[00:00:00] Tim Ranagan: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Unboxing the Trends. I’m your host, Tim Ranagan. We have an awesome episode for you today. I’ve got with me again, Lori Boyer, our host of the Unboxing Logistics podcast. Lori, how are you doing today?
[00:00:18] Lori Boyer: I’m doing so good, Tim. How are you doing?
[00:00:21] Tim Ranagan: I’m doing great. Today, Lori, we wanted to talk about the happenings in supply chain and logistics over the last several months.
I know that you’ve recently come back from a couple trade shows, RILA and Manifest. What’s the overall vibe in the industry and some things that are trending across 2026?
[00:00:42] Lori Boyer: Okay, Tim first, who doesn’t wanna talk about what’s going on in the supply chain and logistics industry? Go on. No. I have just recently been at a couple of shows on the road with so many of you.
It was great chatting with a lot of you that I was able to see in person. I do think I’m getting kind a 2026 feel, so I’m glad you asked about them. I think the biggest maybe baseline vibe kind of shift I’m seeing is disruption is kind of being felt like it’s not just a phase anymore. It’s the baseline that really came through at the shows and it’s actually coming through in the news as well.
I’ll, I’ll tell you just a minute. I recently read this really interesting article around that, but basically I’m feeling like when we’re there, there’s not a sense of like, okay, hold on, and when this settles down, then things are gonna go back to normal. Does that make sense?
[00:01:44] Tim Ranagan: Of course.
[00:01:45] Lori Boyer: Instead, people are kind of like, okay, this is normal.
And while we’ve had that a little bit in the past it’s just even more solidified that, you know, people are building and designing for disruption rather than trying to respond differently. But I wanted to tell you about this article. It was, so the 2026 Thomson Reuters Global Trade Report. So this is a report that comes out every year, kind of getting a, a feel for everything in the industry.
And I feel like that kind of hits on this same vibe. It said supply chain management is now for enterprise organizations, the number one business concern. Which is fine. I mean, oh, that’s interesting. Number one, whatever. But what’s even bigger to me is that the numbers from last year, at this time to this year at this time, actually have doubled.
So last year was just 30% of people thought that it was the biggest thing. We’re hitting way almost 70% plus. So supply chain and supply chain management are really something that people are focusing on. This disruption issue needs to be addressed, and so people are not, I feel like kind of looking for the shiny new thing.
They’re instead looking for like, what’s gonna actually make a difference? Like, I want solutions, not just excitement.
[00:03:08] Tim Ranagan: No, I, I love that. So I was also at RILA. We have a big retail presence at that trade show. And supply chain management was definitely a conversation that popped up in a couple of the sessions that I attended.
One that you hosted, Lori, which featured JD Finish Line and Trew Automation and talking about all of the supply chain management that they did across their various projects. And then another one with Duluth Trading Company talking about some new warehouses that they rolled out. A lot of supply chain management in, in those spaces.
Disruption seems like it’s, it’s top of mind for a lot of folks.
[00:03:49] Lori Boyer: And it’s part of, in those very sessions we talked about in basically how do I change out my entire warehouse and modern and automate while keeping everything going. I mean, what else is. Disruption than that, you know, it’s happening.
Plug for the RILA one. we were able to shoot that as a podcast episode. So you’ll actually be seeing it coming out here as well. So you’ll see a live from RILA. Okay. Not live. A review episode from RILA of that very session is gonna be here as part of our Unboxing Logistics podcast. So keep an eye out for that.
It was really.
[00:04:23] Tim Ranagan: Yes. Stay tuned for that one. It was a, it was a great session. Lots of good information. Okay, Lori, so compared to last year, this is our first Unboxing the Trends episode of 2026. Right. We talked about a lot of things in 2025 across the various episodes that we put out. Are you hearing some of the same things folks are worried about in 2026?
Did some of those trends kind of come to fruition, or did 2026 bring a whole new list of things that are disrupting supply chain and logistics?
[00:04:57] Lori Boyer: Yeah, I, great question. Really great question. In general, I would say no, we don’t have new issues. What it is, to me, what is different is kind of our approach to those same issues.
Those sort of disruption. Yeah. And challenges. So if disruption’s the baseline, I think that just means that consequences kind of matter more. Right? You can’t just think of it as a one-time thing. And I think that’s what really felt different to me. One of the things that I saw, you know, we all know costs have gone up and, and that’s happened over the last year.
What I didn’t realize is that businesses, enterprise size businesses, actually I think it’s all businesses. Let me check my stat now. All businesses, all organizations, were last year at this time, about 13% of businesses were absorbing those costs instead of passing ’em on to their customers. So most of them pass them on to their customers today, 40% of businesses over last year are absorbing the cost themselves.
