Never has such a bright spotlight been shone on the supply chain as a vital strategic component of business success. The industry is undergoing significant transformation across several key areas, from digitalization to sustainability and building resiliency.

Sitting down with John Wharff, Senior Sales Engineering Manager at EasyPost, we walk through five critical aspects that organizations must focus on addressing, solving, and optimizing to futureproof their supply chain strategies in 2024 and beyond.

1. Sustainability: Sustainability is no longer a competitive advantage, but an expectation. So, how can companies most successfully embrace sustainable supply chain practices?

2. Returns: According to the National Retail Federation, returns for 2023 totaled 743 billion. So, how can companies make the returns process more efficient and cost effective?

3. Reliability: How can we best improve the performance and reliability of our supply chains, and what performance standards and metrics are both realistic and achievable?

4. Data: How we can access, translate, and use data, not just for better visibility, but to also empower teams with the ability to make more informed decisions?

5. Omnichannel: How important is omnichannel fulfilment, and how can approaches be optimized to cut costs, improve the customer experience, and improve operational understanding?

Check out the full conversation with John Wharff for insight into each of these trends and more as we uncover the key blind spots, challenges, innovations, and opportunities.

Intro/Outro (00:03):

Welcome to Supply Chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from Those Making Global Business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:32):

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and Mary Kate, love with you here on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Mary Kate, how you doing?

Mary Kate Love (00:42):

Hey, doing great, Scott. Great to be here.

Scott Luton (00:45):

Wonderful to have you back. I tell you, we had a great pre-show conversation. We should have started 30 minutes early talking pizza and movies and woodworking. But hey today, Mary Kate for the show. Great show. We’re going to be dialing in on the wild world of shipping and logistics, diving into a variety of topics and offering as always, actionable insights on things like sustainability, returns, management, the power, the sheer, immense power of big data when it’s effectively leveraged and a whole lot more. Mary Kate should be a great show, huh?

Mary Kate Love (01:17):

Great show. I love these topics too because we experience them in our business, but also as a consumer too. So I kind of put on two different hats when I’m thinking about these topics.

Scott Luton (01:27):

Yes, I like that. Well said. Great show. So folks, before we get started and bring on our esteemed panelists here today, two last reminders. First off, let us know what you think, share your comments throughout this live discussion. We’ll be sharing those throughout the discussion. And of course, if you enjoy today’s show and I hope you will be sure to share it with a friend or your network. They’ll be grateful that you did. Okay, Mary Kate, you ready to jump in?

Mary Kate Love (01:52):

I’m ready.

Scott Luton (01:53):

Alright. Going to get to work and welcome in. Our feature guest here today, John Wharf, senior manager, sales engineering with EasyPost. Hey John, how you doing?

John Wharff (02:03):

Great. How are you guys?

Scott Luton (02:04):

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Mary Kate. We had a great time with John and Preshow. We should have released that as a podcast. We have,

Mary Kate Love (02:11):

Once again, we’re talking about pizza. We always are talking about pizza.

Scott Luton (02:16):

Well, thank you for teeing me up, Mary Kay. That’s a great segue into this fun warmup question where we want to start with the one and only John Wharf. Folks, it is national Gumdrop day. You may have to look that up. Kind of think Juju fruits from the Seinfeld episode back in the nineties. It’s pancake week and it’s jello week. Quite a random collection of food. There are parades everywhere, I’m assuming, celebrating those treats. So I want to ask you this, John and Mary Kate, name your favorite, lots of flexibility today. Name your favorite candy, breakfast or dessert item, John.

John Wharff (02:52):

Yeah, so I’m going to go breakfast because I’m a monster and I don’t like candy or dessert.

Mary Kate Love (02:57):

Oh my gosh.

John Wharff (02:58):

So I am a huge enjoyer of biscuits and gravy. I think they are the best ever. There is a small diner in a tiny town down south in Utah called Marys Vale, and they have a diner that does southwest biscuits and gravy. Okay. Like spicy peppers in the gravy, it’ll change your life.

Scott Luton (03:16):

Marysville, Utah, is that right?

John Wharff (03:17):

Yep. Marys Vale. Yep.

Scott Luton (03:19):

Marys Veil. Sorry. And I know you said spicy. How about Tabasco owned that B and g. Oh,

John Wharff (03:24):

Absolutely. Yeah, you’ve got to add something to it. Give it a little kick.

Scott Luton (03:27):

Absolutely. Okay, Mary Kate, John just made me absolutely starving. I might have to step out here in a second. I love biscuits and gravy. Mary Kate, how about you we’re talking your favorite candy, breakfast, or dessert item?

Mary Kate Love (03:39):

So I’m going to go with also a small place by me here in Chicago on the south side called WO Joe’s. And I get a very specific shake from there. They have, I forget how many different flavors, but it’s one of those places that boast a hundred flavors and I get chocolate peanut butter and hot fudge all mixed together and just that combination is truly the best. So wo Jos in Chicago, south side is a must if you ever visit.

Scott Luton (04:07):

Alright folks, wo Jos in Chicago. What’s the name of the restaurant in Mary’s veil? John?

John Wharff (04:13):

It is the Prospector Cafe.

Scott Luton (04:16):

The Prospector Cafe. Great. That’s an

Mary Kate Love (04:18):

Awesome name.

Scott Luton (04:19):

I’m going to go with the most boring answer here today, Mary, Kate and John, because y’all know me. I’m a big patty melt enthusiast at the one and only Waffle House. I could eat them anytime of day. It doesn’t really sink up with my diet as we begin the year, but hey, we’ll splurge occasionally here and there. Alright, before we get going here, I want to say Claudia, speaking of Chicago, one of our favorite Chicago based leaders. Claudia, great to see you here today for your perspective. And again, we want to invite our audience there. Let us know what you think as we work our way through a variety of interesting topics, showcasing John and Mary Kate and a little bit of my expertise throughout the next hour. Okay, so John, context is really important around here, right? As we get into these big discussions, I think having folks, giving them the ability to kind of see the world through your lens and kind of better process what you’re going to be sharing. Let’s start, let’s double down on some context. So John, tell us briefly what EasyPost does and your role there.

John Wharff (05:18):

Yeah, absolutely. So EasyPost is kind of a one-stop shop for all of your shipping needs. We break it down into everything you need before you make a label. Everything you need to rate, shop, generate a label, and then everything that may come into play a post-purchase, everything from really, really small businesses up to the really, really big enterprise guys. And we try to consult and be a good partner and help them to make really, really good decisions. My role here is on the sales engineering side. So I get on all new prospect calls to help people really understand what products we have, how they can leverage our technology to really improve the processes that they’ve already got.

Scott Luton (05:54):

Love that. Mary Kate, what I heard there is John and their team, big time supply chain problem solvers taking friction out of the world and making things easier to create revenue and build relationships and deliver value to the market. What’d you hear there, Mary Kay?

Mary Kate Love (06:11):

Yeah, I love that because I think as the supply chain becomes more and more top of mind for people, there’s more and more problems to solve and you can’t do it on your own. So partnering with a company, EasyPost seems like such a great setup.

Scott Luton (06:27):

I’m with you, I’m with you. And they even have easy in the name. I bet you’ll have a lot of fun with that, John, all

John Wharff (06:31):

The time.

Scott Luton (06:32):

Yeah. Okay. So as we continue offering a little more context here, and I think this is going to be a good one, especially as what you shared y’all do and where you spend your time when it comes to global supply chain, what are some of the areas that you’re seeing companies and their leadership focus more on in 2024 and beyond?

John Wharff (06:50):

Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the big ones is that just in logistics in general, there’s always a mountain of data, but a lot of people don’t know what to do with that data and how to make decisions based off of that. Another thing, kind of a hidden dirty secret that has always been in the logistics industry is the returns process and how difficult it can be and how you can lose an entire customer base if you don’t have a really good process for handling returns, uptime and reliability. I know that Covid really shook the world and there was a lot of pivoting at the last minute to try to get boxes out the door knowing that you can do it, that you’re not losing money minute after minute, everyone’s switching to omnichannel. I need to get stuff from a store to my warehouse, from my warehouse to my store, from the warehouse to the consumer, everything else. And then I think one of the biggest topics of 2024 and moving forward is going to be sustainability. How can we be responsible partners to the globe in what we’re doing each and every day?

Scott Luton (07:45):

Man, and folks, you’re in luck. We’re going to be talking a lot about where these leaders are prioritizing, spending resources, investing and what the market is expecting, what customers are expecting that. John touched on there, Mary, Kate, any of those single one-off items. John gave us a list. What sticks out the most there to you

Mary Kate Love (08:05):

Immediately? Resiliency, right? Just as you said, John, I think after Covid, everyone, every single business has said, wow, we can’t take anything for granted. We have to bring in new technology. Maybe we have to reshore or relocate some of our process in order to be really resilient. And then as a consumer, you talked about the returns process and I’m nodding along because I’m thinking, geez, I really will only shop places where the returns process is easy and quite frankly free for me. So I think I’m kind of the expert in consumer online shopping if we need to go down that route all.

Scott Luton (08:43):

Hey John, it’s great to have SMEs wherever they may be on these conversations. Alright, Jana talks about sustainability, huge focus for this year. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think it’s been, it’s like a crescendo of focus. It started back a couple years. It continues growing and growing, which I think is a great thing for industry. Maybe we’ll touch on what European Union passed here recently that’s going to continue moving the needle. And Claudia, I think you said this, John partners to the globe. Love that. I do two, Claudia, I do two. First T-shirt is there, John Warren. Alright. And speaking, you mentioned back in your answer mountain of data and we should just level set with folks as John shared with us in the green room. He’s based right now, he’s sitting in Utah and he’s got the Wasatch Mountains out the window. I bet that brings some serenity to the conversation. Always doesn’t. It

John Wharff (09:35):

Does. There is a benefit to living in a truly beautiful place and when you just need a minute, you can just look out your window and let it carry you away.

Scott Luton (09:44):

I’m jealous. I am jealous. Alright, so let’s talk about struggle and the struggle bus, because supply chain’s not for the faint of heart, global business isn’t for the faint of heart. It comes with plenty of challenges and we got to lean into those challenges and fix ’em and keep on moving. So when it comes to shipping and logistics, John, where do you see you and your team see companies struggling time and time again?

John Wharff (10:07):

Yeah, I think a lot of times ultimately something that I heard a really long time ago that kind of resonated with me is shippers are really only concerned about two things and that’s cost and customer satisfaction. And it’s really, really hard to balance those two things if you don’t know where to start, if you don’t know where your process is failing or what issues you may have with your already existing tech stack. And a lot of times there is this struggle between how do we get stuff out really fast, but how do we make sure we’re not paying too much for what we’re doing? And the only way that you can get better at it is knowing what to look for and knowing what options are there on the market for you to leverage.

