Reading gives you superpowers

Welcome to our second episode of We're Just Human, a short format sort of show that features mostly sane people talking about mostly interesting things and the things we're all dealing with in this thing called life.

Episode 2 features Tommy Bjorbaek, founder and CEO of Viking Consulting, an ecommerce consulting shop that designs, builds, and implements some rather clever technology and solutions for ecommerce warehouses.

In this episode, we cover some random topics, such as speaking multiple languages, being awkward, that weird thing Tommy purchased from SharkTank, why Norway has so many Teslas, and much more.

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If you enjoyed this episode subscribe to our IGTV or YouTube channel to catch the next one.

If you’re interested in being a guest on our new podcast, Objects!, please contact John Wakim at pitch@shiphero.com.

Welcome to our first episode of hopefully many, where the co-founder of ShipHero, Nicholas, convinces interesting people to answer a bunch of somewhat random questions in ecommerce, business, and life.

Episode 1 features Justin Johnson, founder and CEO of BudsFeed - which surfaces the best new cannabis related products, every day. It’s a place for cannabis enthusiasts and entrepreneurs to share and geek out over the latest products, services, events, and content created for the cannabis community.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ShipHero (@weareshiphero)

If you enjoyed this episode subscribe to our IGTV or YouTube channel to catch the next one.

If you’re interested in being a guest on our new podcast, Objects!, please contact John Wakim at pitch@shiphero.com.

About the Podcast

Objects! with ShipHero talks with the entrepreneurs, innovators and idealists that put items on the shelf and bring packages to your doorstep. From hot sauce to board games, toothbrushes to frying pans, startup side-gigs to enterprise players, join ShipHero founder, Nicholas Daniel-Richards, as he demystifies the manufacturing and logistics behind some of our most beloved household objects, with transformational ideas that are guaranteed to make you say, why didn’t I think of that?. This fast-paced and intriguing podcast covers thousands of travelled miles in less than an hour, so next time you’re standing in your local store and see a label that says ‘Made in <A Land Far, Far Away>’, you’ll know just how it got into your hands.Objects! with ShipHero discusses in detail what it takes to transform an intangible idea into a tangible object that is designed, sold, manufactured, shipped, and delivered in the digital world. If you are a successful entrepreneur looking to grow or an aspiring innovator with an idea, Objects! with ShipHero provides a detailed, 360' exploration with the masterminds behind modern ecommerce and shipping solutions. So settle in, buckle up, and prepare to get objectified! ... no wait, not that. Get ready to say “I objects!”... we’ll work on it. Available on iTunes and at this link.

Episode Introduction

Episode 3 of Objects! with ShipHero released right around the holidays to remind us what’s really important this time of the year… toys, toys, toys and toys. So Nicholas sits down with Dr. Lisa, former university professor and creator of The Fresh Dolls -- the first line of authentically beautiful, multi-cultural dolls to represent and celebrate diverse ethnicities. Not only are these dolls Finalists for the 2021 Toy of the Year Award, but they are currently featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things list; yes, THE Oprah. In this conversation, Dr. Lisa shares what drove her to take a sharp career turn from academia to toy manufacturing, what challenges she faced with her factories, and what it takes to launch a brand new doll from scratch. It’s a wild ride, so buckle up doll face (it’s a compliment, we checked).

Paging Dr. Lisa

Dr. Lisa earned her PhD degree in Marketing and Supply Chain from “The” Ohio State University, where she was the first African-American woman to earn this degree in her field. To say she developed a successful career in academia is certainly an understatement as she was the highest ranking professor in her field, quickly received tenure, obtained various faculty positions, and became the first multi-million dollar endowed chair holder when she was recruited to the University of Arkansas to chair her department.It was at the University of Arkansas where she made connections with a local Arkansas-based company you may have heard of, Walmart. Things were looking good for Dr. Lisa, having realized her childhood dream of becoming a professor. But one fateful day, Dr. Lisa stumbled upon an old study from Drs. Mamie and Kenneth Clark.“One day while watching an updated doll study, I saw a beautiful little dark-skinned girl say she didn’t think the brown doll was pretty because its skin was nasty.  She then touched her own hand indicating her skin was nasty, too.  As my heart broke and tears flowed down my face, I said to myself, ‘I have to do something. This can’t happen on my watch’. A generation of children can’t grow up not knowing their true beauty and brilliance.” -- Dr. LisaSo in 2003, Dr. Lisa founded the World of Entertainment, Publishing and Inspiration (World of EPI) to produce dolls that inspire dreams, promote intelligence and build self-esteem for all children. 

Cut the Copy and Paste

Dr. Lisa immersed herself in the world of doll-making and quickly learned that it's far from child's play. In fact, doll-making is roughly a $3 billion dollar industry and the global doll, toy, and game market hit $102.6 billion in 2019. That said, a vast majority of the dolls manufactured are white dolls, and the black and brown dolls are referred to in the industry as “white dolls dipped in chocolate” -- meaning white doll templates, including shapes, features and hair, are used to create black and brown dolls. The result? A doll that very few children liked to play with.Through her Walmart connections, Dr. Lisa got in contact with top doll manufacturing factories in China and hopped on a plane to meet with them in person (ah, remember travel?). But it wasn’t until she arrived that Dr. Lisa realized just how stacked against the odds her ideas really were.Even though Dr. Lisa told them she wanted to make a brand new doll, the factories continually tried to convince her to pick a template doll and that creating a new sculpt -- templates for dolls -- was a waste of money. By all accounts, the factories were attempting to protect her from failure, not to mention losing a lot of money in the process because Dr. Lisa was paying for the endeavor out of her own pocket.But Dr. Lisa trusted her vision and chose to create a sculpt that she believed adequately represented multicultural beauty.

