Supply chain issues were well documented in 2021. The most famous - and literal - example of a supply chain bottleneck was the Suez Canal blockage in March. It was the inspiration for millions of memes. Even a Wikipedia page was created in dedication to the event.
While the freight vessel was ultimately dislodged and the canal cleared, some lingering issues from 2021 still persist.
A few buzz words have emerged from all of the global supply chain problems from the past 18+ months: Visibility & Agility.
Having more control over your shipping costs now puts your business at a distinct advantage over your competition, regardless of the industry you’re in or your business model.
How can visibility and agility give my business a competitive advantage?
Knowing exactly how and what impacts your shipping costs (visibility) and having the ability to shift strategies to avoid major issues or bottlenecks (agility) can save your company money AND the customer relationships you’ve worked so hard to establish.
As the quote goes: “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair.” The same is certainly true for the perception your customers have of you. It’s an unfair reality for many businesses that rely on UPS, FedEx or other carriers: when a package arrives late or takes longer than expected to be delivered, nobody ever blames the carrier. They blame you. Which means the carrier’s problems are yours too. That’s why it’s important to hold your carrier accountable for their performance.
Once your customer has an unfavorable experience, they may never come back. But some of the prevalent shipping issues can be avoided entirely.
In a recent article posted on Retail Dive, supply chain/shipping visibility was labeled as “the holy grail” and “an area where retailers are investing.” See the rest of the article here.
Supply chain issues that plagued retailers in 2021 haven’t gone away. The most commonly held prediction is that the same issues will persist well into 2022 and beyond.
While you may not be able to control all aspects of your business’s supply chain, you can extract potent information from your historical shipping spend. And you can do it for free. Once you’re equipped with better information, you’ll be able to save on shipping costs - despite recent carrier rate increases.
You can't rely on your carrier to provide you with the information that you need. Your carrier deliberately limits your visibility because that's how they maximize their profits. That's the reason why so many UPS and FedEx customers feel "boxed in."
A problem can’t be solved until it’s identified.
One of the most common issues amongst businesses that ship is the inability to identify what is causing their shipping costs to be so high. Sometimes, there’s a carrier issue at play, but not always. There are a number of ways businesses can reduce their shipping costs by making operational tweaks. The packaging used, the way shipping options are presented on the website, the software used or methodology for storing and tracking customer addresses, the type of service level used and much more can all be controlled by you. It can also have an immediate impact on what you pay for shipping.
The Lojistic platform is always free to use, which allows businesses to quantify their actual cost savings opportunity. That’s why we always say No Cost. No Catch. No Obligation. We’re on a mission to help 50,000 U.S.-based businesses control and reduce shipping costs. We believe everyone should pay a fair shipping rate and not be manipulated by a powerful oligopoly.
How does Lojistic support shippers?
Lojistic supports shippers by providing visibility into their shipping costs. Lojistic automatically distills complex, confusing and dense raw shipping data into analytics. With Lojistic, you will be able to easily understand what’s driving your shipping costs. You’ll get the information you need to be agile in a constantly evolving marketplace.
How do I get visibility into my shipping spend?
Start by creating a Lojistic account. Lojistic is free. Forever. In order to reach our mission to support shippers, we give away our technology with no strings attached.
Thousands of businesses use the Lojistic platform to implement a fully DIY approach to shipping cost savings. We love that.
Other businesses see their cost reduction opportunities, but don’t have the people in place internally to procure those savings on their own - so they turn to our team of experts to help them realize their savings. Our team can serve as an extension of yours when you enlist our fee-based-solutions.
Any time someone is interested in lowering their shipping costs (as an employee or owner of the business) we recommend that they connect their existing carrier accounts to the Lojistic platform. This way, they’re able to see their actual analytics and opportunity to save. We don’t speculate on how much you can save like others. Lojistic uses your actual information to create a shipping profile. If there’s something interesting to you and you’d like to know more about how you can save, then we’re happy to chat.
A typical Lojistic user experience happens when a shipper creates a free Lojistic account. Shortly after their historical carrier data is processed, their Lojistic account is populated with cost savings analytics. However, some times a prospective platform user will want to talk to someone on the team when they're creating an account - that's great! We make it easy.
Prior to meeting with anyone at Lojistic, you’d get something like this:
If you prefer the DIY approach OR you want someone to talk to, we can support your needs.
How else is the Lojistic process different?
Others might ask you to “send your data” so they can conduct an analysis. That’s just work for you. We’d never ask you to “send your data” because the Lojistic platform does the analysis for you. Try getting all of your shipping data into an excel file….it’s not easy. By the time you even meet for your “analysis” you’d already have spent hours. With Lojistic, it takes less than a minute to get the information required for an actionable conversation to take place.
We will never force you to meet with us to discuss your analysis. Others offer a “free analysis” but really, they’re holding your data hostage until you agree to one of their pay-to-play services.
With Lojistic, if you see some cost savings opportunities that you’d like to talk about, or you have some questions on how else you’re able to save on shipping - we can talk. But the big difference with Lojistic is that the choice is yours. It’s your shipping data in the platform. You have all of the access and visibility that you need to make informed decisions. We can certainly help you procure all of your potential savings, but we’ll never hold your data hostage in an attempt to sell you on one of our solutions. We want you to see your savings opportunity for yourself before you consider the best solution.
What if I’m already using another audit technology?
Great! We love it when someone compares their existing auditor with Lojistic. There has NEVER been an instance that Lojistic hasn’t been able to identify additional cost savings beyond what an incumbent auditor was able to find.
Why does Lojistic find MORE savings opportunities than carrier invoice auditors?
Lojistic is much more than an auditor. Audit is just a single feature that’s layered into many other cost savings tools and analytics. Others are just “one-trick-ponies” and their technology is created to JUST audit for invoice errors and late shipments. While they may be sufficient at finding invoice errors - that’s all they can do. So if you’re using an audit technology for your carrier invoices, you’re missing out on big savings opportunities.
What is your shipping cost outlook for 2022?
If you’re unsure about your level of visibility into your shipping spend, create a free Lojistic account. Lojistic will help you carve out a competitive edge against your competition. With the money you save by reducing your shipping costs, you’ll be able to make investments in other areas of your business.
Get a better understanding of what’s causing your UPS, FedEx (or other carrier) prices to be so high.
Despite recent rate increases and global supply chain issues, your shipping costs can be reduced. What happens when you create a Lojistic account? This:
