Transcripts
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lori Boyer of EasyPost.
Speaker:Today, we are going to be diving into two of the most massive hair pulling and and just
Speaker:all together, irritating challenges that every single person in the industry has to deal with.
Speaker:But we're especially focusing today on our SMBs, our ecommerce market.
Speaker:We're going to be talking about managing labor challenges and managing inventory challenges.
Speaker:So so important.
Speaker:I know I've heard from so many of you that these are just a big problem.
Speaker:So I have brought on Steve Syverson.
Speaker:From NFI eCom to teach us a little bit about what we can do to manage these challenges.
Speaker:Steve, can you introduce yourself a little bit and tell us a little bit about your background?
Speaker:Yeah, of course, Lori.
Speaker:Thanks for having me today.
Speaker:I'm excited to be here with the EasyPost team.
Speaker:So again, my name is Steve Syverson.
Speaker:I'm the senior director of ecommerce customer solutions here at NFI eCom.
Speaker:My background has been in the logistics supply chain space for about the past 22 years.
Speaker:A majority of that time was with FedEx and various sales roles and specifically
Speaker:working in the SMB mid market space, the last 10 years in ecommerce alone.
Speaker:So I've got a background in launching micro fulfillment centers, critical inventory logistics,
Speaker:building sales teams, launching new product lines.
Speaker:So I've got a great background, I think, to discuss some of the challenges SMBs face today.
Speaker:So again, thanks for having me.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:You should be Steve who has done it all, Syverson.
Speaker:It sounds like.
Speaker:22 years.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:So I'm really excited for the insights that our audience is gonna be able to pick up from today.
Speaker:But before we get going, I just wanted to ask, we've been this season asking
Speaker:one question to each of our guests.
Speaker:And I've gotten so many ideas from this.
Speaker:So, what, Steve, is your go to comfort food?
Speaker:Go to comfort food.
Speaker:I would say
Speaker:my wife will kill me, but probably like a really good meatball sub.
Speaker:Okay, first, why will your wife kill you?
Speaker:She just probably wouldn't want me to eat it, but I would say a meatball sub, yeah.
Speaker:Pizza, pizza's a very close second, but.
Speaker:I was gonna say pizza is always one that I can go for.
Speaker:That warm but boy a meatball sub sounds great.
Speaker:So do you like to make your meatball subs at home or would you pick one up at a restaurant?
Speaker:Yeah, I have a couple go to places.
Speaker:Okay, so team if you're out there, you're hitting up Pittsburgh, Steve's
Speaker:the guy to get you that meatball sub.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:So as we dive into our topic today, I'm really excited I want to hear if somebody
Speaker:is listening today and they only come away with one or two or three things.
Speaker:What are the most important thing you would want them to remember from today's episode?
Speaker:I would say at this point, really understanding their customer and demand
Speaker:and leveraging technology as an SMB.
Speaker:I'm not even leveraging, I would say embracing technology.
Speaker:I would say, find, find a good peer or association group to get in touch with.
Speaker:And understand it will save them so much time and pain because someone inevitably has been
Speaker:down the path they're looking at and they know the good and bad it comes out of that.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Brilliant, love them.
Speaker:I'm going to ask you a couple of questions real quick on each of those.
Speaker:So you said understand your customer demand and I was interested in that.
Speaker:How do you feel?
Speaker:Is there a difference between understanding your customer, you know, just kind of their demographic
Speaker:and who they are and your customer demand?
Speaker:What is the difference between those two?
Speaker:Yeah, I think you really may need to look at industry trends.
Speaker:So understanding their customer, they know they should know who they're going after, right?
Speaker:What's the demographic that's buying from them?
Speaker:Let's just say it's a lifestyle apparel brand.
Speaker:Most likely, they built their, their company around the type of
Speaker:individual they're looking to sell to.
Speaker:And then how do they do that?
Speaker:So trying to forecast that demand, I think is really looking at the industry.
Speaker:What's happening with, if it is apparel, we use that as an example,
Speaker:what's going on in that industry.
Speaker:You know, right now, the biggest thing going on is the three, two, one.
Speaker:And the conditions by the current administration, what's happening there.
Speaker:So if I'm an apparel customer that greatly impacts my operation, my demand what
Speaker:is going on with it, with that space.
Speaker:How it impacts me.
Speaker:How do I pivot?
Speaker:All those different things.
Speaker:So I think there's a lot of variability with that.
Speaker:But really understanding the demand from their customer.
Speaker:What do they see down the road?
Speaker:And I think I talked about technology.
Speaker:Really leveraging some of the new AI tools, predictive analytic tools that
Speaker:are out there to help them doing that.
Speaker:Looking at historical data from sales.
Speaker:Why are customers buying?
Speaker:Why are they winning?
Speaker:So all those things factor in and help them kind of understand what
Speaker:the demand would be in the future.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And I thought it was interesting how you switched from, for your number two, you said it was
Speaker:about technology and you kind of switched from leveraging technology to embracing technology.
Speaker:How do you see those as different?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think it's, there's, there's a lot of really cool tools out there and platforms.