Sculptors Gonna Sculpt

The process began by Dr. Lisa creating sketches of how she wanted the dolls to look. Like a budding Leonardo DaVinci, she studied the faces of children, understood the face shape, then eyes shape, nose shape, lip shape, etc. so that the sketches wouldn’t just represent one face, but a collection of many different faces. Then, she shared these sketches with the factory to produce a sculpt.The doll sculpting process took six months to yield an acceptable sculpt. The process began with deco -- facial decoration -- to create the desired shape of the eyes, ears, nose and mouth (before the head, shoulders, knees and toes), as well as making sure the skin tone was just right. As it stood, the skin tone that factories were using for black and brown dolls contained too much grey or red or peach, leaving the skin looking “nasty”. After six long months of tweaking 3D renderings, mixing skin colors, and making tiny adjustments, say to the tip of the nose just a millimeter, the moment came when Dr. Lisa’s vision was finally realized, and the factory was shocked with the results. With absolutely zero prior experience, they had produced the final form of a doll sculpt that perfectly portrayed the abstraction of beauty in multicultural children that Dr. Lisa had been chasing. The Fresh Dolls were born.Another year and a half passed before The Fresh Dolls hit the shelves, and that’s when the anxiety started kicking in for Dr. Lisa. Having spent approximately two years of her life dedicated to producing a doll that she viewed as beautiful, she was understandably nervous to find out whether other people would agree. And what happened next was truly amazing.

'It Looks Just Like Me'

Emails began flooding into Dr. Lisa’s inbox from parents with stories about their child referring to the doll as their best friend, and where the parents were elated that this is the first doll to actually look like her daughter. After two years of hard work, Dr. Lisa had succeeded in creating a doll in which children of ethnically diverse backgrounds could feel comfortable celebrating, and seeing the beauty in, their own skin and culture.The dolls were flying off the shelf and sales continued to rise, not to mention the dolls were winning industry awards, submitted as Finalist for the 2021 Toy of the Year Awards, then endorsed by Oprah, which is basically the Super Bowl for toy-makers! These were all incredible achievements for Dr. Lisa, but it was truly the emails and feedback from customers that made Dr. Lisa realize that they were making a change in the world“As long as I see a little girl play with my doll on the floor, it’s all worth it,” Dr. Lisa says to ShipHero’s Founder Nicholas Daniel-Richards.The Fresh Dolls started with baby dolls, then moved to fashion dolls, then to boys fashion dolls. As her line continued to grow, so did her manufacturing needs so she branched out to different factories and more retailers. Dr. Lisa has certainly come a long way from her first sculpt, but still prides herself in continually breaking from the mold and creating uniquely diverse dolls that resonate with children and adults of all cultural backgrounds.It’s holiday season now, so if you need to order some amazing dolls for the children in your life, check out Dr. Lisa’s amazing collection at thefreshdolls.com.

How About You?

Do you have an idea that’s been gnawing at you? You are living in an era that is full of ways to convert that idea into a viable business. The reality is there’s no magical five step program, and we’re all making this up. However, there’s lots of tools, resources, and fantastically passionate and smart people that we can all learn from who are building all sorts of new brands and yes, ShipHero gets to do the shipping. If you have an object that you want to profile, please send a note to John Wakim at pitch@shiphero.com - we’re always on the lookout for a new object to cover. For more info, episode details, and links to the stuff we discuss, visit https://shiphero.com/podcast.Listen to the podcast episode here.The Objects! With ShipHero podcast is brought to you by ShipHero, the leader in ecommerce order fulfillment services.

5 Ways Online Stores Can Navigate COVID-19 and Impress Online Shoppers

Even as the holiday decorations go back into storage and Mariah Carrey retires her microphone for another 11 months, business is still ba-hooming for online brands and retailers. With the encroaching cold of January and talks of more lockdowns on the horizon, more and more shoppers are turning from their old brick-and-mortar ways, to finally enter the new era of online shopping.

As online brand owners and digital retailers, we owe these potential new customers a great first impression into the online shopping community. So let’s look at five things you can do to delight your new and existing customers as they evolve to meet the new world around them.

Fulfillment at the Forefront

Someone has to say it. In today’s understatedly hectic marketplace, with traditional carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx and even Amazon stretched to their limits due to the massive surge in online shopping, the most important step you can take during right now to secure the success of your online store is to solidify your Fulfillment strategy AKA make sure that customers can actually get your product.

‍At a time when market uncertainties and shopper anxieties are at an all time high, online retailers must take every precaution to retain their customers’ trust. Retailers that have relied solely on traditional carriers or FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) in the past are now finding resiliency in their operation by diversifying their shipping methods and outsourcing to third party logistics (3PL) companies.

3PL companies easily handle warehousing, forwarding, packing, consulting, order fulfillment, brokerage and transportation documentation, while offering fulfillment management software that seamlessly integrates into your business systems; e.g., Shopify.

Not only that, high shipping costs and long shipping durations are the leading factors in stopping people from purchasing online. Online stores that have been able to reduce both are realizing immense competitive advantages and quickly growing their customer base, as would-be brick-and-mortar customers are confidently becoming online shoppers.

