Feb 26, 2021 | Blog, The Packet
Front and Center
Dirty Porch Pirates
E-commerce has certainly been in the spotlight this past year, but who has really been stealing the show? Thieves, of course. Package theft is on the rise, as illustrated in a recent report, which showed that approximately 43% of Americans reported having a package stolen, a 7% increase from 2019. Of these theft victims, 64% of them say they’ve had packages stolen more than once. What’s to account for the rise in theft?
More Opportunity
Approximately 59% (+5% YoY) of Americans receive a package at least weekly, and 10% (+5% YoY) receive a package daily. That’s way more packages being left on the doorstep, and although the average value of the items has decreased, this does not seem to stop porch pirates from throwing up their hood and grabbing what they can.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_TSR_v07m0
ICYMI: Watch the amazing Glitter Bomb 2.0 vs Porch Pirates video
Who’s liable?
“YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!” you may have exclaimed to the heavens when you watch a thief grab your $3 toe clippers on your home security system. “But, who actually pays for this?”, you may have wondered as you pace around with your hawk talons clacking against the hardwood floors. (true story)
Well the answer is, if the shipper says that the package was delivered and the buyer states that it was not received, the seller is no longer liable. However, in most cases of a stolen package, the retailer or seller issues a refund or agrees to replace the item to preserve their customer experience. Amazon’s A-Z Guarantee program pretty much guarantees that purchases made from their retail partners will almost always be refunded or replaced if the package goes missing.
Some businesses may ask customers to file a claim with the shipper before issuing a refund or replacement.
What about package insurance?
For sellers, traditional shipping carriers such as UPS, USPS, and FedEx offer optional shipping insurance for a fee; however, this only covers so much. FedEx caps their liability at $100 and will only increase this if the package is packed and shipped at a FedEx location. Even then, it only increases to $1,000 for items like jewelry, artwork, collectibles, and antiques.
What can brands do?
Ultimately, the brands are responsible for making sure that their products reach their customers. So besides installing guard dogs as a nice ‘gift with purchase’, the most effective way that brands can combat package theft is to offer customers more ways to receive their products. The most common have been curbside pickup and local delivery. You can also schedule for in-person delivery and require signatures.
When deciding to outsource your fulfillment, be aware of your 3PLs Terms and Conditions surrounding stolen goods, and ask what your fulfillment provider can do. For example, in the case of stolen goods, ShipHero files claims with Carriers on your behalf, up to a certain value. Read more about ShipHero Fulfillment’s stolen goods FAQ here and our T&Cs.
Back of the Packet
Ammonia Side Here
According to the International Maritime Organization, international shipping contributes ~3% of annual carbon-dioxide emissions. To combat this, shipping companies seek to replace petroleum with a new fuel source, ammonia (NH3).
Why ammonia? Well… *deep breath in* this colorless fuel emits no carbon dioxide when burned, It’s abundant, it can be made using renewable electricity, water, and air, both fuel cells and internal combustion engines can use it, it doesn’t have to be stored in high-pressure tanks or cryogenic dewars like hydrogen, and it has 10 times the energy density of a lithium-ion battery.
The only problem is that no shipping carriers today are equipped to use ammonia as a fuel source. But by 2024, Viking Energy is set to become the first shipping vessel propelled by ammonia fuel cells, powered by several Norwegian-based companies.
NASA Perseverance and an Early Easter
NASA successfully landed their Mars Rover, Wall-e — I mean, Perseverance on the Red Planet last week. The videos of the landing immediately went viral, and in typically nerdy fashion, people began uncoding Easter Eggs hidden throughout the footage. In one such hidden message, the parachute was allegedly stitched in binary code that read “Dare Mighty Things”, a quote from President Teddy Roosevelt.
USPS Unveils New Trucks
And they’re cute as hell.
ShipHero News
NEW CASE STUDY ft. Spotted by Humphrey
What would you do if your dog became an internet sensation? Well, that’s what happened with ShipHero customer Yong-Soo and his French Bulldog, Humphrey!
Spotted By Humphrey – “with its quirky name for a shop that has the personality to match” – is a community-driven online destination for dog parents around the world who are looking to find something special and unique for their dogs.
Learn how they turned Instagram fame to a successful ecommerce business with our newest doggone ShipHero Case Study.
Gains, Bro
Need a sick pump for your e-commerce business? Learn how the dietary supplement industry used three simple strategies to get bulging revenue gains of over 40% this year, outpacing overall e-commerce by 12%… and they say it’s “all-natural”.