Speaker:And I think people want to, they want to adopt them, but they don't really
Speaker:know how to use them effectively and what's the best fit for their company.
Speaker:You know, there's so many different features of service, but likely SMBs don't need all of those.
Speaker:So I think establishing what you're trying to accomplish with that tool before you
Speaker:actually go out and implement or adopt a platform makes a huge difference.
Speaker:And there's, there's opportunities plenty out there providers, but really
Speaker:what's the best fit for your business?
Speaker:How do those align with your goals?
Speaker:And what you're trying to accomplish with your brand.
Speaker:And so it sounds like one of the things I'm hearing from you is you've really got to
Speaker:understand yourself, understand your customers.
Speaker:You just have to have a really good knowledge.
Speaker:Some people get a little bit of the surface level and kind of take off
Speaker:and, and that runs into problems.
Speaker:Any suggestions around those peer groups how to develop those relationships?
Speaker:Cause I completely agree with you, especially if you're talking SMB, this is critical.
Speaker:Yeah, great question.
Speaker:So, you know, there's a number of ways you can get involved in those.
Speaker:LinkedIn is always a good platform to try to find out like like minded businesses or
Speaker:groups that you can associate associate with.
Speaker:So I wouldn't say join some of those, get involved with those.
Speaker:Also, conferences are a great way to meet people that are doing something very similar to you.
Speaker:I leverage those quite a bit in our business, and a lot of those just
Speaker:become relationships over time.
Speaker:A lot of these strategic partnerships that you form or alliances over time
Speaker:make a huge difference for your business.
Speaker:And again, goes back to a lot of people have lived through maybe what you're experiencing
Speaker:for the first time, and they can share that, save you a lot of time and pain.
Speaker:And they can share best practices as well.
Speaker:Peer groups are a great platform to do that, but I would say conferences
Speaker:and LinkedIn are, are a great way.
Speaker:Yeah, and just reach out to people, you know, you're, you may be surprised.
Speaker:There are times when you can shoot an email to someone that you've seen on LinkedIn or
Speaker:you can send them a message and they may be happy to, to chat with you and mentor.
Speaker:So just don't be afraid.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:So let's talk about growing.
Speaker:So I think for this audience in particular, growth is a constant battle.
Speaker:You know, they may start small and they may have, you know, grown.
Speaker:Hopefully their goal is to grow to the point where they're, you know, established and larger.
Speaker:What are the, some of the biggest challenges that you've seen over the last 22 years
Speaker:of especially when it comes to logistics, that's a really big pain point for our SMBs.
Speaker:You know, today we're talking about labor and inventory.
Speaker:How do you, how do you, those are really big hurdles for SMBs in this space.
Speaker:So you know, I'll give you some of the challenges first, and then maybe
Speaker:some of the ways to get around those.
Speaker:From a labor perspective, it's very hard to hire people, especially in today's climate.
Speaker:So, how do you do that as you're scaling your brand?
Speaker:You know, I would say, if you've got your teammates and you have a kind of steady state
Speaker:business, you're looking to grow at that point.
Speaker:I would consider using agencies or looking to outsource because you can really extend
Speaker:your team quite a bit and overwork them.
Speaker:So I would look at vetting agencies.
Speaker:Is there a point, Steve, where you feel like, okay, this is the tipping point of maybe when I
Speaker:should start looking at agencies and outsourcing?
Speaker:Yeah, I would think when you, when you get a sense that your staff is, is overworked.
Speaker:Too far, when you have people doing multiple jobs, they tend not to do each one of
Speaker:them very well, or at the highest level.
Speaker:So, I think as a business owner, a brand owner, you need to, you need to be involved and
Speaker:understand is my staff now stretched too thin?
Speaker:Am I exposed?
Speaker:What kind of risk do I have if people get sick?
Speaker:If the new DC opens in the same area, are they gonna pull staff away?
Speaker:All those different things.
Speaker:So that's certainly a big one.
Speaker:On the technology front, there's, there's so many different platforms you can have to increase
Speaker:efficiencies to, to make sure you're managing labor effectively, using predictive models
Speaker:to create efficiencies to increase accuracy.
Speaker:You know, your overall goal is to create a positive customer experience for the person
Speaker:that's on the end getting that package.
Speaker:So how do I do that?
Speaker:What are the things I have to do internally?
Speaker:Manage.
Speaker:What kind of risks do I need to mitigate to make that happen?
Speaker:I always focus on the CX, the customer experience.
Speaker:Everything I do behind the scenes, they don't see.
Speaker:They just know that they got the right item.
Speaker:They got the right order when they wanted to have it, and it was a great customer experience.
Speaker:And you want them to buy again.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I think there's a lot of variables that come into play with that.
Speaker:So I know labor is just a big challenge in general.
Speaker:So I'm going to kind of back it up a little bit with our labor.
Speaker:So do you have suggestions for, first of all, how to create, especially, I think, Steve, as
Speaker:we're into peak season and stress goes up and customer expectations, this is something for our,
Speaker:you know, Unboxing Logistics family out there.
Speaker:I hope you know that during peak season, customer expectations actually rise when it
Speaker:comes to shipping and logistics and everything.
Speaker:So during your most stressful time is also the time when people have the highest
Speaker:expectations for you to be performing well.
Speaker:All of this leads to a lot of stress and challenge on your workers that you do have.
Speaker:So do you have suggestions for kind of keeping morale high?
Speaker:Or for, you know, creating a good work environment first for the labor that you have.
Speaker:And then we'll talk a little bit more about, you know, the labor you don't
Speaker:have, the outsourcing and whatnot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think there's a number of ways you can do that.
Speaker:I mean, the things that we've done here at NFI as well.
Speaker:So you want to create an environment where everybody feels they have
Speaker:an opportunity to be successful.
Speaker:So you also want to create an opportunity for bonuses.
Speaker:Maybe there's some merit based opportunity.
Speaker:Maybe you have some in house parties.
Speaker:You have pizza brought in.
Speaker:You have a cookout.
Speaker:You just create a little bit different environment that feels outside, especially during peak,
Speaker:feels outside of what the normal day to day is.
Speaker:Because there is an increased demand, there's increased stress.
Speaker:We've offered flexible work schedules to people if they need, maybe not
Speaker:during that time, but post peak.
Speaker:If you do this, then in January or February, we'll give you an option to take, you know, a
Speaker:day off for an extra weekend or things like that.
Speaker:So I, you know, my message would be be creative, don't, don't disrupt your operation, keep
Speaker:everyone engaged, but create an environment where they're all working towards the same goal.
Speaker:They feel good about it.
Speaker:They feel like they're part of the team.
Speaker:And that offers some different creative ways, different options for them, either a flex
Speaker:work schedule or parties or bringing in food.
Speaker:You know, we have customers every year during peak that host host food for us and they'll pay for it.
Speaker:We all love food, Steve.
Speaker:Yeah, we'll have pizza days, we'll have a cookout and a lot of our, a lot of
Speaker:our clients will, will pay for that.
Speaker:They'll cover.
Speaker:Because they know that our teammates are going above and beyond and I've
Speaker:done that with other companies.
Speaker:So I would say get creative.
Speaker:Think differently about it.
Speaker:Don't don't layer on more stress on your teammates.
Speaker:They're already stressed.
Speaker:I think your job is as an owner of a brand or a business is to kind of carry
Speaker:that and figure out ways to mitigate some of that stress, some of that pain.
Speaker:Because at the day, you want them to perform at their highest level
Speaker:because your customer is what matters.
Speaker:That brought a thought to me, Steve, as you said that about, you know, you want to make sure that
Speaker:you're creating, as the owner, as the, you know, driver of this business, the right atmosphere.
Speaker:I think sometimes as the owner, we get stressed out.
Speaker:And that may convey down as well.
Speaker:What are your thoughts on, I guess, how, how does the owner themselves impact the
Speaker:morale based on when they are stressed out?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, and I've seen this, you know, the, if you're the leader, I think you need
Speaker:to be the calm person in all of it, even though you may experience a storm yourself.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Inside you're freaking out!
Speaker:Well you know, my advice would be, and this is really pretty obvious, but
Speaker:don't, don't put that on your team.
Speaker:They can't feel that.
Speaker:They need.
Speaker:They should feel the opposite.
Speaker:They should feel like we're, we're succeeding.
Speaker:We're doing a great job.
Speaker:The business is growing.
Speaker:This is great.
Speaker:Long term opportunity for all of us.
Speaker:But I would say as an owner, like take steps before peak to mitigate some of this risk.
Speaker:Develop relationships with suppliers, with agencies that gives you flexibility.
Speaker:So, when you need to call or ask for a favor or for options with your supplier or any of the
Speaker:local vendors, you have that option to do that.
Speaker:You can't, you can't do it during peak.
Speaker:You've got to put that before.
Speaker:Almost upon us.
Speaker:We're here in, in Q4.
Speaker:So let's say we're, you're going about your day, you have a fantastic
Speaker:sale or even just a surprising spike.
Speaker:This is going to hit over into inventory as well, but you, you've got a big sale that
Speaker:happened and wow, sales went through the roof.
Speaker:Some of your best people are suddenly sick.
Speaker:You know, what are your suggestions?
Speaker:You mentioned creating relationships.
Speaker:Just how do you manage this when you've suddenly experiencing a labor shortage?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I go back to, again, you have to have some, you have to
Speaker:take some steps in advance of this.
Speaker:If you haven't done that, that's what you're asking.
Speaker:Now, now I'm stuck, right?
Speaker:I've got a product that just went viral because some influencer wore
Speaker:my hat and T-shirt at the beach.
Speaker:You know, with your current staff, you have some people out.
Speaker:You're gonna have to ask them to maybe work a weekend.
Speaker:You're gonna have to pay them a little bit differently.
Speaker:Again, get creative with options.
Speaker:If you work this weekend, two weeks from now, you can take a three day week or whatever it may be.
Speaker:But I would say effectively communicate early and, and follow up
Speaker:on what you say you're going to do.
