May 21, 2021 | 3PL Warehouse Management, Best Practices, Blog, Fulfillment, Warehouse Management Software
Ecommerce shipping is a key link of the supply chain that can make or break your business. Think that’s a bit of an overstatement? Well, last-mile delivery is recorded as the most costly part of the order fulfillment process – it’s one of the most pressing logistical challenges. Moreover, if order inaccuracies occur, and items are shipped to the wrong location, then have to face the additional costs of returns and refunds.
This is why it’s so important to optimize the shipping process. You need to cut down labor costs, transit times, fuel costs, and establish a seamless workflow. Easier said than done, though, right?
In this article, we’re going to take a look at how you can optimize the shipping process from different angles. Questions such as how much to charge your customers, what sort of hits your business should absorb, how to protect your own investment, and which data-driven tools to use, will be addressed and answered.
What is ecommerce shipping?
Shipping is a vital part of the order fulfillment process for ecommerce merchants. It consists of order receiving, order processing, and order fulfillment.
Fulfillment starts as soon as your customer hits the checkout button on the ecommerce platforms and purchases the products in their shopping cart. Once the site confirms the order, the chain moves forward. Small-scale ecommerce stores often store their inventory in their garages. At the same time, as you go up the scale, vendors usually employ the services of inventory storage facilities and warehouses. Upon confirming the purchase, service providers package, label, and ship the products to the destination address.
Shipping can be pretty challenging to handle on your own, especially if you have a growing business. This is the point where third-party logistics companies can be of big help. They optimize the fulfillment process and cater to your needs, and even help you minimize logistics costs. Various companies have different shipping policies and shipping rates, such as Amazon Prime, which offers overnight shipping.
ut not every business can pull this off. This is why your company’s shipping policy should be based on a combination of your budget and your customers’ needs.
What to keep in mind when shipping
There are many factors that ecommerce merchants have to account for when it comes to shipping. All the seemingly small details contribute to your overall shipping costs and total transit times. These factors ultimately determine customer satisfaction and directly impact your business’s reputation and future growth. Since your company’s ecommerce shipping strategy is so important, it’s worth investing time and resources to conduct proper research. Here are some of the best practices that online stores employ for shipping, to help you decide which one may suit your business best.
Offer Free Shipping
An effective way to reduce shopping cart abandonment is to provide some incentive to your customers. Companies usually use discounts and coupons to their customers for this purpose. Offering free shipping to your customers makes them feel more comfortable about placing an order.
Contrary to what the name might suggest, free shipping isn’t actually free. Either you take the hit and pay for the fees outright, or the fee is absorbed in a way that customers pay for it. You can do this by incorporating shipping costs into the sale price of your products. This way, you can offer free shipping without compromising on your own profits.
Charge Real-Time Carrier Rates
Another popular shipping strategy among online vendors is charging real-time carrier rates. This process is transparent and gives your customers a little wiggle room. How? Well, let’s say you partner up with multiple carriers. You can now let customers pick and choose the shipping option that best suits their need.
Shipping labels like FedEx, USPS, and DHL have different shipping costs, and no one carrier offers lower rates across the board – the pricing depends on numerous factors. Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify integrate real-time shipping rates of these carriers into their dashboard so that they are easy to handle. Customers can then choose what works for them, whether it is overnight shipping, two-day shipping, or flat-rate mail.
Charge a Flat Rate
If you don’t want the hassle of calculating shipping prices for each package, then flat-rate shipping is another reliable option. As the name suggests, this shipping option charges a single rate for each shipping order, regardless of the size or nature of the product.
This option is most suitable for businesses that sell a small variety of products with similar dimensions and weights. However, be sure not to set a very high flat rate for the items- it might scare away the customers. Postal services like USPS usually have several flat-rate shipping options.
Offer local delivery
If your customer base is near to your inventory storage facility, then offering local delivery is one way to go. Keep in mind, though, that this only works for local customers. You can set up the local delivery zone through the use of zip codes – customers within this area qualify as local customers.
Suppose you are catering to a large customer base outside your local area. In that case, you can still offer the local customers this option by putting an appropriate button at the checkout. The local delivery option can be set to be free of charge or at a low flat rate, depending on your budget. This option is best for strengthening your local customer base.