Multimodal vs. Intermodal Transport
These days, your products probably travel more than you do… But don’t be jealous, multimodal and intermodal fulfillment options are becoming more common as technology allows for seamless communication between carriers. On our Shipping Methods Explained series, we deep-dive into Multimodal vs. Intermodal fulfillment options, so you can determine if it’s right for your business.
ShipHero’s Innovation Wheel: Automation
Are you bogged down by the day-to-day tasks of running a business, desperate for time to focus on your strategy? Automation is the answer you need, and your fulfillment provider should be just the one to provide it. In ShipHero’s Fulfillment Innovation Wheel series – Automation, we give a glimpse into our Automation Cookbook to show you how automation can improve your speed and efficiency.
Feb 25, 2021 | Blog, The Fulfillment Innovation Wheel
ShipHero recently launched The Fulfillment Innovation Wheel to help 3PLs understand what capabilities and service offerings they need to implement in order to be successful and to help online retailers and brands choose which 3PL is right for them by allowing them to ‘check the boxes’.
The Fulfillment Innovation Wheel listed a set of twelve (12) capabilities that fulfillment providers and logistics companies should implement to continually delight their customers and push themselves towards greater success and innovation.
The twelve capabilities are:
- 2-Day Delivery
- Same Day Shipping
- At the Box Personalization
- Designed for Returns
- Sustainable Fulfillment
- Resilient Shipping
- Distributed Fulfillment
- Data Now
- Automation
- Scale Up and Out
- Integration Stack
- Professional Services
In this article, we will be diving into Capability #3: At the box personalization.
And be sure to stay tuned for future articles as we deep-dive into each capability.
Capability #3: At the Box Personalization
At the Box Personalization is all the little details in your product’s unboxing experience that truly make customers fall in love with your brand. Imagine getting an unexpected hand-written note, a coupon, or a gift in the box along with your order.
All the excitement and gratitude experienced by the thoughtful presentation of your items generates customer loyalty, while also providing a targeted marketing channel for cross-sell and upsell of items. Not to mention, 59% of Americans receive packages weekly, and 10% receive packages daily. That is quite a large marketing audience in terms of packaging…
By pairing At the Box Personalization with modern-day customer data and analysis, retailers can give more personal, more thoughtful experiences than ever before; say, a gift that they truly love or a coupon for an item they had considered purchasing. You may not sell to Brad Pitt, but your customers will be screaming “WHAT’S IN THE BOX” every time they open your package with these benefits of At the Box Personalization:
Spread Your Brand Organically
Corporations have been successfully using At the Box Personalization for decades, with some customers fully relying on Youtube unboxing videos to guide their purchases, and you can see unboxing ideas all over on Pinterest.
Drive Customer Loyalty
In today’s competitive e-commerce market, most retailers do not manufacture unique goods, so your market differentiators are going to live in that extra ‘wow factor’. At the Box Personalization is proven to cultivate brand loyalty and give customers that jolt of consumer surplus that only comes with getting more bang for your buck — that’s right, we’ve all been conditioned by the Happy Meals toy.
Create Sales Opportunity
Along with the purchased item, retailers can incentivize cross-selling and upselling other products, essentially transforming your packaging into a targeted marketing channel. You can include coupons for relevant or wishlist items, or you can include a gift that requires purchase of other features or parts. And because this occurs in the post-sale phase of the buyer’s journey, it won’t come off as another sales gimmick.
The sky is truly the limit when providing high-quality personalization to your customers, so don’t get weighed down by your 3PL or fulfillment provider. Many fulfillment providers today simply do not provide At the Box Personalization because it reduces efficiency and increases costs.
However, smart fulfillment companies like ShipHero continually innovate their capabilities to offer you a wide range of At the Box Personalization options. Our customers love that ShipHero can easily customize their unboxing experience. We attribute this success on the Fulfillment Innovation Wheel to Capability #3: At the Box Personalization.
Stay tuned next as we cover Capability #7: Distributed Fulfillment! Fulfill Your Dreams… Everywhere. ShipHero.
Learn more about ShipHero’s industry-leading warehouse management software.
Feb 24, 2021 | Best Practices, Blog, Warehouse Management Software
Look at those gains, bro. Over the last year, the dietary supplement industry has boasted bulging sales growth of 40%, outpacing overall e-commerce by 12%, and they swear it’s all-natural…
The pandemic has certainly brought more awareness to immunity, and overall health and wellness; in fact, 77% of American adults consume dietary supplements, and the average American spends around $56 per month on dietary supplements.