Speaker:If you're going to get, if you're going to be flexible with them,
Speaker:make sure you follow up and do that.
Speaker:Don't extend promises you can't keep.
Speaker:And again, if you have to go to an outside agency, I would stress vet them
Speaker:before, make sure they're reputable.
Speaker:There's a lot that aren't unfortunately.
Speaker:Some of these smaller staffing companies.
Speaker:I would keep a short list as you go throughout the year, make that part of your
Speaker:planning, create a short list of agencies.
Speaker:Staffing companies that you trust that are vetted that you can go to.
Speaker:In this scenario.
Speaker:Hopefully you can call him and say, I need 5 people for a Sunday.
Speaker:What can we do?
Speaker:How do I do that?
Speaker:But again, without, without the advanced work, it's it's it's a challenge for sure.
Speaker:So these are assisting staff.
Speaker:I go back to technology.
Speaker:This is why you need technology.
Speaker:You need to leverage that.
Speaker:That will create efficiencies, reduce errors.
Speaker:It'll be predictive for you on on shipping, on anything like that.
Speaker:Leverage automation anywhere you can.
Speaker:Reduces the amount of staff you need.
Speaker:You know, there's no magic bullet for I need 10 people on a Sunday.
Speaker:That just isn't get creative and leverage what you have and try to create
Speaker:an environment where they feel like if they do X, they can get Z at some point.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that so you touched on a couple of, I think, really key things there.
Speaker:Technology.
Speaker:Automation, that really can be your best friend.
Speaker:When it comes, it doesn't mean you have to fire your staff or that you need fewer
Speaker:people, but it makes their jobs a lot easier and it's a lot easier to handle.
Speaker:You know, they don't mind.
Speaker:Technology doesn't mind working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Speaker:But also it reminded me when you said, you know, the peer networks that you mentioned
Speaker:earlier, this may be the time if you don't know a good agency, if you, you know,
Speaker:haven't developed those relationships.
Speaker:Steve is so on the nose that you need to do this before peak.
Speaker:If you haven't, if you're listening today and you haven't done it, as soon as this episode
Speaker:ends, please start reaching out to your network, figure out what agencies you're going to use.
Speaker:Put into place whatever you can right now to develop that.
Speaker:But I think reaching out to those peers, again, is important.
Speaker:As you said, they've been there before, they've done it.
Speaker:They've handled it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And ask them that very question, right?
Speaker:How are you handling this?
Speaker:I'm sure you've experienced this.
Speaker:What happened last week?
Speaker:I don't want to mitigate my risk.
Speaker:You have any suggestions.
Speaker:That people will jump in there.
Speaker:They're really supportive.
Speaker:So good.
Speaker:So good.
Speaker:This is a very relationship heavy industry, and people are really good about helping one another.
Speaker:Steve, so I know I can just hear our community out there saying, Lori,
Speaker:what about cost, cost, cost, cost?
Speaker:You know, some of these things are sounding a little expensive.
Speaker:How do we balance sort of the cost management piece with your labor?
Speaker:You know, I would again go back to technology.
Speaker:You need to look at what your historical sales are and what you think your demand will be.
Speaker:That really helps you plan your labor.
Speaker:Make sure you're paying competitive wages but not overpaying.
Speaker:Make sure you're not, maybe it's, maybe adding one additional teammate versus
Speaker:having everyone work overtime on a consistent basis is a better option for you.
Speaker:Again, go to your peer group and say, how are you handling this?
Speaker:What is the right time to add additional staff?
Speaker:Or is now the time to adopt a technology that will help me create efficiencies, increase accuracy
Speaker:look for redundant tasks that I can automate?
Speaker:Maybe I don't need an additional person.
Speaker:Maybe I just, I invest in this technology and it helps me leverage that to do
Speaker:things, you know, there's a lot of redundant tasks within a warehouse in the
Speaker:fulfillment center that you can automate.
Speaker:So again, ask people, how are they doing it?
Speaker:You know, if you're, if you're starting to entertain a technology platform a warehouse
Speaker:management system, an order management system, that's a little bit more robust
Speaker:than like a ShipStation, for example, and your business starting to scale.
Speaker:Really look at what features are important to you, and and see how those
Speaker:align with your business growth goals.
Speaker:Because there's a lot of feature rich platforms out there, but you don't need all of it.
Speaker:And maybe you can phase that in, right?
Speaker:Talk to the provider and say, you know, is this a cloud based solution first and foremost?
Speaker:Does this provide me scalable, flexible solutions within my network?
Speaker:How does it integrate?
Speaker:Is it scalable?
Speaker:And what is the cost to do that?
Speaker:And then what kind of support network do you have for this for this platform?
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I love the I just can't say this enough for this audience is looking at technology that
Speaker:will grow with you, that has the features available you'll need in five years, but also
Speaker:you don't necessarily need to pay for them now.
Speaker:You know, all of that, that it's gonna just scale and grow with you.
Speaker:I also really loved how you mentioned in the warehouse.
Speaker:Talking to people about bottlenecks.
Speaker:Because I feel like sometimes we forget, you know, especially you're the owner and you're
Speaker:busy and I heard someone call it once the staying in the ivory tower a little too often.
Speaker:And sometimes we need to be boots on the ground in the warehouse looking for those bottlenecks.
Speaker:And where are those slowdowns?
Speaker:And where can you automate?
Speaker:And where do you need to train people?
Speaker:The people in and who are there doing it every day are the ones who know.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:I am a huge proponent of walking the floor, being out there.
Speaker:You know, if you're an owner of a brand, if you don't know every process, from receiving, put away
Speaker:to then the order fulfillment, then pack out, and the shipment of that product and then the reverse
Speaker:returns piece, you're doing yourself a disservice.
Speaker:You should know everything from A to Z in your operation.
Speaker:Talk to your people, as you said.
Speaker:Create a feedback mechanism.
Speaker:Meet with the teammates monthly, understand what's going on in your operation, because the
Speaker:easiest thing to say is, I just need to add staff.
Speaker:I need to add, throw labor at it.
Speaker:That is normally not the best thing to do.
Speaker:Almost in every scenario.
Speaker:That's probably the last thing you should do.
Speaker:Look for opportunities to gain efficiencies within the existing operation, listen to your teammates.
Speaker:And embrace some technology to do that.
Speaker:What's the right fit?
Speaker:So really, I look at what the problem is.
Speaker:What's the root cause?
Speaker:And then I start to align.
Speaker:What is the solution for that?
Speaker:What's the best solution today?
Speaker:And then how do I scale that over time?
Speaker:Oh, that was so good.
Speaker:I, yeah, I love that.
Speaker:The whole blurb from Steve of, you know, just throwing new employees at
Speaker:the problem is not usually the answer.
Speaker:Almost never.
Speaker:Sometimes it exacerbates the problem instead.
Speaker:So totally brilliant.
Speaker:Let's talk inventory, Steve.
Speaker:Why is inventory management specifically just such a headache for those in this kind of sphere?
Speaker:Yeah yeah, this is such a broad topic.
Speaker:Really if you know, and I'll tell you on my experience.
Speaker:What I see with SMBs typically is they, they tend to overbuy or overestimate demand.
Speaker:Which puts them in a really tough position from an inventory perspective.
Speaker:And I think what goes along with that, some of the overbuying, the drivers
Speaker:for that are just the per unit cost.
Speaker:If I buy a lot, I pay less per unit, it helps my balance sheet, things look better.
Speaker:But now, I've overestimated demand and I've overbought and I only
Speaker:have a 5, 000 square foot space.
Speaker:What do I do now?
Speaker:Now I put my employees in a position where they're moving boxes around to get to another box and
Speaker:it becomes a checkerboard, which is never good.
Speaker:Creates a whole host of issues and inefficiencies.
Speaker:But it's really, it's overbuying or overestimating demand and then not having an inventory
Speaker:tracking system, or at least an effective one through technology to manage my inventory.
Speaker:So to meet this ability and insights are absolutely paramount into your inventory.
Speaker:If you don't have that, I find it hard to believe you'll succeed long term.
Speaker:And I've seen so many just negative impacts from someone not having an inventory management
Speaker:system, not having a warehouse management system, not understanding what they have, you
Speaker:know, you have scenarios where you you have stock outs, or you've sold items you don't have,
Speaker:and you may not even have them ordered yet.
Speaker:Technology provides a stopgap for that.
Speaker:You know, when I, when I set up my WMS, I have my entire product catalog, my inventory within
Speaker:that system, and I can set alerts or parameters.
Speaker:When it hits a certain inventory level, it'll auto reorder, or there'll be
Speaker:an alarm, or someone gets a message.
Speaker:Down to 100 units, time to reorder, anything.
Speaker:Without those insights, without the technology platform, some mechanism to track all that,
Speaker:you're setting yourself up for failure because you're just not going to know what you have.
Speaker:And again, going all the way back to the CX, if that's not creating a bad customer
Speaker:experience, I don't know what is, right?
Speaker:As a consumer, you order something and you expect it.
Speaker:It's not showing sold out or back order on a website.
Speaker:I expect it in a few days.
Speaker:Now I have to go back to the customer.
Speaker:That's costing me money.
Speaker:I have my team calling a customer.
Speaker:It's not a positive experience.
Speaker:And I can, I get to tell them, hey, I won't even have it for a month.
Speaker:So now you've lost customer longterm.
Speaker:So some of those things sound a little bit simple, but things like
Speaker:stockouts are absolute nightmare.
Speaker:So Steve, then I, I, so stockouts, huge challenge, but on the flip side, you said one of the
Speaker:biggest mistakes you see is people overbuying.
Speaker:So how do you, I guess, which is worse in your opinion, first.
Speaker:Overbuying or having a stock out?
Speaker:Put that on you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So obviously they both impact your balance sheet, but I would say I think having a
Speaker:stock out is probably worse because my customer doesn't know that I overbought.
Speaker:That's a bad decision on my part.
Speaker:Now I just had a look.