How to calculate shipping costs
An essential part of devising your shipping strategy is determining your shipping costs. If you partner up with a shipping label, couriers base their shipping rates on a number of factors. These factors range from the package weight and size to the origin and destination address. The bigger the product is and the farther away you have to send it, the more you’ll typically end up paying for shipping.
Before settling on your company’s shipping rates, be sure to assess the following factors.
Consider your margins
One thing ecommerce merchants should focus on is their profit margins- they determine the success of your business. Shipping fees are a significant part of the total fulfillment expenses- deal with them improperly, and you could end up losing money. Before you set up the total price of a product, consider all the little expenses like shipping costs, credit card fees, and packaging, in addition to the cost of the product. Your sale price should leave room for profit after taking care of all of these expenses.
Packaging and marketing
From a historical perspective, packaging and shipping were just ways to get the products to the customer. The up-gradation of technology and the evolution of business strategies have now transformed packaging and shipping into a marketing opportunity. And why not – telling your brands’ story with your product packaging and creating a memorable unboxing experience is a brilliant opportunity.
Packaging inserts and other items could take the whole experience up a notch when the customer unpacks their order- think of unboxing videos online and the publicity they gather! Of course, this type of marketing is another shipping expense and would add to the total costs.
Packaging options
While you can utilize packaging for marketing purposes, don’t lose sight of its original purpose – the package still has to securely hold all the goods. Of course, the safety level for each product depends on its nature. For example, you can ship sweaters and other clothing items in poly mailers, and they would be secure. But for fragile items with higher value, you might need to invest in sturdy boxes and maybe even packing peanuts.
While the nature and size of the product help determine your packaging needs, your customers’ values and preferences also need to be accounted for. Eco-friendly packaging options are often pricier than the standard options, but they appeal to the growing number of eco-conscious consumers. This is why it pays to at least provide eco-friendly packaging as an option to customers.
Insurance and tracking
Insurance and tracking help increase customer loyalty among online shoppers. They help secure your products and provide you with a safety net in case of any mishap. Shipping labels often provide relatively inexpensive or even free options for insurance and tracking. Like UPS and USPS Priority Mail, some carriers offer free coverage for mail orders above a specific price limit.
Customs declaration and forms
International shipping requires proper customs documentation that details the nature and the size of the shipment. More often than not, international shipping also comes with specific regulations and tariffs. Of course, these fees add up to the total shipping cost. Suppose you are catering to a global customer base. In that case, it’s wise to set your shipping policy so that it includes these costs. If you let the customer know of the customs fee beforehand, they won’t be surprised at the unexpected charges once they receive the parcel.
Should you offer free shipping?
Now that you have an idea of what constitutes the shipping expenditures, the next step is to determine whether to offer free shipping or not. Free shipping options are attractive to customers and directly impact conversion rates, but can your business afford to eat the costs and offer them? Well, several factors determine the feasibility of this decision.
The most important factor to consider is your company’s available budget and revenue. If your profit margins are high, offering free shipping probably won’t hurt you. Moreover, package dimensions, and the destination’s zonal distance are also factors to consider. Don’t forget to further account for the shipping rates of the shipping company you have partnered up with.
So far, we have discussed costs on the business owner’s end. Your customers are another critical determinant of your decision to offer free shipping. For example, if your target audience isn’t really interested in free shipping, then you won’t have to offer it in the first place. Of course, you can only determine how important free shipping is to them after doing some A/B testing. To sum things up, every company’s needs are different. As such, their decision to offer free shipping may vary.
How to Offer Free Shipping without Reducing Profits
Offering free shipping to your customers might not be feasible for every business. Sometimes, you end up losing more money than you make by taking this route. So, how can you realistically offer free shipping without breaking the bank?
Here are some pointers:
Decide if shipping is a marketing expense or COGS
If you want to offer free shipping, first determine how it affects your business. As stated earlier, you can utilize shipping as a marketing opportunity. If so, then free shipping expenses can be considered as marketing expenses. This is a profitable investment if it drives your sales up.