Of course, there are other ways to increase immunity and health, such as at-home workout products and healthy meal kits, but those haven’t grown at nearly the same rate as supplements. So that begs the question…
How have supplement companies dominated e-commerce?
After searching through the supplement industries’ gym bag of secrets, we found that the true secret to their success with the injection of three strategies:
(Serving size: one scoop of each)
- The Subscription Model
- Bundles and Stacks
- Smart Fulfillment
Disclaimer: Ingestion of the following strategies will give you and your e-commerce business a sick pump.
Strategy 1: The Subscription Model
The Subscription Model, or “Subscribe & Save”, is where customers subscribe to weekly, monthly or seasonal purchases and receive discounts upwards of 15% off. Think content streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, recurring subscription box companies like BirchBox, and more recently, supplement and vitamin companies.
Companies that employ the subscription model offer recurring products or services, rather than the traditional, one-time transaction. Brands and businesses that have utilized this approach have reported better customer relationships, improved aggregate data, and more diversity in product offerings.
Turn Customers in Subscribers
Most large companies report that new customers only generate 15 to 25% percent of their revenues, which means that return customers generate the bulk of the revenue. Focusing on return customers and subscribers reduces acquisition costs of targeting new customers, while cultivating brand loyalty.
Gather More Fruitful Customer Data
As reported by Shopify, modeling and storing subscription data allows your company to better engage with your audience and create targeted content along the customer journey.
In fact, many large brands develop separate marketing strategies for subscribers and non-subscribers, as well as strategies to convert non-subscribers to subscribers, including email campaigns and targeted discounts for subscription and account creation.
Sell the Same Product in Multiple Ways
The subscription model gives brands the creative freedom to understand how their customers would prefer to engage with their products and services.
Beyond the price discount, supplement companies could offer subscribers access to free delivery, early bird offers, free trials or samples, gifts with purchase, and much more. As you learn from your subscribers, you are free to adjust your product offerings to better meet their needs!
If you want to learn more about how to create a successful subscription model, check out our blog.
Strategy 2: Bundles
Bundles, or as they’re called in the dietary supplement industry — stacks. Supplement stacks are a bundled variety of supplements for one specific health goal; for example, popular supplement stacks are for the ketogenic diet, weight loss, muscle gain and more.
Bundling products allows companies to cross-sell, provide a more convenient shopping experience, and give customers more flexibility.
Cross-Sell
Bundles are the perfect way for supplement companies to cross-sell products. By intelligently combining multiple products into one item, supplement companies bundle their popular and top-selling supplements with products that normally might not sell on their own (looking at you L-Carnitine). Also, if you have multiple flavors of a gut-drink for example, you can bundle together a variety pack!
Convenience
With just one click, customers can purchase all the supplements that they need. And if you are using the subscription model, their supplements will be auto-fulfilled based on their desired cadence!
Flexibility
Some supplement providers like G Fuel offer their customers the flexibility of building their own bundles — BYOB but healthy!
Strategy 3: Smart Fulfillment
Any supplement company can promise a lucrative subscription model with convenient and flexible bundling options; but in reality, these are extremely complicated to pull off without the right inventory management and order fulfillment process.
In fact, most 3PLs and fulfillment providers simply don’t offer the customization and bundling options that supplement companies need. That’s why you need to supplement your business with the right fulfillment provider.
Convenient Bundling
Through traditional fulfillment methods, creating and shipping customized bundles, kits or bulk orders can be highly complex and downright costly. By offering a subscription service, your brand can sell a variety of items in a variety of ways, so brand owners must be able to group orders quickly and pick a lot of the same product at once, making the fulfillment process quick and simple.
That’s why ShipHero is dedicated to supporting our subscription-based and bundle supplement companies with our newest capability, BulkShip!
BulkShip is an intuitive interface to design preassembled bundles of products, such as a BodyBuilding Stack or a more flexible bundle that would get assembled at fulfillment – like the Build-Your-Own-Bundle option.
Safe Storage and Transport
Supplements must be stored in cool, dry areas, or they risk discoloration, odor, and deterioration. Make sure that your fulfillment provider can take the necessary precautions to protect your inventory in a safe, secure, and climate controlled environment, and take care during the transportation.
Reliable Shipping
Supplements and vitamins are taken regularly and on set cadences, so having a reliable shipping carrier with built-in resiliency is of the utmost importance.
This year has shown that even the most popular carriers, FedEx, UPS and Amazon, are all subject to delays and unreliable shipping times. That’s why ShipHero has seen a huge surge of supplement companies looking to diversify their shipping methods, so that their customers and subscribers receive their supplements when they’re supposed to.
Feb 23, 2021 | Best Practices, Blog, Fulfillment, Warehouse Management Software
Welcome to our Shipping Methods Explained blog series. In this series, we will deep dive into fulfillment methods – that is, how businesses fulfill their online orders and get products to their customers.
Sounds simple right? Well, in theory it is. You could hop on your itty-witty bicycle and hand-deliver your product, mission accomplished. But consider the complexity when your company fulfills hundreds to thousands of orders daily, not to mention the skyrocketing shipping costs that could price you out of the market.
Managing inventory, navigating each carriers’ specific requirements, calculating the lowest cost from thousands of shipping options… it’s a daunting task. That’s why more and more businesses are outsourcing their fulfillment methods.
Are you ready to outsource your fulfillment? Let’s analyze your options to help you decide the best method for your business. In this article, we’ll discuss Multimodal and Intermodal Shipping. What is multimodal and intermodal shipping? What are the pros/cons of each? How do they compare/contrast and which one right for my business, if any? Let’s dive in.
(Check out our previous articles on Dropshipping, FaaS, and FBA/FBM. And be sure to check back for future articles where we’ll cover even more fulfillment methods)
What is Multimodal vs. Intermodal?
Multimodal transport is also known as ‘combined transport’ because the products are moved using different modes of transportation along the fulfillment journey, but under the terms of a single contract and facilitated by a multimodal transport operator (MTO). Whether by road, sea, air or rail, or a combination of them all, the MTO is liable for the entire journey from beginning to end, although they often use sub-contracted carriers that specialize in each mode of transportation.
Intermodal transport involves the use of an intermodal container which carries products throughout the entire fulfilment journey; regardless of the type of transportation, the same intermodal container will be offloaded from one method and loaded onto the next without ever moving the product inside.
The main difference between multimodal and intermodal transport is: 1) how the product is transferred between transportation modes, and 2) how the contracts are made with each carrier.
Product Transfer
With multimodal transport, the products or commodities are loaded and unloaded into transportation-specific containers when transferring, say, between sea and rail, rail and ground, etc. Excessive product transfer may result in product damage or loss; you may have heard the phrase “fallen out of a truck” when asking your relative about an expensive purse they clearly can’t afford. In fact, product damage during transportation costs up to $0.48 per pallet annually, which certainly adds up over time with larger supply chains.
This is the benefit of intermodal transport, because the products are loaded into a single intermodal container to be used for several modes of transportation. The products themselves will remain secure as the container itself is loaded and offloaded from a truck, train, ship or air freight.
Using one intermodal container allows for safer packing of products, which results in less damage and loss, as well as quicker and more efficient movement between freight methods. For this reason, intermodal transport tends to be less costly than multimodal transport.
Contracting Carriers
During a multimodal transport, the shipper creates a single contract with the Multimodal Transport Operator (MTO), which is wholly responsible for the cargo from the origin to the end destination. This allows the shipper to simplify the communication process by just working with a sole transport provider or agent. Also, the simplified communication allows for more accurate shipping updates, tracking notifications, and opportunities for optimization. On the other hand, the shipper must rely on the MTO to select the best/cheapest routes for their cargo, and flexibility is limited.
Conversely, during an intermodal transport, the shipper must create multiple contracts with individual carriers. While there is only one intermodal container, it will be passed between many liable parties, increasing the complexity for the shipper in terms of communication and optimization across carriers; however, the shipper has more flexibility to independently choose each leg of the fulfillment journey.
In summary:
Multimodal Transport
- Multiple carriers, one contract with MTO
- Product transfers containers between transports
- Enhanced communication and optimization, but heavy reliance on MTO routes
- More chance of product damage and loss
Intermodal Transport
- One intermodal container, multiple contracts with carriers
- Products remain secure in single shipping container
- More flexibility to choose your own routes along fulfillment journey, but more complexity for the shipper
- Less chance of product damage and loss
In conclusion, shippers must determine if multimodal or intermodal is the right choice given their circumstances, i.e., is your product fragile or at risk of damage/loss, do you have the resources to schedule and manage carrier contracts, etc. Thankfully, smart fulfillment providers and 3PLs like ShipHero can help you determine the best way to ship.