Speaker:But to me, I, again, everything on the customer, that to me is more of a negative.
Speaker:If I didn't see, if I see something available on your website, I expect that I'll receive it.
Speaker:Overbuying, that's, that's inventory.
Speaker:Now I have to figure out how to manage that.
Speaker:Again, go back to tracking.
Speaker:Now I have extra touch points within my warehouse or my facility to move things around.
Speaker:If it's seasonal, what do you do with that stuff?
Speaker:If you over bought it now, you have 10,000 extra units that summer.
Speaker:Now, you're going into fall.
Speaker:Now, you're going to hold that for a whole another year.
Speaker:You know, I've seen SMBs and say, oh, my God, I just put down a 20 by 20 storage unit for
Speaker:excess inventory that I'm paying 250 a month for.
Speaker:Again, not cracked.
Speaker:I don't even know what's really in there at this open up boxes and do that.
Speaker:So there's just so many issues without it.
Speaker:And, you know, my, my message is leverage some sort of tech platform to do that.
Speaker:If you want to scale your business, if you want to grow your business effectively,
Speaker:efficiently, I would suggest, you know, investing in that or for working with a
Speaker:3PL that has the technology in place today.
Speaker:You know, leave it to the experts, you know, you know.
Speaker:I talk to brand owners every week and none of them say I really love the process of
Speaker:receiving goods, putting them away and then fulfilling orders and shipping them out.
Speaker:None of them ever say that.
Speaker:If they do, I probably wouldn't believe it.
Speaker:But I say leave it to the experts.
Speaker:Leave it to the people that have the buildings that already have technology
Speaker:in place, that already have a staff that's trained, that understands it.
Speaker:You benefit from the economies of scale within those fulfillment centers.
Speaker:They also have preferred shipping rates.
Speaker:Which you probably can't get on your own.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker:There are a lot of options out there that small businesses don't realize.
Speaker:You can use others and lean on.
Speaker:Again, we talked about those peer groups, but there is a lot of
Speaker:expertise out there that can help you.
Speaker:One of the things that I was thinking of as you were talking was about inventory accuracy.
Speaker:So, you can have all the technology you want, but if it's not accurate.
Speaker:So what, what tools, I guess, would you suggest early on, let's say that Steve decided to
Speaker:set up his own business, you had a somewhat small warehouse, what tools, what ways are you
Speaker:ensuring that your inventory counts are accurate?
Speaker:Yeah, I I would again, get get a technology platform that is very good at that.
Speaker:I'm not going to name specific companies or commercials, but anybody can follow up with me.
Speaker:I'd be happy to have a one off if they want to talk through those.
Speaker:But you know, it's really capturing that data on the receiving end of it.
Speaker:Because if it doesn't come in and it's not captured correctly, the rest
Speaker:of it is really garbage coming out.
Speaker:It's never going to be accurate.
Speaker:As a, as a business, or I would say, focus on the intake, the receiving of those goods.
Speaker:Make sure your vendor is delivering what they said, make sure it's marked correctly.
Speaker:So you think you're putting away a certain style size, make sure that's what it is.
Speaker:Check your, check your inventory but make sure your tabs showing the right
Speaker:information on the receiving piece of that.
Speaker:And then that's being logged in.
Speaker:So whatever mechanism you have, it's a barcode that you're scanning.
Speaker:If it's something that you've already set up in your system and your product
Speaker:catalog is already established.
Speaker:Those SKUs and number of units need to coincide with what you receive.
Speaker:That's the only real way to capture that on the front end.
Speaker:If that's not right, then the rest of it's going to be a real challenge for you.
Speaker:I love that piece of advice to focus on the receiving.
Speaker:Because sometimes people do get confused, and when should I be paying most attention?
Speaker:Okay, so we've talked about, you know, contracting out, you know, moving
Speaker:things over, using a 3PL, for instance.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:So let's say that I think, okay, you know, or Steve had his amazing business.
Speaker:You're now thinking I need help.
Speaker:This is a lot of work.
Speaker:What things should kind of the SMB type size business be looking
Speaker:for when they're going to a 3PL?
Speaker:Contracts.
Speaker:What is I guess what is common in the industry?
Speaker:What should they expect?
Speaker:Yeah, so I think I'll kind of go to the front end of this and say, as a brand,
Speaker:kind of what they see, the biggest hurdle I see is the loss of control for an SMB.
Speaker:So they've typically homegrown this business and they have it, you know, maybe by their house
Speaker:or within a couple miles, somewhere they can drive to every day and look at that inventory.
Speaker:They can go at night and pet their little stuffed animal.
Speaker:It's, it's, it is, it's hard to let that go.
Speaker:Completely understand.
Speaker:So that loss of control, perceived loss of control, is a big hurdle for brands to get over.
Speaker:Based on my experience, once they do that and they make that leap, they've
Speaker:identified a 3PL or a partner that they feel good about, that they trust, that's
Speaker:established, that has a great reputation.
Speaker:They are so happy, they never look back, because now it's given them
Speaker:the ability to scale their business.