So obviously with the economy being a little funky. Organizations are seeing that customers maybe just aren’t willing to pay more. So costs are hitting us worse. And, and that kind of goes with the disruption. All of that to me means that people are just more serious about making tough decisions. Last year I think there’s a little bit more of an energy of, okay, what could we try, what’s fun?
And this year it’s more like, what are we doing? How are we fixing this? How are we getting direct results? What is the ROI? Basically conversation shifts from what should we try to, what happens? Yeah, what is happening and, and how do we do it? It is sort of a big maturity kind of jump.
[00:06:41] Tim Ranagan: Yeah, I, I, it, it seems unrealistic to expect that businesses will onboard that cost indefinitely.
So it seems like as we head into 2026, as we kind of wrap up Q1, these companies are probably looking to introduce some sort of technology or, I mean, AI’s the buzzword going around, you know, something that’s gonna save them money. So Lori, AI’s everywhere. We, we saw it in in tons of sessions, we’re obviously keying in on it here at EasyPost.
What is the AI message coming into 2026?
[00:07:22] Lori Boyer: Okay. I literally, I think I looked through the sessions. I think above like 50% have AI in the title. Like people are talking AI people have been talking AI and I think kind of going back to that idea of we’re a little bit over the shiny new stuff. AI’s there but it’s not as much about novelty anymore.
Where at one point it was really novelty and it’s really about baseline changes. People aren’t just impressed with flashy demos, I guess. Yeah, they, they wanna know if what AI is actually working. So I had so many people talking to me about Lori, what, what actually help me make a better decision when things come down to it.
So yeah, a lot in decision making and, you know, less second guessing kind of things. It only really, AI is only of interest to people when it can show tangible, real life returns. Sure. And not just something cool and maybe this will be awesome in the future, but they’re looking for stuff that’s working right now.
[00:08:34] Tim Ranagan: Yeah, it, one of the themes that I keyed in on during RILA, but certainly Manifest sessions touched on this as well, is, is that concept of, is AI an actual tangible return on investment, right? If you have companies across supply chain and logistics wanting to adopt some form of AI strategy, what does AI mean?
But how is that, you are going to actually save us money? Is there an ROI with it? You know, what does that look like for any business in supply chain and logistics?
[00:09:08] Lori Boyer: Absolutely. I mean, we’re two or three years into kind of the big AI hype, everyone’s past the hype and onto like, give me the meat, so.
[00:09:15] Tim Ranagan: Yeah. Love that. Okay. So as we head. As we went into the end of 2025, I remember one of our episodes you talked about there’s this kind of permeating quiet frustration that exists in supply chain and logistics. And you kind of left us on a cliffhanger, Lori. So I’m excited to learn. As we head into 2026, right, and businesses are wondering, you know, how am I going to save money, adopt better strategies, what technologies we’re gonna bring in? What? What is that quiet frustration that you’re hearing out in the industry?
[00:09:53] Lori Boyer: I think, people are frustrated, and I say this being a technology company, but people are frustrated with so many tools.
You know, I like to kind of say, yeah, well, fatigue or, you know, our tech stack fatigue. People are just, look, I get it. Like when disruption is there, we’re gonna feel it, it, we, we have complexity and so we’re looking for something to fix it. Of course.
It, it starts to pile up and, and people honestly aren’t happy.
I, I saw. A study recently that just said 7% of people right now in the industry are happy with their tech stack because either they don’t integrate well, I think that’s the number one concern. They don’t integrate, they’re not talking well to each other. Half the team doesn’t know what other people in other divisions are using different tools.
There’s not a single source of truth. Yeah. And so everybody’s kind of a little bit tired of technology, and yet they know they need it. Again, we’re seeing it everywhere. Everyone knows what they need it but they are, they’re getting tired of kind of stacking systems and hope that it’ll all work.
So yeah. Tool sprawl, I guess is another good word, word for it.
[00:11:11] Tim Ranagan: Yeah. It can create a lot. I, I love that, Lori. It seems like when disruption happens within the industry, it’s adopt, adopt, adopt, new technology, new technology, new solution. And it kind of is like wrapping duct tape around your problem and then your, technology chief or the managers that are dealing with those issues are like, we are in over our heads with all of these different systems.
They don’t communicate with us, with, you know, our legacy systems inside the business. And so that quiet frustration turns out to be not so quiet from the ground up.
[00:11:52] Lori Boyer: So yeah, people need to take a look at their tech stack and just be serious about what is working and what isn’t working. Don’t throw another tool. Even an amazing tool like EasyPost I love us and I think, think we should be the foundation of your tech stack, but do your work right? Look at it and, and see, and, and work with other divisions because when tech stack when tech fatigue gets too high, people just stop using ’em and, and that becomes a big problem.
