​Part of Hunter Hartman's job as an eCommerce Shipping Consultant for Move Method is to bring value to customers based on his knowledge in the shipping world. In the three years of experience working for Move Method, Hunter Hartman has spent quite a bit of time in warehouses seeing how customers fulfill their orders. While there are some warehouses that are superior in terms of automation and work flow, nearly every warehouse Hunter walks in to presents an opportunity to save money. 

The areas of opportunity to save money are mostly found in two ways. First is the pricing spent on freight. This doesn't necessarily mean Less Than Truckload (LTL) or Full Truckload freight pricing but rather any kind of shipping rates that are used to move products out of the warehouse. This could include FedEx, UPS, USPS, OnTrac, DHL, TNT and others. Within the first fifteen minutes of a meeting at a warehouse, Hunter Hartman can typically assess a few skewed ways of retailers shipping their small parcels. For example, Hunter may look at the FedEx bill where a customer believes they're paying $10 for a package and see that every third or fourth package has a Delivery Area Surcharge (DAS) fee attached to it. Shipping this package with a different carrier, or minimizing the DAS fee by shipping with a different service level can save upwards of $10 a package.

The second area of prospective savings is in automation. Automation can be done via shipping software or it can be done by maximizing production out of one of the most expensive areas of doing business, the workforce. Recently Hunter was in a warehouse with a product called CASI whose value proposition is 'Intelligent automation for order fulfillment.' CASI eliminates the number of work force needed to fulfill orders by capturing the dimensions, using robotic solutions, checking weight systems in play, and barcoding/labeling the package, among other things. CASI is costly and likely out of play for small to medium sized customers but the long-term return on investment can be seen for larger retailers. 

As has been discussed previously on this blog, Hunter Hartman has been able to bring Shipping Software to larger customers that have triggered tremendous savings of time and errors. The preferred software Hunter Hartman provides his customer is ShipSource. ShipSource has an API that a retailer can customize to optimize rate-shopping but it also has a user interface (UI) which separates itself from it's competitors. The product of ShipSource is entitled ShipLinx. Within thirty for forty five minutes, Hunter Hartman has had the ability to consult companies to a point that will return tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. 

If you are looking for an opportunity to save money via automation or your current rate spend, please do not hesitate to reach out to Hunter Hartman or Move Method. 

Hunter Hartman is an eCommerce consultant for Move Method and is based in Ladera Ranch, CA. His focus is on small-to-large eCommerce companies that are shipping business-to-consumer. Through his shipping expertise he has helped hundreds of companies save money shipping small parcels and helped to integrate a more automated solution. For more information and a free consultation, please contact Hunter Hartman or  visit www.MoveMethod.com.

I posted this article below to my LinkedIn account Hunter Hartman LinkedIn . I want to make sure that I am bringing value to my readers here on the blog. As an eCommerce Shipping Consultant it is important to be able to bring content on what is going on in the industry. eCommerce is a constantly changing beast. You will think you have it figured out and then you will have another issue with technology, small parcel carrier or the ability to make money with the way the business is changing. This is why I think it is important to always stay on top of the industry and learning as much as possible. 

For those of us that remember video cassettes, life before streaming content online and Amazon Prime's two day shipping, it may be hard to consider how far the eCommerce world has come. Remember when Sports Authority and Sports Chalet were running the sports industry? Or when Office Max and Office Depot was the go to place to get stationary, paper and ink cartridges? Well, those days are gone and new days will continue to evolve. By 2019, the domestic eCommerce market could grow to as much as $535 billion. This is up from $330 billion last year in 2015. Meaning, with Sports Chalet going out of business and Sports Authority going into bankruptcy in recent months, this all happened with the eCommerce market at $330 billion. What is going to happen when this market goes to north of a trillion dollars That is a scary thought! 

Sports Authority was once titled as America's largest sporting-goods chain. It is now in bankruptcy with $1.1 billion in debt and declining sales, largely due to eCommerce. People are still buying plenty of sporting equipment, but they are buying it online and paying less without the middle man involved. Sports Chalet, a regional sporting store located in Nevada, California and Arizona announced last weekend it will be closing all of it's forty seven stores. This business has to go somewhere, the question is where? 

The issue lies in the fact that internet sales have increased competition amongst the big brick and mortar retailers that have significantly higher overhead costs. The other advantage to online companies is some of their out of state customers do not have to pay sales tax on their purchases if they do not have a presence in the others state. Back in 2009, the estimate of 10 percent of all sporting good purchases were made online according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Five years later in 2014, the number jumped to a 14 percent. Another issue that is hitting brick and mortars hard is customers are taking advantage of seeing and trying the product in their show room and then going home and purchasing it online at a cheaper price. (This is something that hurt Borders and is now hurting Barnes and Noble in the book arena.) People are still buying sporting equipment. In 2003, total spending was $45.8 billion but that rose to over $63 billion in 2014. 

What do we learn from Sports Authority and Sports Chalet? The industry is going to continue to change and online presence will continue to eat at the margins and revenue until we see a drastic innovation from the brick and mortars. 

Information regarding this post comes from The Press Enterprise "Who fills the gap by Sports Chalet?"
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Hunter Hartman is an eCommerce consultant for Move Method and is based in Ladera Ranch, CA. His focus is on small-to-large eCommerce companies that are shipping business-to-consumer. Through his shipping expertise he has helped hundreds of companies save money shipping small parcels and helped to integrate a more automated solution. For more information and a free consultation, please visit us at www.MoveMethod.com.

If you're looking for an enterprise shipping software that has the ability to do a live rate shop between carriers FedEx, UPS and the post office, this software is for you. ShipSource.com will allow you to customize your inefficiencies and eliminate costly mistakes and shipping errors. In the world of eCommerce, shipping mistakes can make a company go out of business. Address mistakes, DAS fees, fuel surcharges and dimensional charges will suddenly turn that package you expected to pay $7 for is not $18 and has entirely removed your margin. This software will allow customers to take advantage of many features you simply can't find anywhere else at it's price point. As an enterprise software, you will be able to take advantage of software that typically runs customers $30,000+ but is subsidized dramatically with the Move Method integration. 

As an automated multi-carrier shipping solution, ShipSource will allow your company to grow and scale and never outgrow its integrations. As I go warehouse to warehouse meeting with new clients and customers, I have noticed they are terrific at marketing and SELLING their product. Where they struggle typically is in fulfillment and delivery. Many times the areas of fulfillment they struggle with is technology. They have built a band-aid solution that will slow down their warehouse and create mistakes that occur frequently. The beauty of ShipLinx by ShipSource is it will handle the automations to make sure your operations are as clean and easy as possible.  
 
Take a look at the slides below that will show you some of the features you will receive when using ShipLinx by ShipSource. Please let me know if you need a free consultation about shipping least cost routing or enterprise software
 
Hunter Hartman is an eCommerce Shipping Consultant for Move Method and is based in Orange County, CA. His focus is on small-to-large eCommerce companies that are shipping business-to-consumer. Through his shipping expertise he has helped hundreds of companies save money shipping small parcels and helped to integrate a more automated solution. For more information and a free consultation, email Hunter Hartman at [email protected]

USPS Rates are changing on Sunday January, 17th for the USPS. It is quite a jump from where rates have been for the past 3 years. USPS is expected to raise rates from 9-10% in most areas. Compare that to FedEx and UPS which will raise their rates 4-5% and you're not that much of a jump considering USPS hasn't raised rates in 3 years. First Class rates in some areas are going down, especially in the higher weights (13-15.99 ounces). You can see additional information about USPS rates changing at this link USPS 2016 RATE CHANGES . You can also see additional information with the rates images below. 

Thanks for checking out my blog. 