If free shipping isn’t doing much for your sales though, then the shipping costs might be an addition to the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), and you may need to adjust your sale prices accordingly. Of course, new businesses might realize that this is more of a hit and trial procedure. You will have to test it first to determine whether the shipping expenses are a marketing expense or COGS.
Offer free shipping to limited shipping zones
One way to realistically offer free shipping is to limit the free shipping to specific zip codes and areas. For example, a US-based business might offer domestic free shipping. Still, since shipping to other countries like Canada and Australia comes with tariffs and customs fees, the free shipping offer might not extend to those countries. Shipping carriers base their rates on the zonal distance of the shipment, so it might be expensive to offer free shipping to far-flung areas. The point is to establish your free shipping policy on your carrier’s shipping rates and limit free shipping to nearby areas.
Surcharge your expedited rates
To offset your free shipping expenses, you can increase the rates of expedited shipping. This only works if your expedited shipping option is attractive enough. As an example, between free shipping with 10-day transit time and expedited shipping with 2-day transit time, chances are both options will attract a fair share of customers. So, you’ll be able to offer free shipping to the customers by surcharging the expedited shipping rates.
Offer free shipping with a minimum purchase amount
Setting a shopping threshold for free shipping is among the best practices employed by eCommerce platforms that offer free shipping. Amazon Prime is such an example. The logic behind it is simple enough. Customers must have a fair number of products in their carts before they can avail free shipping. The profit margin from the sold goods covers the free shipping expenses.
Ecommerce shipping FAQs
How do ecommerce sites calculate shipping?
Ecommerce sites like Shopify have integrations or built-in shipping cost calculators that determine the total shipping costs based on several factors. These include the shipping partner, package dimensions and weight, the zonal distance between the point of origin and the destination, and the transit time.
How is shipping calculated?
You can calculate the total cost of shipping through several determinants – some companies use shipping software for these calculations. These shipping costs include packaging fees, transit fees, and in the case of international shipment, tariffs and customs fees. The transit fees depend on the carrier rates that differ for normal, flat-rate, and expedited shipping options.
How does ecommerce delivery work?
Ecommerce stores either go for self-fulfillment or employ the services of a third-party logistics company. In the latter case, the fulfillment partner handles shipping by teaming up with different couriers. Once the eCommerce store confirms the order, the fulfillment partner sources the product from an inventory storage facility, packs it, and sends it out for shipping. The courier then ships the product to the destination.
What is the cheapest way to ship for a small business?
The cheapest shipping option for a small business is the mail service. USPS is a great shipping carrier with affordable rates. If you want to cut down on the transit time, you could partner up with a third-party logistics company-they also sometimes offer discounts.
Let ShipHero handle shipping for you
ShipHero is a powerful warehouse management solution that seamlessly integrates with your online store and handles warehousing and shipping for you. Shopify merchants can add ShipHero to their existing store on the platform; it is the #1 Warehouse Manager Software on the Shopify app store. ShipHero integrates seamlessly with major ecommerce platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Shopify, and more.
ShipHero aligns its goals with your own, to ensure that your customers are receiving the best services.
Reduced shipping costs
With ShipHero, you can enjoy great discounts on shipping rates from our partner carriers. The ShipHero integration on your online store dashboard lets you compare the shipping rates of different carriers like UPS, USPS, and FedEx. You can then determine which option works the best for you and eliminate the chances of overpaying for shipping. The fulfillment software allows you to save on shipping costs by identifying orders that you can merge. Furthermore, our algorithm picks out the fastest shipping routes, saving both on transit times and shipping costs.
Ecommerce integrations
ShipHero’s eCommerce integrations make the whole order fulfillment process a breeze. ShipHero’s mobile app lets you manage your operations from anywhere- you can track the inventory movement of your store in real-time. You can set rules to simplify packing and shipping tasks. Inventory synchronization and warehouse automation increase the efficiency of the supply chain – meaning that your customers ultimately receive their orders faster. Additionally, ShipHero sends order shipping confirmation and tracking data to customers when their orders are shipped, earning you the brownie points.