Scott Luton (10:47):

Yeah, well said. What we keep in our blind spot that everyone has can be so dangerous and can really hinder us from optimizing performance, optimizing how we solve the problems, how we drive the results, how to use your point, John, in terms of cost and csat, how we can better manage these things because we all, Mary Kate, we all have blind spots. I would argue I got a bigger one than most people. But your thoughts, Mary Kate?

Mary Kate Love (11:18):

Yeah, I think, and even building on what you said in the beginning, John, about this data, so many people are collecting more and more data, but there’s not really an understanding what to do with that data. So thinking about when you’re trying to calculate the cost of a return, you need to have the right data. You need to be able to understand when is it worth it to make this return free or when do we make this, when does the customer consume that cost? So that data is so important.

John Wharff (11:48):

Yeah, I think Mary Kay, that’s a really, really interesting point because one of the things that I say all of the is as a consumer, once again as a shopper, if you’re on a website that’s providing some sort of physical good and they either offer free shipping or free returns, they’ve got something figured out, right? They’re really tightly operating because they understand where those costs are and how to make sure that they’re not going to get underwater by offering free shipping if they can’t afford it,

Mary Kate Love (12:13):

Right? Yeah, that’s a great point. And that is a competitive advantage now when you’re choosing where to shop is their shipping and return policy.

Scott Luton (12:21):

That’s right. Excellent point. And going back to several points being made here, hiring team members that are able to really understand not just how to view the data, but put it to work, working with service providers and partners and suppliers, and you name it all across the ecosystem that know how to do those same things, that’s where we can really have economies of scale and force multipliers to begin to move it at light speed. And we’re going to touch on a lot of that stuff. And for folks that stick around, we’ve got an excellent, excellent event in March that you can take advantage of to help you there. Okay. So John, going back, you mentioned a lot of different areas. We should have an hour for each thing. We really need an hour for each thing, but folks, we’re going to walk through five specific areas that a lot of organizations are trying to address, solve, fix, take advantage of, optimize, you name it. And I want to start with sustainability, John, whether it’s consumers, investors, team members, you name it, sustainability is in demand. I think that’s a good thing. Of course most understand that when sustainability is done right, it also helps the bottom line financially. Your thoughts when it comes to how companies can most successfully embrace sustainable practices, John?

John Wharff (13:38):

Yeah, absolutely. So luckily, as you’ve all alluded to, we’re now in a market that’s hungry for sustainability. So there’s more options now than there ever were before. One of the things that’s really interesting is from the EasyPost point of view, we always have a couple different stakeholders in mind and the two big ones that come up are shippers and consumers. And both of those two pieces really drive a lot of the decisions we make about what to make available on our platform. And we found out really, really quickly that there are historic landmark shippers that have been interested in sustainability for a really long time and they’ve already been playing this game all along. But what we’re starting to see is a huge surge. To your point, Scott, in consumer demand for they want more sustainable options. And one of the big things that we decided to do is after trying to find that balance between shippers and consumers, some shippers would love to offer it, but it’s an additional cost and how do we factor it into our revenue and to what we’re doing?

(14:38):

And what we decided to do is now every single label that’s generated on the EasyPost platform, we are doing it. We are offsetting the carbon for everything and it made the decision for our shippers infinitely easier because no longer are they having to calculate what’s this going to cost me, how do I offset it with product cost or anything else? And it’s been really, really beneficial because we knew consumers wanted it and everybody wants it. It’s a little slower for them to want to pay for it. And we just decided we can see the benefits. Scott, to your point, not only can it in the long run help revenue, but it’s also better for all of us in the long run to be more sustainably focused on what we’re doing. I

Scott Luton (15:19):

Love that It’s good for the entire ecosystem and we got to give to people what they want. John, I love that Mary Kate, what’d you hear there?

Mary Kate Love (15:27):

I love that. That’s genius. It’s the intersection, like you said, of consumers and businesses wanting the same thing. Now they might want it for different reasons or some similar reasons too, but we know that it’s going to be better for both and a concentration on that. I don’t see a single company who’s not focused on sustainability now and it’s because we all want it.

John Wharff (15:49):

Absolutely. It’s better for all of us.

Mary Kate Love (15:51):

Better for all of us. Yeah,

Scott Luton (15:53):

We’re right around the corner. We may already be there. Who knows? I think for a long time it was viewed as a competitive advantage and it still is in some circles, but more and more it isn’t expectation. So I love what you’re doing there, John, when it comes to enabling that out in the market. Okay, want to switch over for the second topic? We’re going to be talking about returns. So according to our friends at the National Retail Federation, hey John and whole gang over there, total returns for 2023, industry wide came in at 743 billion with a B worth of merchandise. So John returns management, I believe is why we have dedicated so much of our platform focused on returns management leadership with our friends at RLA. It doesn’t get enough attention, it really doesn’t, and a lot of folks don’t understand it. So I want to ask you, how can companies make the returns process more efficient and cost effective?

John Wharff (16:48):

Yeah, I think for a really, really long time, returns was almost seen as this cost sync where we don’t really like returns, obviously it means that someone was dissatisfied for either our delivery service or the products that we provide and it was kind of swept under the rug and it was hidden in the closet. It’s something we don’t like talking about, it’s just costing us money in the long run, we’ll figure it out eventually, right? Maybe one day we’ll have a better plan for returns, but the market has certainly shifted and we’re starting to see that not only is once again based on the data that you’re saying is the industry behind returns huge, but the ability to get return customers, the ability to keep people coming through the door, returns is a giant part of that. And your experience as a consumer on trying to return a product to somewhere where you bought it can make or break your loyalty to that brand forevermore.