Whether you are just starting an online business or already operate a successful brand, prioritizing your fulfillment strategy is the #1 way to navigate the ecommerce realm during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Know Your Customer Base and How It’s Changing

You may have already noticed, but customers have been forced to change their shopping habits quite a bit. According to a study by JP Morgan, e-commerce now accounts for 16.1% of all U.S. sales, up from 11.8%, and news outlet BBC reported that COVID-19 has effectively eliminated the marginal store revenue accrued through a customer browsing in-person.

What this means is that online retailers need to have a clear picture of their online shoppers and their in-store shoppers, as well as how both of them engage with the digital store. You may already know your customers and have well-defined customer segments and demographic information, so you mustn’t reevaluate who they are, but rather how they now act.

Traditionally, technologically-native shoppers in the Gen Z or Millennial generation have been more inclined to browse in-store followed by purchasing online, while the older generation has statistically favored in-store transactions. COVID-19 has flipped this mantra for some, especially those that are less willing to venture out to shop.

‍So be sure to understand who is visiting your site now that wasn’t before. You may be welcoming new shoppers that could get frustrated with complicated browsing and checkout processes, or perhaps your customers are engaging with your brand in an entirely new way.

Optimize Your Shopping Journey

Since online shoppers lack the ability to physically touch, try on, and compare items, they may need more product information to feel comfortable completing a purchase. Not only that, customers will be less likely to return a product that is accurately displayed on your store.

For that reason, consider implementing the following to provide the most accurate information to your customers:

• Clear sizing charts
• Product comparison tools
• High-quality product images, including dimensions and materials
• Customer reviews

Once your customer decides to purchase, make it as easy as possible with a frictionless checkout process. Up until now, the majority online shoppers have been technological natives (i.e., younger), so many retailers may have settled on overly-complicated websites that rely on the customer being tech savvy.

Be aware that new online shoppers could get frazzled by complexity and subsequently abandon the checkout process when it loses them. To avoid this from happening, reevaluate your user journey from landing page to checkout confirmation, paying special attention to:

• Product categorization
• Product page layout and information
• Personal information collection
• Cart view and editing
• Payment, shipping and return options

Customer support options like a live chat box needs to be clearly visible so the customer can reach out if they need assistance. Additionally, consider using heat-mapping or other anonymous tracking tools to find where exactly customers are getting frustrated and abandoning the process. This method of discovery along with design and testing is an important way to improve the user experience (UX) of your shopping journey.

Manage Your Returns, Don’t Let Them Manage You

Returns are the unavoidable fallout of online shopping, and the best thing online companies can do is to prepare for them to happen. In our past blogs we’ve detailed the rising number of returns and how online retailers can turn returns into a profitable venture.

When making an online purchase, your brand’s return policy is often the very first thing a customer will look for, along with your shipping options and data privacy policy. So make sure your returns policy is highly transparent and overly generous.

‍Beyond that, a smooth returns process creates loyal, repeat customers. Be sure to give your customers the ability to, at a minimum, print labels, track their returns, and know the status of their refund.

‍Refunds are a messy business, and that’s why many 3PLs like ShipHero are partnering with returns management companies like Returnly to automate the return process including the issuance of credit/refund, to make it as easy as possible for the retailers and their customers.

Stay in Touch With Your Customers

The most effective way to weather a crisis and maintain relationships is to keep sustained communication with your customer base, according to Harvard Business Review. In times of chaos, customers may seek to know how your brand is responding, and determine if their brand loyalty should remain. HBR suggests the following approach to communicating with your customer base during a crisis, and it has a lot of HEART.

• Humanize your company
• Educate about change
• Assure stability
• Revolutionize offerings
• Tackle the future

By following the above five recommendations, your brand will be sure to win your fair share of the growing number of online shoppers, whether it’s their first time or their millionth.

Ready to tackle fulfillment for your online store? ShipHero is a leading provider of SaaS 3PL software for ecommerce fulfillment that is trusted by over 4000 ecommerce brands and 3PLs every day.

Learn more about ShipHero’s industry-leading warehouse management software.

“We’re hiring” seems to be hanging from just about every warehouse door these days. With more people sending more packages, third-party logistics (3PL) companies like Amazon and ShipHero must grow to keep up with the soaring ecommerce industry. And now more than ever, we depend on our people to get the job done.

While there has always been a blend of traditional employees and gig workers, like seasonal workers coming in to help with the holiday rush, 3PL companies are now keeping these workers on longer to keep up with the increased shipping volumes from COVID-19.

‍Pick-and-Packers and fulfillment specialists are in high demand these days. Are you considering joining the growing number of gig workers that are taking on warehouse jobs? If so, let’s take a look at the future of warehouse work, and why more and more 3PL companies are partnering with the Gig Economy.

The Future

As customers have come to expect same-day or two-day delivery, logistics companies and ecommerce fulfillment providers are under pressure to get faster. For that reason, 3PL companies have started increasing the size of their team and investing heavily in people and technology.

There are 400,000 current job openings in US Manufacturing, which is only predicted to increase significantly over the next decade. 3PL companies need to get talent on their team now, or risk getting flogged down with too many orders and not enough people to fulfill them. In order to hire quickly and effectively, 3PL companies are turning to gig workers.

Technology Leads to Trust In the Gig Economy

For 3PL companies and fulfillment providers, the biggest expense is warehouse worker salaries. The next largest expense is investing in the training and tools to attract the best candidates and produce highly effective teams.