Reporting & analytics tools
You can access ShipHero’s premium reporting and analytics tools and use the data to enhance your brand’s growth strategy. The reporting tools give a comprehensive insight into shipment expenses, sales history, inventory stocks, cost of goods, and team performance. Essentially, it allows you to keep track of everything from one central place.
Ecommerce shipping is a vital part of the supply chain, and one of the most expensive stages too. To avoid hefty transit costs, delayed orders, and unhappy customers, optimizing the shipping process is vital. A powerful ecommerce shipping solution like ShipHero can help you meet your business goals and optimize your shipping process.
May 19, 2021 | Best Practices, Blog, Fulfillment, Warehouse Management Software
Effective supply chain management is vital for any business, big or small. Without the help of proven, efficient supply chain management strategies and practices, your company may suffer from poor workflows, high costs, unreliable order fulfillment, and major losses.
One of the most vital parts of the order fulfillment process is the pick and pack stage. If the pick and pack stage is not optimized, then a number of issues may arise. This includes order delays, order inaccuracies, delivery of damaged goods, and more.
So, to guarantee the success of your business operations, optimizing the pick and pack process is vital. This is easier said than done, and there is no single ‘right’ way to do it. Business owners must consider different strategies and methods, and determine which one suits their needs best.
What is pick and pack?
Pick and pack is a three-stage part of the supply chain management process. The process is pretty much exactly what the name suggests. Pick and pack involves the following:
- Receiving an order: Your warehouse system is connected to your online store sales page. So when a customer places an order, the warehouse system is notified and generates a packing slip.
- Picking the order: This part is done manually. A warehouse worker will take the generated slip and find the items listed from the warehouse. Different warehouses employ various inventory strategies to help ease this process by making it easier to find the items
- Packing the order: The order is now sent to a packing station, where it is packed using necessary equipment and the required documentation is placed alongside it. It is now ready for the delivery stage.
How does pick and pack work?
Pick and pack fulfillment can be done in many ways, depending on the warehouse. Here are the different methods of picking and packing.
Piece picking
This pick and pack strategy is most commonly employed by small businesses. It involves taking the packing slip of one individual order at a time as they come in for the pick and pack process.
Batch picking
In batch picking, different items from various orders are grouped together because of a common similarity. For example, if they are located close to each other in the warehouse. This method is used when there are many small orders to fulfill at one time and to do so, a pick and pack software is required. By grouping items together in this way, you save time for your order pickers. This is because they now only have to go to a designated place in the warehouse once to pick up an item that is required for several orders. Pack workers can then redistribute said items to the specific order during the packing process.
What are the Challenges to the Pick and Pack Process?
As with any part of the supply chain, the pick and pack process may face certain challenges. Below are some challenges that may come up.
Inaccurate inventory counts
An inaccurate inventory count can make it difficult to manage the pick and pack process. This is because an inaccurate count can lead to further problems such as scheduling errors. With an incorrect count, the inventory stock is incorrectly recorded, and shortages may occur when the orders are meant to be picked, causing order delays.
Inefficient warehouse layouts
An inefficient storage layout may negatively affect your turn-around time (TAT). TAT is the overall time it takes to pick orders and pack a customer’s order. If you have an unorganized warehouse, it is difficult to efficiently find the desired items as orders start to come in. This inevitably leads to delays.
Missing Product Information (or lack of integrations)
Inventory data is an essential factor when it comes to the pick and pack process. For example, in the picking process, inaccurate recording of the average number of lines per order or improper listings of complementary goods may cause problems to arise. This leads to order inaccuracies or order delays. Similarly, in the packing process, if factors such as the weight or fragility of the items are not recorded, then problems in the delivery process arise – such as customers receiving damaged goods.
How to Optimize the Pick and Pack Process
Here are some methods to help increase the efficiency of your pick and pack process:
Design Your Warehouse for Efficiency
There are ways to organize your warehouse facility that minimize your turnaround time. By performing an ABC analysis, which categorizes your inventory into 3 parts, based on factors such as sales, the most popular items can be made easier to access, quickly. Also, you can place items that are usually ordered together in the same place. This will be beneficial for your warehouse in long term, as it will not only increase the efficiency of the pick and pack process, but reduces operational costs too.