(17:44):

So it’s really all about understanding the process and then deciding the specific way that you want to tackle returns. Do you want to assume there’s always going to be a return? Do you want to make a way for them to do a return? We have all these cool new services and products. A lot of carriers now offer QR codes because very few of us have printers at home. They’re back, take the box, run it into FedEx, they’ll scan it, make a label and get it out the door. And it seems like it’s not just shippers and the people who are manufacturing goods that are trying to make this process better, but it’s the carriers, it’s the platforms. Everyone understands how important and vital a goods returns ecosystem is to all of our success moving forward.

Scott Luton (18:27):

Yeah, well said John. And one where we can hopefully the law of those goods as they returned, they can make their way right back into the ree economy and be reused. I think more and more folks are purchasing. I know we are here refurbished remanufactured goods, creating new sectors of the economy, growing sectors, big sectors. Alright, so Mary Kate or should I say our chief consumer and shopping officer? You

Mary Kate Love (18:53):

Can definitely say that, yeah.

Scott Luton (18:55):

Alright. And she self-identified that, right? Claudia said return policy as a new competitive advantage. I think that’s something you shared earlier, your thoughts on returns, Mary Kate?

Mary Kate Love (19:04):

Well, number one, I’ve added to that 743 billion number as a consumer for sure. But as John as you were talking, I was thinking about when I make returns, which is often, I love when a company says why are you returning it? And usually if I’m returning clothes, it could be fit, quality wasn’t described. I love that because I know they’re collecting data to then market the product better because they don’t want returns and I don’t like to return either. So I love new technology. There’s that true fit technology where you could say this pair of jeans fits me from this other brand, what size should I get in this brand? That kind of stuff I think is decreasing returns, at least for me and I hope to see more and more of that.

John Wharff (19:50):

I remember the first time I saw one of those sunglasses companies where it takes your webcam and shows you what the sunglasses look like on your face. And to your point, the way that they got that information is so many people returning it saying they’re too small, they’re too narrow to whatever. And instead of seeing that as a huge negative, they took the data and they decided to do something about it and they’ve made a better customer experience as a result.

Mary Kate Love (20:16):

Totally. And I even wonder if it might right size, at least this is in women’s clothing, I don’t know if it’s the same in men’s, but we have this problem where you could be one size in one company in just a completely different size in another company and maybe a store’s or a company’s got away with that. But now that we’re all online, it’s like I just want to know what size stop this marketing of different sizing. It’s just we need to be more uniform. So I always wonder, are we going to get to more uniform sizing across different brands because of this?

John Wharff (20:47):

Yeah. I always ask, what does slim fit mean to you?

Mary Kate Love (20:51):

What does that mean?

Scott Luton (20:52):

Quantify, quantify, quantify. Yeah. Now John, on that sunglass example, I thought for just a second that you’re throwing us back to the infamous blue blockers commercial in the early nineties. And John, you’re laughing, I hope you know what I’m talking about a lot of folks, but you’ll have to Google it. This is one of the greatest infomercials ever. And then more seriously, I’m with you Mary Kate. I hate to return anything. I mean it makes my skin crawl when I have to return anything. So we’ll see. I think this is a fascinating aspect both on the consumer side but also from a practitioner perspective. Alright, speaking of, I think this is Amanda or Catherine says, what I’ve noticed in level on Amazon is in the product listing they’ll add a notification that says frequently returned item and then they give you options for other similar products that have low rates of returns.

(21:41):

Awesome, great call out there. And then Jana, going back to sustainability, the first one that makes a great point, displaying these sustainable efforts is just as important to our customer base and business. Jana. Absolutely. I think modeling the behavior as leaders helps drive conversations and also drive the needle. That’s a great comment there, Jana. Okay, next up our third topic we want to dive into. I was giving you a sneak peek of where we’re headed because when I think of reliability, imagine this, lemme paint this simple picture. For folks that may remember landlines, it might be hard for some folks to remember that. Imagine if our global supply chains were as reliable as getting dial tone when you pick up the phone, John, Mary Kate, every time, every time you pick up that phone without fail just about right. So let’s talk about supply chain reliability for a moment. Big challenge for many organizations. John, you first, what are your thoughts on what performance standards and metrics are achievable and how can we best improve the performance and reliability of our supply chains?

John Wharff (22:48):

Yeah, I think one of our biggest focuses from the very beginning was the idea of a truly multi-carrier environment. And the reason for that is that we all know that carriers have downtime, whether it’s scheduled or unscheduled. And then going back again to the landscape that Covid created, there was a huge influx of e-commerce shippers that hadn’t existed in the years before. Maybe they were historic brick and mortars where you had to go in in order to get service, but with all of the lockdowns, they realized we’re not selling anything. We have to be able to sell stuff online. And a lot of even the major carriers across the US started imposing limits where they’d say, we can only take 70% of what you’ve got today, good luck with the other 30%. And if you were one of those shops where you’ve got one carrier and that’s what you’ve used for the last 20 years because that’s what grandpop used, you’re in a really tough spot right there. But the ability to immediately pivot and use different carriers, different levels, different options that are available to you, all of a sudden that’s no longer a worry because if any of the carriers are down, you can still get boxes out the door. You still have options at your fingertips. I know that we had looked up kind of just rough estimates for these really, really big enterprise shippers and the amount of money that is just being lost for every minute they can’t ship is staggering,

Scott Luton (24:10):

Right? Yeah, it is staggering, staggering. Like Fred g Sanford, when he thought he was about to make the trip to heaven. That’s what I think of whenever I hear the word stagger, but in a bigger sense, John, Mary Kay, I’m coming to you next. He mentioned Grandpop. Did you hear that? Mary Kate? He mentioned Grandpop. It’s so important in the bigger sense. We can’t do business like Grandpop and Meemaw and all those people we love. We can’t do business like that anymore. There’s too big of an opportunity to do it better, right?