Be sure to stay tuned to our Shipping Methods Explained series as we deep dive into the specifics of fulfillment.
Learn more about ShipHero’s industry-leading warehouse management software.
Feb 18, 2021 | Blog, Case Study, Warehouse Management Software
Move over Air Bud… Humphrey the French Bulldog may not be able to sink a three pointer, but he can sell dog accessories while saving the planet like it’s nobody’s business. Except, it is his business! Enter: Spotted By Humphrey — a specialty dog boutique with a playfully curated selection of thoughtfully-designed, well-made, premium dog accessories, which comes along with a promise of net-neutral climate emissions.
Spotted By Humphrey – “with its quirky name for a shop that has the personality to match” – is a community-driven online destination for dog parents around the world who are looking to find something special and unique for their dogs.
Humphrey aka Spotted Humphrey (@spottedhumphrey) has over 120K followers on Instagram, and is the inspiration behind the business, as founders Sandy and Yong-Soo Chung (also Humphrey’s parents) wanted to create a shop that would make the experience of shopping for your dog just as fun and community-oriented as Humphrey’s Instagram.
Naturally, social media plays a key element in the shop’s marketing strategy; however, both Sandy and Yong-Soo believe that their success largely comes from establishing a strong operational foundation, which ultimately creates a better experience for their customers.
Having founded his own ecommerce shop Urban EDC Supply prior to the launch of Spotted By Humphrey, Yong-Soo leveraged his existing ecommerce experience to establish Spotted By Humphrey, which Sandy has taken on and grown organically ever since. Yong-Soo eventually founded an all-encompassing ecommerce brand accelerator with the first ever net-negative carbon emitting 3PL in the industry, so every shipment that goes out actually benefits the planet instead of harming it.
“Frustrated by the lack of accountability and execution, I decided to take fulfillment in-house. First, we used another WMS other than ShipHero. It was slow, we had a lot of mis-shipments, and it was difficult tracking inventory. When I finally stumbled upon ShipHero, it was a game changer. The software was intuitive to use and it had a lot more features that made it easier to streamline our fulfillment operations.”
— Yong-Soo, Founder and CEO of GrowthJet
Yong-Soo utilizes ShipHero’s warehouse management software across his ecommerce brand accelerator, GrowthJet, along with his two internal brands, Spotted By Humphrey and Urban EDC Supply, a boutique everyday carry shop. So we asked Humphrey and Yong-Soo to ‘sit, stay and roll over’ what made ShipHero the right choice for his business.
ShipHero: Humphrey, tell us about your business(es).
Humphrey: OUAF OUAF!
SH: Ah, I don’t speak French. Yong-Soo, care to translate?
Yong-Soo: “In a nutshell, GrowthJet is an ecommerce brand accelerator with two internal brands, Urban EDC Supply (launched 2015) & Spotted By Humphrey (launched 2018).
Urban EDC Supply is an everyday carry shop with a strong focus on the EDC and knife community. We collaborate with world-renowned designers like Jesper Voxnaes to create stylish and functional everyday carry gear for our community of gear enthusiasts. Taking a page out of the streetwear clothing culture, weekly drops feature a limited supply of exclusive goods that sell out within hours, and sometimes minutes, or even a few seconds. While there’s a wide range of goods available for sale, some of these high-end collectibles can sell for as much as $2,000.
Spotted By Humphrey is a specialty dog boutique inspired by our french bulldog, Humphrey. As of today, Humphrey has 120k followers (@spottedhumphrey) on Instagram. We wanted to create a shop that would make the experience of shopping for your dog fun and community-oriented. Sandy and Humphrey made an appearance on the first episode of Shopify’s “Guess My Hustle” series (produced by Portal A, an award-winning digital studio), as well as Shopify’s “New Money” series (episode titled, “How To Make Money In The Million Dollar Dog Accessories Industry”).
Having built two fast-growing brands, in 2019, several colleagues approached us asking about our product photography, our fulfillment operations, and other e-commerce related ops questions. We decided to build and launch GrowthJet as the backbone infrastructure support to grow e-commerce brands. We’ve been growing very quickly through word-of-mouth ever since.”
SH: During your journey, you went from using a third party logistics (3PL) provider to fulfilling on your own. What was the catalyst for this switch?