Keep Your Warehouse Well-Organized
A tidy work environment can make all the difference. This is especially true for warehouses. Make sure your warehouse is free of as much clutter as possible to avoid accidents or problems in maneuvering around the premises. Also, keep the packing station organized, with any and all supplies needed to pack different items for shipping.
Program Your WMS for Easy Picking
Your Warehouse Management System, or WHS, makes for easy picking, by listing the items of an order in terms of where they are located. This will reduce the time it takes to find a complete order, and is less manual work for a picker.
Double Check Each Order
Although technology is becoming increasingly efficient, you should still have a person assigned to double-check orders after they are picked, packed, and made ready for shipment. This will reduce the chances of mistakes occurring and corresponding needs for reshipment. Reshipment is pricey and decreases revenue, so the likelihood of it should be minimized.
Keep an Accurate Inventory Count
Having a detailed inventory organization system can make all the difference to your pick and pack process. For large companies especially, spreadsheets are not the best choice. They can get messy and complicated.
For accuracy, opt for barcodes and RFIDs. A perpetual inventory management system will also help – as it’s technology-enabled. A perpetual system keeps a record of stocked and sold items as they change, and continuously updates your accounting system when sales are made or new stocks are bought.
Start using ShipHero pick and pack warehouse fulfillment services
Warehouse fulfillment can be tricky to optimize. The goal for any business is to minimize labor costs, optimize quality control and order accuracy, and maximize customer satisfaction. E-commerce fulfillment can be difficult though, especially if you lack the right resources. This is where warehouse fulfillment companies can really help retailers grow their businesses.
ShipHero is a data-driven warehouse management system that optimizes workflows and even handles order fulfillment for you. Here’s how ShipHero helps optimize your business operations and logistics.
Distributed inventory
ShipHero provides users with a distributed inventory, which means that your inventory is divided up and stored at different storage facilities. This means that when a customer places an order in a specific area, the order is fulfilled and shipped from the nearest location, reducing delivery times and costs simultaneously.
Order management
ShipHero’s warehouse management platform optimizes order management through technology. The advanced software integrates effortlessly with your business systems and provides you with multiple customization options. Users can create custom workflows to cater to their business’s specific needs, and set automation rules to make the processes more efficient. When an order is placed, ShipHero’s system automatically assigns them to the nearest warehouse.
Done for you fulfillment
ShipHero has evolved into more than just a warehouse management system – we also offer efficient order fulfillment, just for you. For as little as $5.58, ShipHero will pick, pack and ship your orders. ShipHero’s order fulfillment is also especially reliable, thanks to our distributed inventory and network of fulfillment centers across the country. When orders are placed, the WMS has them routed to the nearest location, minimizing transit times, costs, and the possibility of order delays.
Bulk shipping discounts
ShipHero’s warehouse management solution comes with built-in shipping multicarrier shipping options and automated label generation and shipping quoting. The advanced software determines the cheapest shipping option for individual orders, making sure you always have the most cost-effective option.
Conclusion
Getting your pick and pack processes right can be tricky, but it’s well worth the time and effort. After all, the success of any ecommerce business comes down to happy customers, and efficient picking and packing are necessary to achieve this. Late orders, high shipping fees, and order inaccuracies won’t keep your customers coming back for more.
Effective warehouse management and the best pick and pack strategies can help improve your workflow and optimize the order fulfillment process, but this isn’t always enough. Sometimes, you need a third-party with a team of experts to handle the logistics while you focus on growing your business. This is where a warehouse management solution like ShipHero can help you out.
May 17, 2021 | Best Practices, Blog, Case Study, Fulfillment
Introduction
Masks are coming off and that means one thing… time to take care of your teeth again. Thankfully, the folks at BURST, a long-time ShipHero customer, are here with the affordable subscription service for oral care, championed by thousands of dental professionals across the USA.
BURST was co-founded by Hamish Khayat and Brittany Stewart in 2017, and in less than a year, they had already amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers. It’s no exaggeration to say that they “BURST”’ onto the e-commerce scene. By the end of 2019, the company reported 100% year-over-year growth and a 140% increase in ‘BURST Ambassadors.’ These brand advocates, including dentists and hygienists across the country, now number more than 20,000 strong.