Mary Kate Love (24:40):

Yeah. Agree with.

John Wharff (24:41):

I think that that’s really important because it’s not always because people have bad practices or bad processes. It might be that they don’t know what’s available. If you have this process and you’ve done it forever, and yeah, it has its problems, but it works at the end of the day and it can be successful, you might be stuck in that rut and you’re not even looking for what might be available that can help streamline that process.

Scott Luton (25:08):

Excellent point back to that blind spot. In many cases, whether they’re parts of the team or leadership or you name it, wherever they’re in ecosystem, they want to succeed, right? They want to do a great job, but that blind spot, what they don’t know can bite you. To your point, John, it’s important to work with organizations that know how to tap into innovative technology and leadership and can do Mary Kate, you’re going to add.

Mary Kate Love (25:35):

Yeah. So John, as you’re talking and you said the one minute a company is down and not able to ship, I went back to my old life and I thought, oh my God, one minute of downtime and thinking about that part of the supply chain and how do we make manufacturing and operations more reliable and resilient? And a lot of my career was spent in companies that grew by acquisition and there has been a lot of effort to take data across all the different manufacturing locations to start to share not only parts, but also share their line, make sure that we’re more connected so that if we’ve got a place that’s gone down due to weather, that’s okay. Our next location can take it and we can make sure that we’re all sharing, which sounds so simple, but you all know how complicated that is.

Scott Luton (26:25):

I do. Mary Kate, I’m so glad I almost jumped over a question I wanted to pose to John. So thank you for being backing us up here. I want to talk about data because back in the day when big data began to emerge as a term, a lot of organizations spent a ton of money to collect it, but there wasn’t nearly as many very affordable and powerful technologies to use it and drive real outcomes. All that’s changed. So John, there remains plenty though of untapped data in organizations and in their technology systems everywhere. Your thoughts on how we can best access translate and use and leverage that data, not just for better visibility, which is more and more becoming table stakes these days, but even better to help power our teams with the ability to make better and more informed decisions, John?

John Wharff (27:16):

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that this is something that everybody has struggled with because the idea is we all know that we have data, we know which carriers we’re using, we know which service levels we’re doing. We know about the order information. Where’s the origin? Where’s the destination? Which warehouse is it shipping out of or is it not shipping out of warehouse and it’s better to ship it from the store, but the problem is there’s so much data, it’s very easy to become paralyzed and not really know what secrets or what hints are hiding within the data. We really, really early on realized that there’s really no point to offering software and a solution if you can’t also be a partner in consulting and analytics. If I just say, Hey, I’ll ship stuff for you and it’s great, and then here’s a hundred line CS, V about all of your data, good luck.

(28:04):

It’s not that helpful. Instead, people are expecting and they really want to know what are we not seeing? What are we not doing? I’ll give you the tiniest example ever. We had a customer that approached us and just wanted some insight into where delivery was bad, where are we really not performing? And that was the initial goal and we got there almost immediately where we could tell them, Hey, yeah, here are some changes that you can make. But within the data we also noticed that there had to be something wrong with their code because there was a bunch of stuff going out the door that didn’t make sense, it didn’t fit their business model. We were able to identify that they were able to fix it and they were able to save mountains of money on an effort that wasn’t even the exercise. It’s not what we were setting out to do, but it’s just the ability to look at the data and look for those outliers and know what they’re telling you.

Scott Luton (28:56):

Yeah. Well, John and Mary Kate, we should probably started with the ability to powerfully use data because I think it’s not a stretch for organizations that aren’t figured that out yet and their teams and a better decision making and being able to mine all of that data they’ve got at their fingertips. In many cases, you can’t optimize your approach to sustainability. You’re not going to be able to optimize your approach to returns to management. You’re not going to be able to reach that supply chain reliability that we’re talking about earlier, even if you can’t quite get to as reliable as Doone. But hey, if you get almost there, that’s pretty good, Mary Kate, speak to that. You’re just talking about your journey. Some of the powerful eureka moments speak that if you would.

Mary Kate Love (29:41):

Yeah, no, the data is a must, right? Getting the right data, making sure that the data is accurate, like John just said, I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not always the most fun exercise to go through your data to put it all in a data lake, but in order to make these improvements, I’ve never been on any technology project that didn’t start with data, right? It’s an absolute must.

Scott Luton (30:04):

That’s right. That

John Wharff (30:05):

Is right. Yeah. Even speaking outside of our experience, one of the most interesting things that I ever read about is they were talking about the single biggest decrease to auto insurance that the US had ever seen, right? Okay. What caused the single biggest decrease to premiums for auto insurance was your ability to compare one brand against another and it created this ability for it put the power in the consumer seat to say, I’m going to find what’s best for me and pay what I want to pay to get my coverage. That same exercise is true for every industry, including logistics. The more comparison points you have, the better it is for you, the better it is for your customer and everyone else along your entire tech stack, your entire supply chain management system. It’s better for all of us to know what to look for and what actions to perform once we see the data.