For that reason, warehouse jobs are being posted on sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, GigSmart, and more, so that the companies can quickly and thoroughly find a candidate pool that’s large enough to fill their demand. Companies can choose the right applicants that match their needs, and oftentimes the platform facilitates payment and provides support for gig workers.Through advancements in technology and interconnectedness, companies and workers both have reason to trust in the Gig Economy.

Flexible Workforce Management

Hiring gig workers provides flexibility for work schedules, and allows the warehouse manager to only hire for what they need. Flexible workforce management reduces overall cost to the customer, and allows the 3PL company to offer its gig workers more competitive hourly wages. For that reason, warehouse and fulfillment jobs are extremely popular gigs on most job-hunting platforms.

Not only that, gig workers in the logistics industry are often hired for a certain expertise or for seasonal availability. These specialty workers can offer their services for a well-defined scope of work.

It’s More Than a Gig

When you start a warehouse job, what you’re joining is a traditional team of employees as well as some gig workers like you. We engage our temporary workers and regular employees the exact same way, where other industries may treat gig workers like commodities. For that reason, more and more seasonal gig workers are becoming regular employees, because when the gig is up, they feel part of the organization.

Ready to find your side hustle? Whether you’re looking for temporary/seasonal work, or maybe something more long term and fulfilling (excuse the pun), consider a warehouse gig with the local 3PL companies, fulfillment providers or warehouses in your area. Hey, you could even become a ShipHero!

We’re currently building an experienced warehouse team to pick, pack & ship orders in our 150,000 sqft warehouse located in Pennsylvania. You'd be part of a team that helps ship over $5 billion of e-commerce orders a year.

ShipHero is a leading provider of SaaS 3PL software for ecommerce fulfillment.

About the Podcast

Objects! with ShipHero talks with the entrepreneurs, innovators and idealists that put items on the shelf and bring packages to your doorstep. From hot sauce to board games, toothbrushes to frying pans, startup side-gigs to enterprise players, join ShipHero founder, Nicholas Daniel-Richards, as he demystifies the manufacturing and logistics behind some of our most beloved household objects, with transformational ideas that are guaranteed to make you say, why didn’t I think of that?. This fast-paced and intriguing podcast covers thousands of travelled miles in less than an hour, so next time you’re standing in your local store and see a label that says ‘Made in <A Land Far, Far Away>’, you’ll know just how it got into your hands.Objects! with ShipHero discusses in detail what it takes to transform an intangible idea into a tangible object that is designed, sold, manufactured, shipped, and delivered in the digital world. If you are a successful entrepreneur looking to grow or an aspiring innovator with an idea, Objects! with ShipHero provides a detailed, 360′ exploration with the masterminds behind modern ecommerce and shipping solutions. So settle in, buckle up, and prepare to get objectified! … no wait, not that. Get ready to say “I objects!”… we’ll work on it. Available on iTunes and at this link.

Episode Introduction

In Episode 2 of Objects! with ShipHero, we uncover how Joe Spisak and his close circle of friends rode an overnight board game success into becoming a business mogul in the fulfillment industry by “just getting it done”. Joe Spisak is credited as the creator of board games Dicey and OK Boomer!, and founder of the Third Party Logistics (3PL) company ShipDaddy (unrelated).(By the way, see if you can spot all of the board game titles hidden in the article)

Start on GO

In 2015, a recently-graduated Joe Spisak began to showcase his genius early on when he and his housemate Logan decided to stay on their college campus for an additional year, living the college life without the college classes. But in a cruel twist of fate, the pair quickly discovered that their brilliant endeavor had one serious flaw.“We were basically getting fed up playing beer pong, flip cup, quarters…. You know the traditional college games.” says Joe Spisak in his conversation with ShipHero founder Nicholas Daniel-Richards.So instead of suffering through another horribly monotonous night of flipping cups, they decided to flip the script by creating their own drinking game: The Wheel of Fun, prototype and precursor to their now wildly-popular game Dicey.The game concept was simple: spin a wheel and land on a color, then pick a card from the color category, and finally, complete whatever outrageous and laugh-out-loud funny suggestion on the card.The game was an instant hit, with friends and fellow bar patrons basically begging Joe to play The Wheel of Fun nightly. After some intense product testing and feedback from these unfocused focus groups, a single die soon replaced the wheel of misfortune and the game was henceforth referred to as Dicey — sensibly due to the fact that it may get you into some dicey situations, oh and the dice.

Turning a Board Game Idea into a Business

Fast forward to 2017 and Joe had moved on to an impressive technical corporate job; however, the uproarious success of Dicey still rattled around Joe’s skull just like the whispers of his collegiate legacy still rattled the halls of his alma-mater. He couldn’t risk this opportunity passing him by, so after one quick call to Logan the Dicey duo were back in business.As it turned out, developing a game from scratch was no trivial pursuit. Working with Joe’s sister, a talented UX designer, the team developed a brand, a box, and detailed design specs — all the necessary components to manufacture a game. Next step was to raise capital and find a supplier.If raising capital was the easy part, securing $21,000 on Kickstarter in just 30 days, then finding a supplier was certainly the fun part. To meet with high-quality board game manufacturers, Joe and Logan attended Gen Con, the largest tabletop board game convention in North America and held in Indianapolis — just how big is Gen Con? Joe tells us that the convention reserves Lucas Oil Stadium, the NFL stadium of the Indianapolis Colts, to play the quarter-finals of Settlers of Catan.With both the funds and manufacturer secured, the remaining topic was fulfillment: how to physically get the product into the hands of the customers. Joe and Logan went with a traditional fulfillment company, and with all the pieces in place (pun intended), orders for Dicey started piling in due in part to effective social media marketing as well as significant exposure from being on the Barstool Sports’ Big Brain Competition — yes, that is where you recognize them from. The success of Dicey was undeniable, and it actually became the second-most popular board game invented in Pennsylvania, a close second behind the game Monopoly. But as their order volume rose, so did problems with their fulfillment experience.

ShipDaddy is Born

“What was the first scary moment you experienced between the orders coming in and the actual fulfillment process?” asks Nicholas in their podcast conversation.“I think the scary moment was working with fulfillment providers and sending them emails and waiting 72 hours and praying to God to get a hold of someone that understood the nuances of your account. You spend two years building this brand, creating this ecommerce company, and then the whole back end of the business, the most important part of taking the game and delivering it to the customers was completely out of your hands. And what blew my mind, was not only the lack of support… but also the lack of customization you can do.” – Joe SpisakCustomers were complaining about a poor unboxing experience and Dicey’s success was being compromised by subpar fulfillment service. About a year and a half into selling their product, the team had already gone through three different 3PLs, which is a staggering figure in the ecommerce world considering the time and money it takes to move freights of inventory from one warehouse to another.They were frustrated that seemingly simple modifications to the fulfillment process, like including a pamphlet in the box, were impossible; not to mention, the whole process felt highly impersonal and many fulfillment agents had no clue about the nuances of their account. What they needed was a white-glove fulfillment service with trustworthy and caring people, and when you want something done right you better do it yourself.ShipDaddy had its first warehouse in a 800 sq-ft room in an abandoned town morgue that Joe got in exchange for completing a website project for the local realtor. They used what they learnt from their past 3PL providers to implement best practices and, most importantly, hired people that aligned to their mission, values, and dedication to high-end service. They vertically integrated up the value chain and were successfully fulfilling their own product.ShipDaddy officially became a 3PL when other brands approached them that were having the exact same trouble with their fulfillment experience: impersonal and inflexible. It seemed that ShipDaddy held a local monopoly on the “Handle with Care” business model. As for their growth strategy, they focused on solving problems as they came in, and continually developed their capabilities to meet the needs of their customers. Primarily, they have moved into the Print on Demand, Merchandising, and Digital Media Creation spaces in addition to ecommerce fulfillment.

Final Question: Where did the name and image for ShipDaddy come from?

One of Joe’s first hires was a close friend named Brady, who earned the title Brady the ShipDaddy, half in part due to his military nickname “Dad” that he earned by caring for other soldiers like a father, and the other half in part for his stellar work ethic in the warehouse. When it came time to create a business brand, Joe thought it a no-brainer to name it after a friend that embodies the spirit and values of their 3PL company.

Current Update

Joe tells us that ShipDaddy just hired their 20th employee, and they have since moved on from the morgue to a 10,000 sq-ft warehouse and will soon be moving to a 140,000 sq-ft building across the road. Their roadmap for the next year includes opening a West Coast location, acquiring the right customers that fit with their business model, further expanding their capabilities, and hiring more fantastic people that can vibe with Brady and the bunch.Last year, 2020 (feels awesome saying that), Joe created a new board game called OK Boomer! that is fun for up to three generations. ShipDaddy is proof that a smart group of people and an idea can become an entrepreneurial success.

How About You?

Do you have an idea that’s been gnawing at you? You are living in an era that is full of ways to convert that idea into a viable business. The reality is there’s no magical five step program, and we’re all making this up. However, there’s lots of tools, resources, and fantastically passionate and smart people that we can all learn from who are building all sorts of new brands and yes, ShipHero gets to do the shipping.If you have an object that you want to profile, please send a note to John Wakim at pitch@shiphero.com - we’re always on the lookout for a new object to cover. For more info, episode details, and links to the stuff we discuss, visit https://shiphero.com/podcast.Listen to the podcast episode here.The Objects! With ShipHero podcast is brought to you by ShipHero, the leader in ecommerce order fulfillment services.

Happy Holidays from everyone here at ShipHero! Black Friday has officially kicked off the gift-shopping extravaganza and like you, we’re all scrambling to find that perfect gift for that relative we haven’t seen in-person for the past 10 months… should be easy. (Hint: pajamas). While gift giving was difficult before, with 34% of Americans reporting to return gifts after the holiday season, knowing what to get your friends and family in 2020 is near impossible. So… just make sure to put that receipt in the box.

For retailers, the process of handling product returns, also known as reverse logistics, has always been a messy business, especially after the gift-giving season. According to Shopify, approximately 40% of customers have returned an online purchase in the last 6 months, and 42% of customers report buying a product with full intentions to return some or all of the order in the future. Product returns impact conversion rates, increase costs, and complicate inventory management. So, how can retailers minimize returns, all while making sure that they maintain a good relationship with their customers?

To celebrate our latest partnership with reverse logistic solution company Returnly (and the exclusive holiday deal), Shiphero proudly presents the following the three steps you can take to lower your return rates, improve your customer experience, and in fact develop a competitive advantage through an effective reverse logistics strategy.