[00:12:18] Tim Ranagan: And, and to take that a step further, the recommendation is as you look at your current tech stack, simplify, right. There are holistic end-to-end solutions like EasyPost that can solve those problems of having all of these different disparate technologies not working in sync, right? And before you get inundated in solutions that don’t work for you, and it end up costing you more money you know, it’s, it’s good to be thinking about how you can fix those problems before they become too, you know, cumbersome to fix.
[00:12:52] Lori Boyer: Yeah, absolutely. Great. Great point, Tim.
[00:12:54] Tim Ranagan: All right, so Lori disruption’s not gonna go away, right? It’s a, it’s a mainstay for businesses, whether you’re in this industry or not. But in a, in a different way, how are leaders in supply chain and logistics thinking about resilience, how there can offset disruption now versus in years past. I mean, you just came back from a couple conferences, you spoke in several sessions. And I’m sure you had conversations with a lot of these business leaders about. Some of the strategies that they’re adopting to help offset those issues.
[00:13:29] Lori Boyer: Okay. I think, I love that just a second ago you mentioned simplicity. Because in a way I, what I was hearing, at RILA, especially, we heard this message quite a bit, a lot of emphasis on fundamentals like going to the basics, all resilience starts with making sure your basics are strong.
Do you have clear data? You know, are you, do you know who owns each step of the process? Do you know what you’re going to do or do you know that your your tools are speaking correctly? Or as we mentioned, you know, that you have a single source of truth that everyone is looking to for their data numbers.
You’ve got to have your basics down. You can’t be resilient if your basics aren’t in place. No tool, no cool AI, anything. Nothing’s gonna save you if the basics are a problem. So there was a big emphasis on that RILA I also wanna mention once that’s in place, when you have those basics, you’ve gotta start with the basics, then you use tools.
Not like you said, like a million shiny add-ons, but tools that are actually working, helping you make good decisions, bringing in an ROI, even if it’s not sexy. A lot of the really, really effective tools are backend boring accounting, you know, things that aren’t that beautiful in, in, in sight, but really make a big difference.
So that’s where you put on the tools. Resiliency to me is a combination of the fundamentals, the basics being down, and the tools that then take you to the next level. Be able to help you respond in real time and make decisions when things go wrong. ‘Cause they will.
[00:15:10] Tim Ranagan: Yeah. Love that. Great, great recommendations, Lori.
Okay. So before we wrap up, Lori, if someone were to remember kind of one thing from everything we just discussed, or the buzz that they’re hearing so far this year, what would that be?
[00:15:26] Lori Boyer: Yeah. I’m gonna go back to what I just said honestly about resilience. Get your basics down.
Get your basics down.
Don’t let all of the shiny exciting, 9,872 sessions on AI, which I’m speaking at, so go to one, but don’t let them distract you from the fundamentals. What are the key building blocks of your business? Make sure those are solid, and then add on. So yeah, my key is with disruption being the norm, disruption being the baseline, get those fundamentals down, and then get the tools in place.
I do wanna say that was a little negative in terms of wow, disruption’s here and congratulations, it’s 2026, you now get to have a whole bunch of garbage thrown at you every day, right? Actually, the industry’s in a fantastic place. The latest data that came out said that investment in the supply chain and logistics industry, specifically for tech, but in the industry itself, it’s gonna jump from 72 billion this year to 147 in the next five years. We’re doubling the amount of investment in this industry. So get ready for a lot of things to be thrown at you. That means get those basics down, but there’s a lot of growth and opportunity here in the industry.
It’s an exciting time to be in supply chain.
[00:16:48] Tim Ranagan: Yeah. If I can take away one thing from that, it’s make sure you understand exactly what tools and services you need to offset and become resilient against the disruption in your business. And then from what you, that stat you just shared, Lori, it’s like there is a solution, a tool that exists for your problem.
And once you know what it, what the problem is, you can go out and source the correct tool for that issue.
[00:17:14] Lori Boyer: Tim, I love that you said that because too many companies that I’m talking to are starting by just saying, wow, that’s a shiny, cool new tool. You have to start with the problem, and so that’s, you said that so beautifully.
You look at what problems you’re having when your basics are done, then find a tool. Don’t get a tool of any sort and just try to fit it in to your company. You may not even have a problem needing to be fixed from that. Start with your problem, then look for the tool.
[00:17:41] Tim Ranagan: Wonderful. Lori, as always, thank you so much for your insights and for your opinions on the trends that are happening in supply chain and logistics. To our listeners out there, this is another episode of Unboxing the Trends.
You can listen to all of our episodes of Unboxing the Trends at easypost.com/podcast. We’d also love to hear any comments, questions, so please get involved and ask us some questions. We would love to hear from you. Until next time, thank you.
[00:18:11] Lori Boyer: Thanks everybody.