Scott Luton (30:58):

Preach, preach, John. I love that man. Who doesn’t want to sit down and grab a beer or a cup of coffee with John and talk shop? This is good stuff. And by the way, Peter Boley all night and all day, great to see you via YouTube. Hope you’re doing well up in Canada. Good people here. So I want to go back to something that must be said. Whenever we say Data lake, that old adage, oftentimes it becomes the data bog. A lot of people say Data swamp, that’s trying to go a little more unique, but that’s why you got to have great people like John and the team at Easy Post to help make this truly easier so you can drive change faster and get results faster. Okay, so let’s talk. We’re getting back closer to the consumer side. One of my favorite things to talk about omnichannel. So John here in 2024, tell us in your view, how important is omnichannel fulfillment and how are you seeing companies truly optimize their approach there?

John Wharff (31:56):

Yeah, I think once again, it’s a slow shift from the old way that things were done into a new approach, into new, better ways to save money, improve customer experience, and to understand what you’re doing a lot better. Back in the day, you had one warehouse, it was located somewhere in the world and that’s where you shipped everything from and it worked. But now there are so many companies that they have multiple warehouses, multiple distribution centers, and they also have storefronts, and then they also may have partners that are storing inventory for them and whatever. And the ability to look at your entire landscape and see what is the best choice to make When a consumer orders something, what’s the closest store to them? Do they have it in stock? Let’s ship it from there because it’ll save us all money and it’ll get to the customer way faster.

(32:44):

If you have someone in California who orders a T-shirt, you don’t want to ship it out of your warehouse in Maine. It’s not going to be a good experience for anyone. It’s going to be expensive, it’s going to be slow. And I think more people are understanding that you don’t have to have these gigantic, huge warehouses spread across the globe. And instead what you can have is a bunch of different partners and smaller spaces and utilize your storefronts, utilize your web presence, utilize everything in order to not only make your life easier, but to keep your customers happier.

Scott Luton (33:14):

Yes, John. Or here’s a delightful notion. Maybe we should plan our network strategy rather than just getting stuff out the door. Maybe that’s a thought. Mary Kate, what’d you hear there?

Mary Kate Love (33:25):

I love this. And I was thinking about we’re used to brands starting in storefront and then going online, and now we’re seeing a little bit of a flip, right? You’re starting online and then should you make it, you usually set up a couple storefronts, right? I’m talking mostly I guess about B2C here, but I love that because I shop almost exclusively online, but if I’m downtown in Chicago, I just recently went to New York, I’ll say, Hey, there’s a brand that I always buy from. I’m absolutely going in store and I’m going to try out different products. I’m going to see different things, and it makes me happy that they’ve invested the money in a storefront so I can still have that experience, right?

John Wharff (34:03):

Yeah. It creates this really beautiful cyclical environment where you get a really good relationship with a brand through their online presence. You really like the products that they make, but at the end of the day when you’re online shopping, you’re going for a specific purpose. I’m looking for sunglasses, I’m going to go browse what sunglasses they have, but then you’re waltzing through New York, they have a storefront, what else do they make? What else am I interested in? Exactly. And it can really just create this constant drive back to you, back to your brand, what you can offer to people.

Mary Kate Love (34:34):

Yeah. It allows you to browse the brand a little bit more.

Scott Luton (34:37):

Yeah. One of my favorite components of having conversations like this one here is as practitioners, we’re still consumers. And I think some of the most powerful lessons you can learn is through your consumer lens as you’re out interacting and having those experiences and purchasing stuff, they are lessons for days to be had that we can then bring into our supply chains, our operations, you name it. It’s one of my favorite parts of the business world to study and it’s universal who isn’t a consumer, right? Right. Okay. And hey, bill Ang Kevi down there in Savannah, which is an outstanding logistics mecca. He’s here 16 students. Oh, cool. Watching John, Mary, Kate, and Scott. Hey, well, good afternoon to all of y’all. You future supply chain leaders of the now generation. Great to see you. And Bill, you got to

Mary Kate Love (35:26):

Tell those students at the end about national supply chain day.

Scott Luton (35:29):

Yes, we absolutely do. Absolutely do. Peter says, fun conversation. I just had one with a colleague about setting up a seasonal station. Try to say that seven times fast for startup and closure, different needs, but the same challenge. Challenges abound, John.

John Wharff (35:47):

I just think that, yeah, sometimes the solutions that people come up with even shock me, right? Let’s set up a temporary pop-up warehouse in a location during peak so that we can service our customers better. And yeah, that’s not the way it’s ever been done, but why not? If you have the ability and the technology do it,

Scott Luton (36:08):

Right? And of course you’re talking about the operational side. How about the more of the entrepreneurial side? I can’t remember the name of the Halloween costume company, but Spirit, they’ll move into these strip malls that are abandoned in many cases across the country, set up shop for a few weeks or whatever, make millions of dollars, and that’s their whole business model. I love that innovation thinking Mary Kate.

Mary Kate Love (36:36):

Yeah, I love that. We just had one pop up a few blocks away from us and we’re all like, makes sense, right? It’s spirit Halloween coming in for shop, but you like to see that because they’re using a space that is no longer used,

Scott Luton (36:49):

Right? That is right. And to do that, whether on the operational side or the entrepreneurial side or leadership in general, you got to think differently and you got to partner with organizations out there that are bringing innovative practices to the table with a proven track record. It’s really, really important. And John, we’ve had a lot of this conversations and the prep show and leading up here, a lot of cool things you and the easy post team are doing. I think as you describe various situations, including the one that brought millions of dollars to the bottom line, whether folks want to better tackle returns or sustainability or just get better at executing and using and putting that data, they’re mountains of data, kind of like the Wasatch Mountains of data to work for them. When you think about where do folks get started, that universal question, what would be your response to that, John?