Yong-Soo: “When I launched Urban EDC Supply back in October 2015 from my one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, I did a tremendous amount of research on finding the best 3PL. After weeks of digging in, I settled on a 3PL that was based here in the Bay Area, and one that had the best reviews and ratings.
Unfortunately, I had one of the most frustrating experiences with this particular 3PL. I lost close to $5,000 worth of inventory due to negligence by the fulfillment staff. There was one particular instance where one of the employees opened up the box that was being shipped to my customer, took the item out, and then shipped out an empty box to my customer in Alaska. It turns out that this particular employee’s last day was the next day. When confronted with this news, the employee never returned to collect his final paycheck the next day.
Frustrated by the lack of accountability and execution, I decided to take fulfillment in-house.
SH: Sounds like they were in the doghouse, eh Humphrey?
Humphrey: RUFF!
SH: Too true, too true. So when you were searching for WMS solutions, what were your main fulfillment goals?
Yong-Soo: “When we took fulfillment in-house and launched GrowthJet, the main goals were to improve order accuracy through proper barcoding, speed up the process of fulfillment, and generally, have more accountability and insight into our shipment data.
For us, the [most important criteria] was our ability to have an open dialogue with our fulfillment center. When we needed something, calling a phone number and being greeted by a “voice mailbox is full” message is never fun. Neither is sending out an urgent support email and not receiving a response for over a week. So for GrowthJet, we made it a point to be transparent and open to communication. Also, the ability to flex and work collaboratively with the 3PL is an important part of what we do at GrowthJet.”
SH: And why did you choose ShipHero?
Yong-Soo: “First, we used another WMS other than ShipHero. It was slow, we had a lot of mis-shipments, and it was difficult tracking inventory. When I finally stumbled upon ShipHero, it was a game changer. The software was intuitive to use and it had a lot more features that made it easier to streamline our fulfillment operations.
Integrating ShipHero was relatively easy, especially with one of the Solutions Engineers Matt D. helping us.”
First, we used another WMS other than ShipHero. It was slow, we had a lot of mis-shipments, and it was difficult tracking inventory. When I finally stumbled upon ShipHero, it was a game changer. The software was intuitive to use and it had a lot more features that made it easier to streamline our fulfillment operations.
SH: Every ShipHero customer is assigned a Solutions Engineer to help simplify the onboarding and integration process because we look after our customers, dawg.
Humphrey: …
SH: So what was your inspiration for the climate neutral pledge, and how do you plan to become a Carbon Negative 3PL?
Yong-Soo: “When we launched GrowthJet, we realized how bad the waste and carbon footprint is for logistics and fulfillment. We think a lot about ecosystems not only for the environment, but the entire lifecycle of every item that comes through our warehouse including packaging materials, pallets, used equipment, etc.
We want to reduce as much as possible, then reuse, then recycle what we can before we decide to throw something away. Even then, we offset the carbon footprint of our garbage by purchasing carbon credits through ClimateNeutral.org.
On top of our Climate Neutral certification, we will be implementing our own tree-planting initiative in 2021. As far as we know, we will be the first carbon negative 3PL in the world. This means that for every package we ship out for our brand partners, we’re actually helping our planet fight against climate change. Counter-intuitive, isn’t it?
SH: Planting trees to help climate change, care to comment Humphrey?
Humphrey: BARK!
SH: Surprisingly on topic. And what has been the response from your customer base?
Yong-Soo: “Overall, the response from our brand partners has been very positive. They love and appreciate our proactive commitment to saving our planet, rather than being part of the problem. We’re also different from most 3PLs in that we’re more selective about who we bring on as a partner. We want to make sure we’re aligned on values first and foremost. Like any relationship, it’s a two-way partnership. We have a bias for thinking long-term so we want to make sure there’s a fit first before making a long-term commitment.”
SH: Finally, how has your business been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns?
Yong-Soo: Our business actually saw an increase due to COVID. With e-commerce getting a huge boost, we were fortunate to be in a position of leverage during the pandemic. Of course, there were additional costs such as PPE equipment and being more cognizant of social distancing within the warehouse, but all in all, we feel very lucky to come out of the pandemic stronger than before.
SH: Amazing, thank you for sharing your story and allowing us to write this case study. Humphrey, final thoughts?
Humphrey: WOOF WOOF!
Follow Humphrey and the Spotted By Humphrey’s journey at their website and Instagram.
Website: https://spottedbyhumphrey.com/
Humphrey’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spottedhumphrey/
Spotted By Humphrey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spottedbyhumphrey/
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