Speaker:And they're focused on going to shows, to conferences, building strategic partnerships,
Speaker:working with new vendors, finding new manufacturers, all those different
Speaker:things they should be doing as a business owner, and then marketing their brand.
Speaker:And growing that.
Speaker:So, you know, I always say the 3PL, whoever your partner is that you choose,
Speaker:they should be almost invisible to you.
Speaker:It should be.
Speaker:I just know my inventory is going there and my orders are being fulfilled accurately and on time.
Speaker:And they're, they're, you know, they're providing a service that I feel really
Speaker:good about at a competitive rate.
Speaker:That's the way that relationship should be.
Speaker:Flip side of that.
Speaker:The 3PL or partners should be very proactive.
Speaker:So as you're looking at different partners, find one that has a track record that has history
Speaker:of being proactive with their customers and then ask them to kind of demonstrate that.
Speaker:Help me understand how you've done that for a brand.
Speaker:Let me talk to them.
Speaker:Do you, do you simply just push out information, but you don't offer any
Speaker:solutions, anything forward looking?
Speaker:That's always a problem.
Speaker:And I hear that quite a bit.
Speaker:So they're okay saying to the 3PL, hey, can I talk to some of your other current
Speaker:customers and see what their experience is?
Speaker:You recommend that?
Speaker:Let me, let me talk to some companies that are my size.
Speaker:What have you done for them?
Speaker:You told me you do all these things.
Speaker:Now, help me, help me talk to someone, right?
Speaker:Help me, help me get in touch with them.
Speaker:I think that's always good to do.
Speaker:And if a 3PL is resistant to that, there's normally a reason, like, like any buying decision.
Speaker:So, but things I should look for, what technology platform that they're on today,
Speaker:does it, does it align with the goals?
Speaker:Is it overkill?
Speaker:Is it not enough?
Speaker:What kind of support do you have for it?
Speaker:Where are your locations?
Speaker:How many locations do you have?
Speaker:What capacity are you in today?
Speaker:For example, if you talk to a 3PL and they have one location in the middle of Arkansas and your
Speaker:customers are all over the country and they're at 85 percent capacity and you have a growing
Speaker:brand, it's probably not a great fit for you.
Speaker:Okay, so location, number of warehouses capacity that they have, the type of
Speaker:capabilities, the technology they use.
Speaker:The custom, you know, being able to talk to other customers.
Speaker:These are all really good specific things you should look at.
Speaker:In addition, Steve, what about customer support?
Speaker:So not just if you as the SMB have problems, but if your customers have problems with their
Speaker:package, like what is typical for a 3PL to offer?
Speaker:Yeah, so some of the smaller ones, even the larger ones, you'll find a customer
Speaker:success manager and account manager.
Speaker:Typically, they won't be a one for one scenario, but an account manager or
Speaker:someone assigned to your account will have multiple accounts, and they'll support it.
Speaker:What my advice would be is do not have an expectation of brand that they're
Speaker:going to do everything for your account.
Speaker:They're not going to manage your business for you.
Speaker:They're likely not going to track packages for you.
Speaker:I think there's opportunities where brands say I can just outsource everything and
Speaker:they're going to do everything because I did.
Speaker:That's typically not the case.
Speaker:You know, they're going to offer solutions for you.
Speaker:They're going to be your liaison between operations in your business.
Speaker:They're going to make suggestions if there's some efficiency gains.
Speaker:If there's opportunities to change packaging change shipping methods, things
Speaker:like that, they'll make recommendations and they will help you resolve issues.
Speaker:But I wouldn't, I wouldn't consider them your outsourced customer service person.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So you are still, you need to still own that customer.
Speaker:You know, it goes back to what you were saying at the beginning, Steve, understanding your customer
Speaker:demand, understanding your customers themselves.
Speaker:All of that is still and forever and ever going to be a crucial part of running your business.
Speaker:That will never change.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And you know, they're typically not going to talk directly with your customer,
Speaker:nor do you probably want them to, right?
Speaker:They're not, they're not your brand.
Speaker:They work for the 3PL.
Speaker:Their job is to make sure things run efficiently in the operation and make
Speaker:recommendations to you to help facilitate that.
Speaker:But you want to keep that brand connection.
Speaker:That's the, that's the company.
Speaker:Okay, so let's just talk really quickly.
Speaker:Future trends.
Speaker:What do you see?
Speaker:Steve looks at his crystal ball.
Speaker:You know, what do you see coming down the line when it comes to labor, inventory management?
Speaker:What do you predict for the future?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, we've had this, we've had this flexible workforce, I think for a long time now.
Speaker:People are getting used to that.
Speaker:So I think that the evolution of that is more regional type players
Speaker:that are doing that in market.
Speaker:Seeing some of that, I'm seeing a big push for automation and AI tools to do
Speaker:this advantaged labor and inventory.
Speaker:That really comes down to understanding your data.
Speaker:It's all about trying to be predictive of what's going to happen.
Speaker:And that's such a buzzword, right?
Speaker:How do you do that?
Speaker:Nobody can really predict the future, but you can leverage data.
Speaker:And there's platforms that can help you do that.