John Wharff (37:42):

Yeah, Scott, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head. We work in an industry that is literally packed with really talented, really motivated individuals who know what they’re talking about and they’ve kind of been through the ringer and they’ve already solved these problems. So I would say the first step is realizing that you’re not the first person to have these problems. They’ve been experienced before as obviously part of the sales organization. Now with EasyPost, I hear the same problems over and over and over and over again that are echoed amongst a whole litany of different types of customers, whether they’re SMBs, their three pls or whatever. So I think the first step is just admitting that you might need some help. Like I very first said earlier on, we realized really, really quickly that just providing a service doesn’t really cut it anymore.

(38:33):

And instead, we have to be consultants. We have to be willing to dig into things with our customers and really get to the root of where the issues are and how to solve them. So I think it’s a admitting you have a problem and realizing there’s nothing wrong with that. And then B, reaching out to organizations who know how to solve these problems for you, reach out to good partners who are going to work with you and they’re going to understand your process and they’re not going to nickel and dime you. They’re not going to try to charge you out the ear for some of these services because at the end of the day, a good partner should want you to grow. And that’s one of our biggest goals here at EasyPost is we want every single customer we help to grow and to expand and to be successful because their success is our success and we can share in it and we’re all happier as a result.

Scott Luton (39:21):

Love that. And my hunch, John, my hunch Mary Kate as it relates to John and his team is they aren’t quick to say no to the what if we did this or what if we did that. They lean into how we can do things differently. Your thoughts, Mary Kate,

Mary Kate Love (39:36):

I think everyone has to be great at partnering with external organizations now because there’s absolutely no way that you can be an expert at all of these things and everything is changing. Our technology’s constantly changing, so being able to see and recognize problems or areas for improvement and saying, Hey, we’re going to work with this company for this one. We’re going to work with that company and here’s how we manage it. I think that’s a must and every company needs to be doing that today.

Scott Luton (40:05):

Amen. Hallelujah. Say it louder for the folks in the back, Mary Kate. Alright, a couple quick comments here before we share a really neat resource. PB says, that’s gold, John, you got to look at the total cost of ownership and if you do that, it doesn’t have you shut down all these ideas better you can think more broadly and get more creative. Excellent point, Peter. Claudia says collaboration is key. It’s an obvious competency but not an easy one to pull off. That’s right, Claudia. Easier said than done and done, especially if you talk about done in a way where all parties equally benefit or well benefit. Excellent point and one final one. We all need to put this in practice. Peter says, 45 years into my career still learning new things on a daily basis. And that goes back to John’s point a minute ago.

(40:53):

You got to be open-minded enough. All of us are charged to be open-minded enough to learn those new things and to look at the world differently and get well beyond how we’ve been doing things for 45 years or 15 years or maybe 15 months at this rate. Okay, so John and Mary, Kate, I hate that our conversation’s almost over, John. Let me, before we share this really cool session coming up in March, my other hunch, and I think I’m four for four today, other hunch is I bet you love to sit down and talk with folks even if they don’t work with you and the team, they might work with you and the team down the road, or maybe they already are. I bet you love talking shop talking problems and brainstorm in ways that folks can tackle these hurdles in their organizations. How can folks connect with you, John?

John Wharff (41:42):

Yeah, I think the two easiest ways are obviously just reaching out to sales@easypost.com that’s kind of watched and maintained by our very, very talented sales team as well as the technical team that I oversee. Go to easypost.com, we have all of our documentation online, really good one-pager about all of the products and services that we offer. Maybe something you key into and you really want to do it or reach out to me directly on LinkedIn. I got a very, very unique last name, so I’m easy to find.

Scott Luton (42:10):

I love that. So we dropped that email right there in the chat. You’re one click away maybe with email, maybe two clicks away to connecting with the team, connect with John on LinkedIn as well, and really lean into the really cool things they are doing. And as Bill says, Hey, some CEOs are old school and wary worry the collaborate. In fact, they don’t want to collaborate. I think someone will steal their customers. That’s right. You can’t ever make assumptions that things ain’t going to change. And if you keep doing things the same way you’ve been doing things, the customers aren’t going to find new ways and new value. That’s a great point there Bill. We can’t sit on our laurels for a second. Okay, Mary, Kate and John, or Mary Kate rather. We get to have John back with us in March and I think I’ve got a graphic here I want to share with folks because the next session, our next fireside conversation with John Wharf sounds very dramatic, doesn’t it?

(43:04):

It’s going to be a webinar. So folks, you got to register for this next one, but we’re going to dive into a neat conversation on March 6th and as we talk about proven best practices for embracing and logistics, and one of my favorite parts of this, one of my favorite parts of John’s approach clearly is he’s very practical, innovative, he’s fun to talk to. And we didn’t even get into some of the things, ways that he enjoys his downtime, which is really cool, but he’s very practical and we need lots of practicality In today’s world, we’re going to be diving into practical steps to putting your data to work for you and your team, making life easier for them, making it easier for them to be successful. And we’re going to give an example or two of how a data first strategy get this can deliver millions. Yes, millions to the bottom line. So March 6th at 12 noon eastern time, we’re going to drop the link in the chat. Y’all join us for that. So John got to ask you in 45 seconds or less, what’s one reason beyond you talking about biscuits and gravy or some other delicious food stuff on this webinar? What’s one other reason folks got to come join us on the 6th of March?