“Since switching to ShipHero, we’ve reduced our fully-loaded costs by 35%. At the volumes we move, that’s huge.” Brittany Stewart, President and COO, BURST
Fully-Loaded Cost means the direct cost of the applicable good, product or service plus indirect charges and overhead.
But as Brittany explains in our chat below, with meteoric growth comes challenges. Specifically, BURST’s 3PL partners were struggling to fulfill and ship orders at a breakneck pace that matched their growth.
Challenges
- Partnering with a 3PL to provide on-time shipping and fulfillment
- Ensuring the 3PL’s software can scale with 100% YoY growth
- Gaining order transparency to ensure BURST is able to deliver exceptional customer service
- Seamless integration with ShipHero APIs
- Fast and intuitive picking and packing capabilities for 3PL warehouse teams
- Visibility into order status for the customer experience team
- 100,000+ shipments per month
- Over 100% YoY growth w/ similar growth projected for the future
Brittany, what was your fulfillment process like BEFORE ShipHero?
Brittany Stewart: “We’re moving significant volumes—over a hundred thousand packages every single month. We’ve outgrown some 3PLs. The problem with most warehouses boiled down to their software capability—it wasn’t capable of scaling with our growth.
Honesty and transparency are so important in a 3PL partner. Issues are going to crop up—I just want to know about them. Our retention rate is directly tied to our ability to provide on-time fulfillment and unbelievable customer service. We can’t do that if we don’t know what’s going on.
We have a very close relationship with our fulfillment partner, Swoop. They started looking for a WMS that would help them scale with our growth. We tested out a lot of systems together, and nothing was quite as good as ShipHero”
Solution
ShipHero’s painless and intuitive warehouse management system. We also spoke with Brandon, the owner and CEO of Swoop (BURST’s 3PL provider).
Brandon, what has been your experience with ShipHero?
Brandon: “ShipHero has exceeded all expectations. For a lot of 3PLs, onboarding clients can be quite the task but ShipHero has found a way to make it very painless and very quick.”
Getting set up with ShipHero was exceedingly simple. A dedicated solutions engineer visited Swoop’s warehouse to help Brandon and his team with migration, education, training, and rollout. Brandon describes it as a “true partnership” as opposed to just another piece of software you invest in and never wind up using. After that, using ShipHero within the warehouse is intuitive.
ShipHero’s software is the perfect fit for e-commerce fulfillment 3PL warehouses looking to scale up. Part of what makes it such an effective solution is its seamless integration with must-have distribution platforms like Amazon.
Brittany, what was the integration process like for you?
Brittany: “We have a Fulfilled By Merchant (FBM) storefront on Amazon. It took us maybe a minute to integrate ShipHero into everything. Anyone who’s done FBM Amazon fulfillment knows that it can be a pain in the ass without the proper systems in place. With ShipHero, fulfillment is as easy as slapping labels onto packing slips. The integration is perfect and seamless.
With ShipHero, fulfillment is as easy as slapping labels onto packing slips. The integration is perfect and seamless.”
And what have you been able to accomplish since the switch?
Brittany: “Through ShipHero, we have the ability to export our orders, get transparency into what’s moving, assess issues, purchase labels, and ship on our accounts. It’s all stuff you need—laid out in a way that’s intuitive and useful for you.
“We have a team of 30 people responding to customer requests full-time. With ShipHero, they can see what’s going on with an order, make notes, and talk to the warehouse—all through one user-friendly interface.”
ShipHero also provides much-needed visibility into the fulfillment process for Brittany’s team. With it, they’re able to maintain the same exceptional, high-level of customer service that first catapulted the BURST brand into the limelight.
ShipHero has even worked with Brittany directly to add options that increase back-end efficiency. For example, instead of needing to pick and weigh each order individually, the ‘bulk shipping’ feature allows warehouse staff to easily pick and ship hundreds of the same product—perfect for a company with limited SKUs.
And if anything ever is confusing, Brittany has an easy-to-navigate knowledge database at her fingertips—help.shradical.wpengine.com—and she knows that ShipHero’s team is always standing by to help.
Results
Fully-loaded costs cut by 35% or more.