Step #1: Offer a Clear and Generous Return Policy

Of course, return rates will drop with a no-refund or strict refund policy, making customers jump through hoops to return your item; however, this will drastically lower your conversion rates at checkout, lower the incentives for new customers to become repeat customers, and ultimately hurt your brand in the long run. Important topics to include in a return policy are:

• Specific products that can’t be returned, like high-ticket items or discounted items
• Additional fees such as restocking fee or shipping
• How long the customer has to return the item
• Conditions for return such as if the receipt is required, or tags, or that it hasn’t been used
• Reimbursement method like cash or store credit, and qualifiers for each method

Behind free shipping, free returns are a huge driver for customers to shop online, and 96% of customers reported that they would shop with a retailer again based on an easy return experience. Many retailers have offset the cost of free returns through increases in price or having customers pay for shipping.

The key takeaway is that your return policy should inspire confidence in your customers to buy from you the first time, and then provide an enjoyable shopping experience (albeit a return) to incentivize them to shop again, and maybe even tell a friend.

The return policy needs to be clear, concise and widely distributed. The policy language should be as easily understood as possible, devoid of legal jargon and fine print. Once set, it should be communicated clearly to both your customers and your employees. In fact, many companies place their return policy in several locations on their landing page and throughout their checkout process, and if it’s generous enough, they advertise it proudly.

And now that Black Friday 2020 has officially kicked off the holiday shopping season, offering a customer-centric return policy will certainly attract more holiday sales, as well as inspire repeat business in the future.

Step #2: Reduce Rates of Return

Simply put, fewer returns means lower costs — with each returned item adding restocking, processing, and possible refurbishing or scrapping fees. So the next thing to focus on is reducing the amount of returns that your company receives

‍MIT Sloan breaks down returns into two components: controllable returns and uncontrollable returns. Controllable returns are the result of errors or mistakes by the business or customer; as such, each controllable return has an identifiable root cause or causes that can be addressed and mitigated.

For example, the image below lists the most commonly reported causes for returns in 2020, alongside the percentage that they occur.

Around 80% of returns were the result of a damaged or broken product, and 7.5% were from a delay in delivery. These are controllable returns showcasing issues with your fulfillment process, which can be addressed through better packaging, better care, or a better third-party fulfillment provider.

Next, we see 64% of returns were the result of a mismatch between product and description. This is also a controllable return highlighting the need for better online product images or descriptions, or an updated sizing chart for clothes and shoes, to more accurately present the product. In fact, many clothing and footwear companies have minimized product returns by employing a “size and fit” specialist, contactable via phone or chat boxes on the company website.

The last controllable return we see making up 7.5% is poor value, which can either be addressed through your manufacturing process or marketing strategy.

The remaining factor is that the customer just didn’t like the product. This is an uncontrollable factor in some respects, in that it could have been a gift or perhaps the customer had a change of heart; but on the other hand, this could even be broken down into smaller factors — some of them controllable. Why didn’t the customer like it?

Finding the answer to the above question is where a well-designed return process needs to come in. Among other things, your company must ensure that all necessary data points are collected throughout the return process in order to further improve your return rates… which brings us to step 3.

Step #3: Optimize Your Return Process

According to MIT Sloan, an efficient reverse logistics strategy has the potential of reducing processing costs by up to 50% or more. For that reason, companies that have a systematic approach to handling returns hold a massive competitive advantage over those companies that treat returns in an ad-hoc way, and major corporations hire departments specifically dedicated to handling returns and optimizing the return process.

At a high level, every return process has the following steps: Receive, Sort, Analyze, Decide, Execute. The retailer receives the returned product, sorts it based on certain factors like reason for return, analyzes its condition, decides what to do with it, then executes on that decision whether it is restocked, refurbished or scrapped.

Make Decisions Upfront

What are your options when you get a return? Creating proper decision trees (IF, THENs) with clear conditions stemming from your return policy gives your company a roadmap to processing returns. This could have many different variations and nuances per your specific business, but as an example it could look like the below:

• IF there’s no issues, THEN restock and process refund
• IF the product is broken AND still fixable THEN refurbish, process refund, and sell through other channels
• IF the product is defective THEN send back to manufacturer for rebate
• IF the product is no longer salvageable THEN scrap

For refurbished products, find other channels to sell your returned items. The loss margins on returns can be minimized through effective and creative measures like selling refurbished goods in other regions or to different markets.

Pretty straightforward but until recently, the return process has been an extremely labor-intensive endeavor, from sorting to analyzing to deciding, thereby requiring loads of labor hours to process just one return. The answer to this sticky situation just so happens to be what an Australian calls his car.

Auto, mate

But seriously, automation is the key. Retailers have found enormous success automating as much of the process as they can, while making the process self-serve for the customer. From the printing of return labels to the issuance of credit, companies that automate the process see large boosts in efficiency and cost-savings. According to Returnly, during a return process, customers expect, at a minimum, to be able to:

• Print labels
• Track their returns
• Know the status of their refund

This may require having a dedicated portal for refunds. And if you’ve made the necessary decisions upfront, these can be automated as well, further reducing your processing costs and allowing your return team to focus on any extenuating circumstances.

Along with automation comes data aggregation. Knowing why your customer returned the product along with other data points can paint a very clear picture on your reverse logistics landscape, allowing your company to address the various pain points and reduce your return rates.

This, among many other reasons, is why ShipHero has partnered with Returnly to automate the return process for any 3PL or retailer using the ShipHero platform, thereby minimizing human touches, improving accuracy, and reducing costs and errors in the return process, all while keeping the merchant updated in real-time.

This leads to faster returns processing time, faster issuance of refunds to the customer, and faster restocking or resale of the returned goods. Everybody wins, mate.

Outsource

Processing returns necessitates much more than a part-time effort. Using a third-party provider to process your returns is a good solution if your company lacks the time, resources or know-how to process returns, or if you have a low amount of returns.

Because some specialize in processing product returns, third-party providers can perform product returns quickly and accurately, often through the use of industry-leading software solutions, thereby lowering costs and increasing revenue.

Also, if your company does not have dedicated personnel or procedures for handling product returns, you consider instituting a third-party to improve the process by delivering state-of-the-art inventory management solutions and data aggregation capabilities.

Conclusion

In summary, to handle the growing impact that returns have on your business, it is important to have a clear and generous return policy that fits your business needs, to consistently find and address the causes for returns, and to optimize your return process through automation or outsourcing.

ShipHero is proud to announce our partnership with Returnly to help empower retailers and 3PLs using the ShipHero platform to take control of their product return process.

And to help you successfully navigate the upcoming return season, we’ve secured our customers access to an exclusive deal — two months free when you sign-up for a Returnly Premium plan before January 31st.

‍To learn more and claim your offer, click here.

We recently teamed up with Andreea Matei at Launch Grow Joy to explain the different order fulfillment models that ecommerce businesses can utilize.Option 1: In-houseStoring the inventory, picking, packing, shipping, all done by your company.To DIY, you’ll need space to house your inventory, and efficient processes to handle orders and ship in a timely manner, not to mention a process for handling returns. Overhead costs are high to house inventory yourself, but this rewards your business full autonomy.Option 2: Outsource to a third partyHand your inventory over to 3PL and smart fulfillment companies like ShipHero who invest heavily in infrastructure and software to create global networks of warehouses and to provide a wide array of cutting-edge fulfillment capabilities.Option 3: Dropshipping (goods ship directly from the manufacturer)Dropshipping is when the manufacturer ships directly to the consumer, completely bypassing the retailer. This is typically used by businesses that are just starting that don’t have the capital for inventory, so the price to start a business is low.When it comes to each option, there are pros and cons that store owners must consider.Read the full article to learn more about choosing the right fulfillment model for your business.A big shoutout to Andreea and her team! She is an expert at increasing publicity and helping ecommerce store owners grow their sales. You can learn more about Launch Grow Joy here.

It’s official! Returnly and ShipHero have teamed up, and ShipHero users have access to an exclusive deal. This breakthrough integration allows ShipHero users to offer an end-to-end product return experience. So, what does this mean for ShipHero users?

Automation

Returnly helps Shiphero users create a fully branded, self-serve return center, complete with all the necessary automation and policy controls to reduce operating costs and give customers all the options they want upfront.

Returnly Credit

Mistakes happen. If you ship the wrong order, send the right one immediately and Returnly will accept the risk of the customer actually returning the order. Returnly lets shoppers return or exchange items for a different size, color, or something new without contacting your business.If a shopper opts for a refund, Returnly offers an instant credit to shop your site while the return is processed. And when you save the sale, Returnly pays for the order so your customer gets the right item before returning the wrong one, completely risk free. This decreases your shipping time and increases the return experience for the customer.

Convert Returns to Repurchases

ShipHero and Returnly seamlessly transfer data to manage and track the return process within ShipHero’s platform. This improved data integration with Returnly makes returns seamless for you and the customer, better positions you to convert returns into repurchases, and saves time and holiday revenue for your business.

Exclusive Offer

To help you successfully navigate the upcoming return season, ShipHero has secured our customers access to an exclusive deal — two months free when you sign-up for a Returnly Premium plan before January 31, 2021.To learn more and claim your offer, click here.

About the Podcast

Objects! with ShipHero talks with the entrepreneurs, innovators and idealists that put items on the shelf and bring packages to your doorstep. From hot sauce to board games, toothbrushes to frying pans, startup side-gigs to enterprise players, join ShipHero founder, Nicholas Daniel-Richards, as he demystifies the manufacturing and logistics behind some of our most beloved household objects, with transformational ideas that are guaranteed to make you say, why didn’t I think of that?. This fast-paced and intriguing podcast covers thousands of travelled miles in less than an hour, so next time you’re standing in your local store and see a label that says ‘Made in <A Land Far, Far Away>’, you’ll know just how it got into your hands.

Objects! with ShipHero discusses in detail what it takes to transform an intangible idea into a tangible object that is designed, sold, manufactured, shipped, and delivered in the digital world. If you are a successful entrepreneur looking to grow or an aspiring innovator with an idea, Objects! with ShipHero provides a detailed, 360′ exploration with the masterminds behind modern ecommerce and shipping solutions. So settle in, buckle up, and prepare to get objectified! … no wait, not that. Get ready to say “I objects!”… we’ll work on it. Available on iTunes and at this link.

Episode Introduction

Episode 1 of Objects! with ShipHero gets a wee bit spicy with Bayou Gotham founder Scott Bellina. In this episode, Scott and ShipHero founder Nicholas Daniel-Richards answer fiery hot questions like: How do you run a kickstarter campaign for a new hot sauce company during a quarantine? What does it take to switch from digital brand strategist to hot sauce entrepreneur? Is it possible to make and sell authentic hot sauce out of an apartment in New York City?

Who is Scott Bellina?

Grandson to the founder of the famous Crystal hot sauce brand, Scott Bellina was born and raised on the Bayou (shoutout to our Creedence Clearwater Revival fans). The first 20 years of Scott’s life spent working in a Louisiana grocery store so ingrained the taste and heritage of the local cuisine into his heart and soul that the man practically bleeds crawfish gumbo.