Speaker:To help you help you understand what demand is.
Speaker:How do I plan for this?
Speaker:But I go back to this is not technology based, but developing those
Speaker:relationships in your slower periods.
Speaker:So now, as you get into your fat, your peak periods, your high volume growth periods, you've
Speaker:got the relationships, you've got your short list.
Speaker:But now I'm also leveraging data AI tools to help me plan.
Speaker:All those things together work really well.
Speaker:I, you know, I cloud based technology for flexibility.
Speaker:You need to be able to access this data anywhere.
Speaker:So if anyone's trying to push a solution that is an on prem type solution,
Speaker:it's not cloud based, cloud based.
Speaker:It's not on handhelds.
Speaker:You can access it anywhere.
Speaker:I would probably shy away from that for so many reasons.
Speaker:But yeah, I mean, I think those are the big ones.
Speaker:I think AI tools, predictive analytics, look into those things, use use technology
Speaker:as an ally, don't be afraid of it.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to embrace it.
Speaker:But again, go back and ask people, go to chat forums, go to these
Speaker:groups and say, who's used this?
Speaker:Has anyone used this platform before?
Speaker:What kind of gains did you see in your business?
Speaker:What kind of challenges did you have?
Speaker:You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you don't do that.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:The two biggest takeaways I got from you today that I am going to remember for a long time.
Speaker:Number one, we've got to use technology in order to be able to efficiently scale.
Speaker:But also the human relationships are just as important.
Speaker:And so to be focusing on both those soft skills and the technical skills at the same
Speaker:time is really going to be super important.
Speaker:So that is awesome.
Speaker:We've learned so much.
Speaker:I want to hear, though, before we go, because we're just about out of time, a little bit
Speaker:about NFI, a little bit about NFI eCom.
Speaker:Can you tell us, Steve, what NFI is, what services you provide?
Speaker:Sure, be happy to.
Speaker:So NFI Industries is a 4 billion company.
Speaker:Privately held.
Speaker:About 92 years old at this point, headquartered in New Jersey.
Speaker:You know, we, we have about 73 million square feet in the U.S.
Speaker:and Canada.
Speaker:So I think today we're the fourth largest 3PL in the country.
Speaker:Of that 4 billion, our distribution, warehousing and ecommerce is about 1.4 billion of that.
Speaker:So it's a significant piece of the business.
Speaker:We work with some of the largest retailers, global brands in the world doing warehousing,
Speaker:distribution, ecommerce fulfillment.
Speaker:And reverse logistics as well.
Speaker:We also have a large port services group.
Speaker:We've got cross docking teams.
Speaker:We have brokerage teams.
Speaker:We do a lot of ocean freight, air freight as well.
Speaker:We also have an in house real estate group, so you think about 73 million square feet.
Speaker:Someone has to manage that.
Speaker:Someone has to constantly look for new cases.
Speaker:And I should say, you know, as as a brand part, if you look to partner with someone,
Speaker:look for someone who has a footprint, somebody that can scale your business.
Speaker:I like to say all the time that it would be impossible to outgrow NFI for any brand.
Speaker:We go from 3 million to 500 million.
Speaker:That customer journey would be with NFI without without hesitation within our network.
Speaker:I love that infrastructure.
Speaker:That's, having that infrastructure in place is huge.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:NFI eCommerce, you know, we focus solely with NFI has large global brands that
Speaker:we do that for, but NFI eCom and my team focuses solely on the SMB mid market space.
Speaker:My entire team has worked in this space for 10 plus years.
Speaker:We know our customers very well.
Speaker:We know this customer segment very well.
Speaker:We're extremely proactive.
Speaker:In the brands we work with.
Speaker:We'd love to help them scale.
Speaker:We'd love to be consultative.
Speaker:Such a fun part of this job.
Speaker:And provide solutions.
Speaker:It makes sense for them, you know, being privately held, we make decisions on what's best
Speaker:for our customers, not shareholders or bankers.
Speaker:So it makes a huge difference.
Speaker:And we are, we're a very hands on company.
Speaker:Our leadership team, incredibly involved.
Speaker:You can ask any of my customers today.
Speaker:They've talked with our CEO, CFO before many times so we we love our customers.
Speaker:But yeah, great great company.
Speaker:Love to help anybody out that might need an option for fulfillment.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:So Steve, if they do want to reach out, if they're interested in connecting with you, maybe
Speaker:just getting insights, you know, following you, if you're on LinkedIn or something, or, you
Speaker:know, if they want to learn more about NFI, how can they, how can they connect with you?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:You know, you can find me.
Speaker:It's steve.syverson@nfiindustries.com.
Speaker:This is my email, LinkedIn, just search my name, Steve Cyberon under NFI.
Speaker:I do a lot of work on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Or check out our website, nfiecom.com.
Speaker:That sounds perfect.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker:We've learned so much and it's been a, just a fantastic time.
Speaker:I appreciate you being here.
Speaker:Thank you, Lori.
Speaker:Appreciate it.
Speaker:Thanks for having me.
Speaker:See you everyone.