Hunter Hartman
MoveMethod.com 
Ladera Ranch, CA 


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As the eCommerce world continues to grow and more and more consumers order their Holiday gifts online the question arises, how do retailers gain a competitive advantage? Last year the competitive advantage was offering free shipping. This year, free shipping is a necessity for retailers or they will be at a significant disadvantage. BlackFriday.com reports that Target is going to offer free shipping with no minimum in an attempt to gain more of market share. They did this same practice a year ago as they try to compete with Amazon and Walmart. BestBuy.com is also going to offer free shipping with no minimums this holiday season. Last year they required buyers to spend $35 minimums, showing the market continues to get more and more competitive online. 
With BestBuy and Target offering free shipping with no minimums, the question is what will Walmart and Amazon do? These two monsters in the eCommerce world have yet to offer free shipping with no minimums. Amazon offers it's Prime Members free shipping on all products but last year required free shipping over $35 for non prime members and I don't expect that to change this year. Walmart last year offered free shipping over $50, putting them at the most expensive of the big four online retailers. 
As consumers continue to order more volume online over the holiday season, the big retailers are going to need to look for advantages to utilizing their services.  What is the next approach this year as a competitive advantage? 
Free Returns? 
“While Target has not yet made an official announcement, it appears as though they will indeed offer free shipping and returns from November 1 through December 25 for every single order, regardless of the amount,” BestBlackFriday.com wrote in a post. “This includes standard shipping to 48 (excludes Alaska and Hawaii) states and it may exclude oversized items.” Returns may be another advantage for these big retailers. Amazon Prime members get free returns on most items now. 
Don't Sleep on Jet.com
Another player in the marketplace is Jet.com. Jet's pricing has been tremendous and is less expensive than Amazon but the speed of delivery has been poor and they have had kinks along the way. They are working hard to gain more customers with their strong google advertising. 
AdGooroo, a search marketing firm, found Jet.com led the pack among retailers hustling for clicks, from the top 2,892 Halloween costume-related keywords the firm tracked in August and September with 17.4 percent PLA click share. The start-up has managed to increase its click share on those keywords to 19.4 percent between October 1 and 23. Pretty impressive for a company that launched in July. They're likely here to stay and be a big player. 

Our goal at Move Method is to make sure customers are being as cost effective as possible when shipping. We have the ability to give our customers the best in the industry USPS rates, but we also look for other areas in the warehouse to improve the shipping process. I have spent a lot of time in warehouses when customers use Flat Rate Envelopes/Boxes and Regional A Boxes. This is a convenient way of shipping because it requires little thought on which box to utilize. It is easier for pick and pack and for batching processing but is it the most cost effective way to ship? The answer varies.

The benefits to Flat Rate Envelopes/Boxes and Regional A boxes are listed below.

• Free Packaging: The only way to take advantage of Flat Rate or Regional A Boxes is by utilizing the packaging provided by the USPS. Avoiding the cost of a box or an envelope is a nice benefit.
• It is a mindless way of shipping. If everything is put into a Flat Rate or Regional Box, the shipping team will never have to consider other options and waste time.
• Like all USPS Priority Mail products, it has the same 1-3 day delivery speed and has the same insurance benefit.
• A customer is allowed to put 15 pounds into a Flat Rate Envelope or Regional Box and pay one ‘Flat Rate’. I have seen many customers that were getting hammered with UPS or FedEx take advantage of Flat Rate boxes and save tremendous amount of money.

The negatives to Flat Rate Envelopes/Boxes and Regional A Boxes are listed below.

• Some companies do not like to utilize the free boxes from USPS but rather brand their boxes/envelopes in an effort to strengthen their brand awareness.
• When a company is shipping everything in a Flat Rate or Regional A box, there likely is a significant opportunity missed to ship the product as 'cubic’ with a tremendous savings.
• The assumption that because it is a ‘Flat Rate’ box or Regional Box it must be the least expensive way, is simply not true.
• Regional A Box pricing is reflective of a 2-pound rate for Commercial Base Pricing.

When does it make sense to use Flat Rate Envelopes/Boxes and Regional A?

When customers partner with Move Method, they get the best in the industry USPS rates by receiving Commercial Plus Pricing (CPP) as well as Cubic Pricing. The cost for a Padded Flat Rate Envelope with Move Method’s pricing is $5.35 and a Medium Flat Rate Box is $10.65.

I have some customers that exclusively use Padded Flat Rate Envelopes because of the cost. It is hard to beat the price, speed and free supplies for Padded Flat Rate Envelopes. However, I have customers that also utilize the Medium Flat Rate Box far too often. With the recent rate changes implemented by the USPS, zones 1-5 should not be shipped in a Medium Flat Rate Box to nearly 10 pounds. It will be less expensive to put the product in box and ship it weight based.

There are many ways to utilize the Flat Rate and Regional boxes within the USPS. Move Method has many eCommerce Shipping Consultants that can help you analyze your shipping patterns and find you best practices to meet your needs. One of the many areas we have helped customers save money is by limiting the amount of Flat Rate and Regional A boxes a customer uses and using more Cubic Pricing. Please reach out to me for a complimentary analysis. You may be pleasantly surprised with the results and the savings.