Brittany, what have been the lasting results of switching to ShipHero?
Brittany: “We have unbelievable retention rates because we strive to create an incomparable experience for our customers. Robust and user-friendly software makes that possible. A solution like ShipHero pays for itself over and over again. In 2020, we anticipate our growth rate doubling native to the US. Projections indicate that we’ll grow another 60–70% the year after. As for international growth—that’s another beast for another day.
To make that growth a reality, ShipHero is vital. We need software that will scale with us as our volumes increase and we expand into multiple locations. The ability to do that without extensively programming lead times (i.e., logic for routing one thing to one place and another thing to another place) is helpful.
“Since switching to ShipHero, we’ve reduced our fully-loaded costs by 35%. At the volumes we move, that’s huge. Robust and user-friendly software makes our high retention rate]possible. A solution like ShipHero pays for itself over and over again.”
BURST continues to have extraordinary retention rates for a subscription-based business, and that’s wholly thanks to their stellar customer service and super-fast turnaround times. According to Brittany, ShipHero is part of the solution that enables them to continuously deliver that high-quality service.
With ShipHero, Brittany is confident that her 3PL has a software solution that will enable them to keep pace as BURST expands—which is good, because the company’s growth doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
BURST currently moves well over 100,000 packages each month. Brittany expects that number to double within a year—and that’s before BURST takes its products to an international market.
ShipHero delivers simple and smart warehouse management that scales with you. Let’s talk.
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May 17, 2021 | Blog, The Packet
Front and Center
Gasoline Pipeline Hack
Good news, gasoline is once again flowing through the Colonial Pipeline. The most recent victim of a ransomware cyber-attack that locked their systems and caused gasoline to stop flowing, Colonial Pipeline Co. was pressured to cough up nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency to hacker group, DarkSide (believed to be based in Eastern Europe, tho it could’ve been Al Gore).
Although at first publicly declaring that they would not pay, the company caved after a few hours, when faced with potential mass shortages of gasoline and jet fuel for major cities along the East Coast of the United States.
What do gasoline pipelines do anyway?
Pipelines transfer crude oil to refineries, so that they can turn them into gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, propane, and more types of oil-based products. Pipelines are also used to transfer gasoline from refineries to major cities. The Colonial Pipeline, in particular, transports gasoline directly to dozens of giant tanks across the Southeast. From there, smaller fuel trucks haul up to 8,000 gallons to individual gas stations.
What’s the damage?
At the time of writing, 74 percent of North Carolina gas stations do not have a fuel supply, and there are shortages in southern Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee. There is not a shortage of gasoline; rather, refineries are unable to get gasoline to North Carolina and these areas. Due to this, the average gas prices have topped $3 for the first time since October 2014. This has also caused mass panic-buying, long lines, shortages, and worst of all, so many dad jokes about “their gas pipelines being wide open????”.
Back of the Packet
Supply Chain Outages
CNN has put together a list of product shortages that are plaguing the global economy. From ketchup packets to chlorine, you can find the list here
FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab
On Thursday, FedEx announced the launch of their new learning program designed to help diverse small business owners develop their e-commerce operations. The program includes free resources for entreprenuers, in addition to providing access to capital, networks and coaching.
Colt 45, I CHOOSE YOU!
Apparently the trading card industry has experienced an immense boon as of late, where trading cards like Sports, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokémon cards have become so sought after that stores can’t keep up with demand. Not to mention, companies that estimate the worth of trading cards have received and graded “avalanches of cards” over the past year.
Despite the long lines of customers waiting hours to buy, Target has recently announced that they will no longer be selling the trading cards, due to a fight that broke out at a Target in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Police were called when a witness saw one man pull a gun. The other man pulled a Charizard card. It was highly effective. Nobody was hurt.
Cool Online Brand of the Week
Call Winnie the Pooh. Since launching only a couple months ago in February 2021, OC Luxury Picnics has disrupted the picnic space, with more than 60 gatherings ranging from a romantic dinner for 2, to an outdoor boba-themed picnic of 20. The founder has since become excited at the idea of starting a fully-fledged business that does not need a brick-and-mortar location. At this time, they only service the lucky folks in Orange County, CA, but this business illustrates the ingenuity of entrepreneurs that turn a side-hustle into a $30,000 venture.
