Don’t Fret Freight and Logistics: Scale Smarter, Faster in 2022
8fig’s Scale Smarter, Faster in 2022 webinar series prepares eCommerce sellers to rise above the noise with the tools, insights, partners, and resources they need to scale their businesses and reach the next stage of growth.
The third webinar in our Scale Smarter, Faster in 2022 series addresses the challenges of freight and logistics when striving to scale your business.
We discuss this topic with experienced eCommerce veterans Liran Hirschkorn, founder and CEO of Incrementum Digital, Esther Kestenbaum Prozan, CRO at Flowspace, and Burak Yolga, co-founder of Forceget Digital Freight Forwarder.
Our panel begins the webinar with an analysis of the current status of the supply chain. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us a great deal about the supply chain, and one of the main things we have had to come to terms with is the fact that it is very brittle and fragile. The value of resilience and flexibility have recently become quite clear in the push for a strong supply chain.
Sellers now have to focus on optimizing their operations and making sure they have a contingency plan in place in case something goes wrong. Many businesses partnered with a 3PL for the first time as sellers quickly learned that without a sound shipping process and healthy inventory, the rest of the business doesn’t matter so much. After learning from past mistakes, many businesses have now developed stronger, more resilient supply chains.
Our experts then dive into the importance of optimizing freight and 3PLs. Customers have certain expectations when it comes to shipping speeds and delivery, and those conditions must be met in order to attract and retain customers. If you break those promises, it can severely harm your business. Finding the areas that can be streamlined and putting a trustworthy system in place can make a huge difference. It’s also crucial to be aware and know what’s going on in the space in order to make better decisions.
We find out which questions are important to ask when interviewing freight forwarding companies, 3PLs, and other partners, and the benefit of doing such research yourself instead of leaving it to Amazon or Shopify. Each seller has different needs, so it’s always a good idea to understand what your priorities are and choose the partners that work best for your product.
All members of our panel agree that flexibility is crucial, and if your partners should be constantly optimizing and adjusting based on the changes in the space. The experts advise looking at the entire supply chain and not getting stuck on sourcing and marketing.
Insurance is another investment to consider, and Burak, Liran, and Esther share their thoughts and advice on this important topic. Burak also shares a tip that many people have never considered before: inspect empty containers before loading.
They address the challenge of staying on top of all of the various parts of the supply chain and different supplier costs, mentioning the fact that 8fig has some innovative free planning tools that can help with this as well.
Finally, each expert gives their take on which trends sellers should think about in 2022. Among other suggestions, Esther recommends looking at successes and failures from 2020 and 2021 and setting benchmarks for 2022. Burak discusses finding new partners that are best suited to the current supply chain climate, and the fact that each company has different needs so there is no one best solution. From the importance of having a Plan B and Plan C to the benefits and challenges of finding new suppliers outside of China, the panel covers a lot of points to consider in 2022.