BY: HUNTER HARTMAN

Have you ever added something to a shopping cart at an eCommerce platform website and abandoned the cart when you saw the exuberant shipping cost? If your answer is yes, you’re not alone. This is a reoccurring question for eCommerce merchants, Should I offer free shipping? Perhaps after a certain threshold? I recently had a conversation with a client that was offering her customers an API to FedEx and USPS to choose a carrier they preferred. When I asked her what her abandoned carts percentage was, her response was simply, “Very High.”

Studies have shown time and time again that adult shoppers will add items to their shopping carts in order to satisfy the free shipping threshold. As price repeatedly has been a top consideration for consumers, merchants are looking for new ways to display shipping promotions to earn the business.

When I spoke with this customer of mine, I asked her if she had considered ‘Free Shipping’ after a certain threshold. She said she would rather sell the product and lose some money in shipping than not sell the product at all. I recommended she make a business decision on what she could offer free shipping at and try it out to see if her business would grow. I did warn her however; that once she offered Free Shipping- there likely was no going back without losing customers.

I warn my customers before going directly into free shipping to consider the following.

·      Offer shipping after a certain threshold. If you offer Free Shipping altogether, you will notice your order value go down.

·      Some products do not require free shipping due to their niche or value. Consumers may be more influenced by discounts than Free Shipping with these products. You must understand your consumers.

·      Remind customers they are saving money on their shipping cost. One of the most basic economic concepts is there is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone has to pay for shipping, whether it is the merchant or the consumer.

·      Build the price of shipping into the price of the product. You may be surprised to see consumers will be willing to pay more for a product if it has free shipping, even if they would’ve paid for shipping and it would have been less expensive.

Other areas to improve shipping consumer relations are detailed below.

·      Present the shipping time frames that it should take to get to the customer. Setting the expectations accordingly will make customers happier, even if it’s a slower delivery.

·      Some customers are happy to pay a nominal fee to get the product faster. This is an opportunity to give “Express Shipping” for an upgraded shipping cost. Depending on the merchant, this may be another area of profit as many times Express Shipping costs more than it does to the merchant to ship out.

Finally, to create the most value for each consumers experience on your eCommerce site, merchants need to know when to expect the package. Consumers should receive a tracking update from their shipping software with an expected delivery time. This should limit the customer service calls and give the consumer a great overall experience.

Hunter Hartman is an eCommerce consultant for Move Method and is based in Orange County, CA. His focus is on small-to-large eCommerce companies that are shipping business-to-consumer. Through his shipping expertise he has helped hundreds of companies save money shipping small parcels and helped to integrate a more automated solution.

For those of you that are in eCommerce and have not heart of the 800 pound gorilla also known as IRCE that is held at McCormick every year you have now been told. It is a fascinating trade show with people all across the industry that come to present their solutions and value to consumers from all over the world. 

This even happened this year the first week in June. Some of the leading speakers come from 1800 Flowers.com, Amazon, LovelySkin, and more. Move Method had a booth this year as you can see in the picture. If you are selling products online and looking for the best in the business products, IRCE is a must. It is the best show of the year and gets better annually. Let me know if you have any questions regarding it. 

Cheers,

Hunter Hartman 

By: Hunter Hartman 

Recently, Shopify filed an IPO for in the US and Canada. They're hoping to raise $100 million dollars and the valuation is expected to come at $1 BILLION dollars. If you'er around eCommerce you're very familiar with Shopify as they are one of the leaders in the shopping cart market. The reason I have found my customers use Shopify is it is very easy to set up a nice shopping cart with limited experience in coding. As of late March 2015, there are 162,261 customers currently using Shopify's platform. Think about how that for a minute! As the baby boomers continue to age out of the market and the younger generations get into the work force, we're going to have more and more business happening online. 

This is going to create new opportunities as the market changes. Where will Brick and Mortar stores be in 5 years or 15 years? Is it possible they turn into fulfillment centers for bigger retailers for same day or two hour delivery? Imagine that. What if there was a UPS/FedEx or USPS truck sitting at your local mall and when you ordered something online it was taken to the local truck and delivered to your house with 2 hours? 


eCommerce is going to continue to change the market of shopping online and in retail and seeing Shopify expected to be valued at $1 Billion dollar shows there is a ton of opportunity in the space.