ShipHero News
Brexit… not the Harry/Megan saga, the real one.
In this article, we dive into Brexit’s overall effect on your ecommerce business operations, and the 4 things you need to know when shipping to and from the UK.
Shipping Dumbbells
Shipping heavy items shouldn’t cost you its weight in gold. For tips and tricks on how to make shipping heavy items cheaper, check out our recent blog post here.
Big news: ShipHero is hiring!
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May 14, 2021 | Blog, Case Study
Like they teach in all MBA programs, sales and marketing is a lot like a beer bong. You need to have a large funnel to catch the liquid wherever it’s poured, you need to have a strong and sturdy pipeline that guides the beer to the final destination, and you need a way to properly and safely consume the beer.
No, this isn’t a frat guy’s dissertation; this is the story of how our customer Kong Beer Bong developed a strong product, sales pipeline and supply chain to grow a successful company using ShipHero WMS.
“We were able to save about $60-70k a year by being able to shop carriers other than USPS.”
— Chase Snowden, Head of Marketing and Sales, Kong Beer Bong.
Kong Beer Bong was invented in 2017 by its two founders, Tristan McIntire and Hunter Souders, two college students at The Ohio State University. The pair spent a year of their collegiate journey developing, designing and testing a prototype for the prodigal beer bong, a device so perfect for drinking beer that Sam Adams himself would blush. Not long after, Chase Snowden joined the team in 2019.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the website and first shipment of Kong Beer Bong launched in late 2020, and the incredible team landed $3M in sales in under one year. Like all great businesses, they knew it was time to scale their logistics to keep up with the growing demand, and that’s when they turned to ShipHero.
We sat down with Chase Snowden to hear more about their journey, and learn how they used ShipHero WMS to drastically reduce their shipping costs.
Chase, please provide a brief description of yourself and your business
Chase Snowden: “The Kong was invented back in 2017 by the two founders, Tristan and Hunter, while they were in college. The two of them spent the next year designing and prototyping the idea, and were finally able to bring it to life in 2019.
“I met Tristan in 2019, when we were both discovering the drop shipping business model, figuring out how to sell things online, and building an eCommerce business. We had some luck early on, building a website in the “baby” niche that sold a beanbag chair designed to help babies learn to sit up and gain core strength.
“During this time, Tristan found an investor that wanted to put some money behind Kong, which gave us the foundation to pursue growing that product and brand. We launched a Kickstarter in late 2019 so that we could raise some additional capital for the first production run of 3000 units.
“After this successful KS, the first shipment of Kong Beer Bongs landed in February of 2020, and we subsequently launched kongbeerbong.com. Immediately, the results from our FB ads and Instagram shoutouts were amazing, which all lead to us achieving $3M in sales in the first 12 months.”
Sheeeeeeeeeesh. So, what was your fulfillment model before switching to ShipHero?
“Before switching to ShipHero, we used a website called Pirateship.com to process all of the orders. Being a brand with a core hero product and some accessories allowed us to process orders relatively fast because we could buy labels in Bulk and process thousands of orders at once.”
And what was the moment you knew it was time for a switch?
“We wanted to transition to DHL eCommerce and away from USPS. Pirateship only supports purchasing USPS rates, and it also won’t integrate with Amazon, one of our most recent sales channels.
“We also absolutely needed a bulk processing feature. Almost every platform only allows shippers to process orders First In First Out, and it will only let the user try to group orders together by writing different filters based on SKU and quantity of SKU.
“Grouping orders together was something that Pirateship did automatically, so that was the main feature we were looking for when transitioning.”
Why did you choose ShipHero?
“Bulk Ship – period. Not to mention, integration was super easy and painless. A few calls with Mike and the onboarding team and we were set up to start printing labels.”
What advantages have you seen since switching to ShipHero?
“We were able to save about $60-70k a year by being able to shop carriers other than USPS.”
Follow Chase, Tristan, Hunter, and Kong Beer Bong on social media and check out their websites below.
https://kongbeerbong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/KongBeerBong/
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