speaker:That's where you can get through Forge.
Speaker:In a matter of minutes, you get the best from generating labels
Speaker:across a big carrier network to shipping insurance you get it there.
Speaker:Even AI powered shipping insights on what carriers and
Speaker:service levels you should use.
Speaker:You get it in Forge.
Speaker:And this is huge because historically a marketplace would spend months
Speaker:and years and millions of dollars contracting special logistics engineers
Speaker:to build them shipping software that actually helped all their sellers.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:At a very reasonable fee, you sign up with EasyPost Forge and you're up and
Speaker:running with the folks that already built the most reliable logistics software.
Speaker:Joe is in product, he loves it.
Speaker:He lives, breathes, sleeps, everything.
Speaker:EasyPost, and I love it.
Speaker:I'm, I'm here for it Joe.
Speaker:So fantastic overview of some of the great tools.
Speaker:EasyPost customers, reach out to your CSM.
Speaker:If you're wanting to learn more about some of these, you can reach out to us as well.
Speaker:If you're not an EasyPost customer.
Speaker:I'll include a link here where you can click to, to set something up
Speaker:where people can walk through exactly how it might work for your system.
Speaker:As Joe's mentioned, some of our different shipping experts we have are
Speaker:really good at kind of helping you see where you could make some big changes.
Speaker:Thanks again, Joe, for being here.
Speaker:This has just been fantastic.
Speaker:You've been a, an incredible guest as always.
Speaker:Thanks, Lori.
Speaker:Fun chat.
Speaker:We're excited obviously, and I, and I hope if anything, this really brought
Speaker:some insight and helped shippers.
Speaker:That's what this is all about.
Speaker:Shipping during peak, not simple.
Speaker:We're here.
Speaker:A lot of folks rely on us to help them.
Speaker:So we're excited to chat with anyone that that took anything
Speaker:of value away from this.
Speaker:And hey, let's use all the tools we've got at our disposal to kill up this peak 2025.
Speaker:We'll see all next time.