John Wharff (44:11):

Yeah, no, I think that that’s easy. It’s really easy to talk about all this stuff at a high level. We can all do it and we’ve all done it many times, but let’s drill in. Let’s talk about the actual ways that you can make this work for you today and into the future. Because kind of like you said earlier, Scott, it’s really easy to say stuff. It’s not always easy to put it into practice.

Scott Luton (44:31):

Well said. And we have an opportunity to do it. Well done. And that’s the important who’s got time? Raise your hand if you’ve got time for lip service leadership these days Ain’t nobody, right? So I just shared the link to that webinar. Come join us, come join us to free to register. And I promise you it’s going to be a great conversation. Mary Kate, whether you want to touch on one of those last things that John just mentioned about the value of this discussion we’re going to be having in March, or if you want to look past over the last 47 minutes where John brought this truckload of brilliance to us and our global audience, what’s one key takeaway that folks got to keep front and center?

Mary Kate Love (45:10):

Well, I love that we talked about how you’re not in this alone, that there’s comradery here. I think that’s one of the great things about supply chain now quite frankly, is we get to talk about problems that the majority of you all are experiencing. But what I love about this is, especially in our next webinar too, we’ll be diving deep into how you solve those problems. So join the webinar, continue to connect with one another through our channels, and I think that camaraderie is really important.

Scott Luton (45:38):

Excellent point. Yeah, that camaraderie, those conversations, the breaking the bread, that’s how we eliminate the blind spot, right? That’s how we reach different ideas and tools and solutions that we can bring to bear to make life easier for your team members and better for your customers, your suppliers, the whole ecosystem. And if that ain’t the name of the game, I don’t know what is Mary, Kate and John. Okay, so before we reinforce a couple of quick things, Claudia says, adding to Bill’s point on collaboration, have a discussion about exit strategies while you’re in good terms with your partners. Don’t wait until issues come up, Claudia, that is a million dollar or more inflation, billion dollar piece of advice there, Claudia. Alright, John and Mary Kate, quick reminders for everybody out there. First off, make sure you connect with John with him and his team. We drop links to that. We drop a link in the webinar, come on out and join us. Bring your ideas and your perspective. We make our webinars very interactive as well. Mary Kate had a very vibrant, we had a very vibrant webinar just yesterday. Lots and tons of comments from the audience and John folks got to take one thing that you and Mary Kate said here today or any of the comments and put it into practice, right? It’s about doing not just saying right deeds, not words. John, you’re nodding your head. You subscribe to that belief in life, right?

John Wharff (47:05):

A hundred percent. Yep. I think that we have all had experiences with people who are very good at talking and very bad at delivering and it gets real old real fast.

Scott Luton (47:14):

It does very, Kate, you’re smiling about that too. We’ve all been there, right? Yes, we’ve all been there.

Mary Kate Love (47:18):

Unfortunately. Yes.

Scott Luton (47:20):

Alright folks, but there’s a better way. There’s so many better ways you can go looking for it, whether you sit in on these conversations here. Oh, by the way, speaking of Mark, your calendar, because National Supply Chain Day is coming up in April. Mary Kate, what’s the date?

Mary Kate Love (47:33):

April 29th. It’s a Monday. So we are going to have a great time celebrating the supply chain, the people in supply chain and just talking about the future supply chain. So make sure to join us on April 29th.

Scott Luton (47:45):

That’s right, John Orff with easy post, delightful time here today. I really enjoy your approach and my hunch also, I think this is number six. I dunno why I’m embracing that word so much here today, but I bet you’re just like this in person when you sit down at an event or a lunch. I bet you clearly have a passion for what you do, John.

John Wharff (48:08):

I do. And I love people. I love hearing about experience and what people go through and their practices and what they think is best and everything like that. Because a lot of times a term that we throw around in the industry is a subject matter expert. Well, the SMEs that I trust the most are the ones who realize they still have stuff to learn. And I think that we can all take something from that.

Scott Luton (48:30):

Well said that self-awareness is so important. If you’re ever spending time with somebody that says they have all the answers, there’s only one thing to do and that is run in a different direction, whatever y’all might be. Thanks everybody for tuning in today. Big thanks to John and the team over at Easy Post. Make sure you connect with John. Lean into John, their thinking, their innovation, that what they’re doing. Really important. Join us on March 6th for the webinar. Join us in April. April 22nd, right? Mary Kate.

Mary Kate Love (49:01):

Yep. April 29th.

Scott Luton (49:02):

Oh my bad. April 29th. That’s going to be, I’m imprint that here. National Supply Chain Day where we celebrate the industry. But whatever you do, most importantly here today, folks, take something. Take one thing, one idea that John brought here today. Put it into action. Your team will appreciate it. I promise you. Deeds not words. That’s what it’s all about. On behalf the whole team, Mary Kate, thanks for being here today, by the way.

Mary Kate Love (49:25):

Thanks for having me.

Scott Luton (49:26):

You bet. And to Claudia and Jana and Bill and all the folks at Tuned in know we couldn’t hit everybody’s question and comment. Thank you for being here, but whatever you do, on behalf of the entire team here at Supply Chain now, Scott Luton challenging you to do good, to give forward and to be the change. And we’ll see you next time, right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (49:48):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain now, community. Check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain now, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain. Now.