How did this all start?

Since moving to New York City, Scott found success in digital marketing and brand strategy, and he has owned and operated his own agency for the last ten years. However, when work began to slow down in 2019, Scott was forced to evaluate alternative options and seek out other sources of income, and that is when his Bayou upbringing called out.

Starting with the simple question, ‘has anyone ever tried to make a hot sauce that tastes exactly like seafood boil?’, Scott spent the cold winter months doing nothing but taking trips to the grocery store and experimenting with hot sauce recipes in the kitchen of his NYC apartment. His home-made hot sauce quickly found a rabid fan base amongst his friends, family and colleagues, and he realized that this unconventional approach to hot sauce could be a hit.

What is Bayou Gotham Hot Sauce?

In March of 2019, Scott embarked on the bold journey from making hot sauce to making a hot sauce company, and he launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for his hot sauce brand, With a fundraising goal set for $25,000. Scott recalls that at this time he didn’t even have a name, logo, design or bottle, but in creating the brand while simultaneously running the Kickstarter campaign, he was able to craft and perfect the brand and recipes with constant feedback from his audience of investors. After running the campaign for about nine months, and through a quarantine no less, Scott was able to raise just shy of $32,000.

Bayou Gotham Hot Sauce is an homage to both Scott’s Bayou roots as well as his New York home, and to date the brand has two collections: The Bayou Collection is cajun-inspired flavors, and the Gotham Collection is flavors inspired by the boroughs of NYC where Scott lived; but these are not your typical hot sauces, as Scott has made sure to put his unique mark on each flavor. For example, the Ruby Rebelle may be the most similar to his grandfather’s traditional recipe from 1923, but forever the rebel with a cause, Scott introduced barrel-aged bourbon to kick it up a notch. Another example is his most popular Bayou Bourre Louisiana Boil, which tastes exactly like a seafood-boil-in-a-bottle and has corn and potatoes in the sauce!

After raising the money, how did you spend it?

With $32,000 in the bank, Scott had to determine how to allocate the funds for his business. He decided that a proportional breakdown would make the most sense and he calculated the following:

• 75% allocated to manufacturing hot sauce, both inside the bottle and out, including research, testing, etc.
• 12.5% allocated to Kickstarter fee, credit card fee, and taxes
• 10% allocated to shipping and fulfillment
• 2.5% allocated to merchandise AKA swag; it’s worth pointing out that Scott noted that people would have been delighted enough to just receive the hot sauce and the funds for swag could have been better utilized

Scott notes that he did not fully measure the costs for shipping and fulfillment, and attributes the unanticipated costs to the specialty box and associated tools for shipping his hot sauce bottles. Hindsight 20/20, Scott says that he would have set a higher goal if he had known of these costs prior.

What is it like to start a food company?

Scott points out that compared to tech companies where clients want instant gratification, the food industry moves at a slower pace. In order to use his time more wisely and focus on developing the brand and recipes, Scott employed the help of a co-packer, which is a commercial kitchen that cooks and packs the hot sauce for the company.

Upon approving the recipe, which alone took six to eight months, the co-packer needed to decide if they even wanted to work with Scott and his hot sauce company. Being new and unproven in the industry, Scott was the low man on the totem pole and had to contend with the co-packers much larger and more established clients. When the co-packer finally agreed to work with Scott, it took another three months to figure out pricing. Once the pricing was sorted out, it took another three to four weeks to order fresh produce; a time-consuming process to say the least and the pandemic certainly didn’t help.

Another thing Scott had to contend with is the regionalized nature of food consumption; people in NYC want NYC products, people in Florida want Florida products, etc. Bayou Gotham Hot Sauce is from all over the map, and Scott hopes that will help him in the long run.

Scott originally decided to try to get his product into specialty stores like small BBQ grocers, then moving to chain grocery stores and finally Direct-to-Consumer (D2C). But since the pandemic, this model has shifted in his mind, and he sees his future being e-commerce and D2C.

What has been your strategy in dealing with the pandemic?

Scott mentions that his customers understand that delays were inevitable during this unprecedented time, and people just want to know it’s happening. Scott provided consistent communication and transparency through his social media platforms and email. During the Kickstarter campaign, Scott was giving updates every four to seven days, but when things were getting held up, Scott took the approach to update his customer base once a month. Scott notes it’s difficult to give an update when there’s nothing to report, but it’s necessary and the customers deserve it.

Recently, Scott held a party at a local bar to raise additional money and eat some spicy foods.

Current Update

As an update, the first shipment of Bayou Gotham Hot Sauce was made available in September 2020. The crate that went to your humble host, Nicholas Daniel-Richards, was promptly devoured with more on the way. Thanks for listening to Episode 1 of Objects! With ShipHero, see you next time!

How About You?

Do you have an idea that’s been gnawing at you? You are living in an era that is full of ways to convert that idea into a viable business. The reality is there’s no magical five step program, and we’re all making this up. However, there’s lots of tools, resources, and fantastically passionate and smart people that we can all learn from who are building all sorts of new brands and yes, ShipHero gets to do the shipping.

If you have an object that you want to profile, please send a note to John Wakim at pitch@shiphero.com - we’re always on the lookout for a new object to cover. For more info, episode details, and links to the stuff we discuss, visit https://shiphero.com/podcast.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

The Objects! With ShipHero podcast is brought to you by ShipHero, the leader in ecommerce order fulfillment services.