Tim Ranagan 00:00
Hello, and welcome in to another episode of Unboxing the Trends. I’m your host, Tim Ranagan. I have Lori Boyer with me again. She is our awesome host of the Unboxing Logistics Podcast, and today we’ve got a special episode for you. We are going to highlight season five of Unboxing Logistics. We just wrapped up our last episode just a few weeks ago, and I’ve got Lori on today to talk about some of her favorite topics, some surprises, some trends that we noticed, and so we’re really excited to dive into all of this as well.
Before we get started, wanted to give a shout out to all of our listeners. Happy holidays if you’re watching this during the holiday season. If not, when the holidays find you again, happy holidays. Lori, how are you doing?
Lori Boyer 00:47
I’m doing so great. This peak season, holiday season. It’s going fast, just like season five of Unboxing Logistics went.
I can’t believe it’s over. I’m already so excited for season six, but happy to have this time to review with you as well.
Tim Ranagan 01:02
For sure. Lori, let’s jump into it. What were some of the topics that really stood out to you that you said, you know what, I really enjoyed having these guests on, these topics that I really learned about.
Give us a little rundown of what you noticed.
Lori Boyer 01:16
Tim, I love that question. It was just, as I said, so fun to go back and review these again. One of my favorites, though, is early on in the season, one of the first episodes, episode one, episode two, something like that, we had Sucharita Kodali from Forrester come on.
It kind of gave us a sneak peek into what the analysts were seeing and the anticipation they had when it came to peak season consumer intent. I had a lot of questions. People were concerned about what might happen with peak. She, she was spot on. She was really good that the data they had, the information really has reflected what we are seeing right now in this 2025 peak season.
Really cool episode. I also loved, we had multiple cross border episodes. That was a topic that we had people reach out and ask about how do we manage shipping with all the tariffs and whatnot going on? So we had a couple, while we had Jonathan Witt come on formerly from Sendle
Sendle’s kind of changed since then and talked a little bit about cross border. We also, Ben Gordon hit on a little bit with that as, as well as AI. AI, of course. Huge topic. Really interesting. I’m a giant AI nerd, Tim. So, when it comes to AI, I always wanna know the latest trends. It was really interesting to see different analysts and different opinions on what’s happening, but also some similarities in there.
And so I thought all of the AI ones were really great. I’m curious, do you have any that you particularly liked?
Tim Ranagan 02:52
Yeah, Lori, so I’m a gamer and one of our first episodes of the season, we had some guests on to talk about gamification in the warehouse. We had Katie from Footlocker and Dylan from Summit Advisory Team.
It’s a topic that I had never really considered would see a kind of a crossover into a world that I touch into, that concept of gamification was just really interesting for me to learn out, learn about. So they talked about specifically, they made this point in the episode. They said, you can’t just re reward raw speed, because you’ll tank safety and quality. Their advice about tying gamification back to labor standards and measurable goals was something that has been referenced across multiple episodes that we’ve had all season long by other guests, which was really cool.
But the gamification component really stood out to me as something that I found interesting because it tied two different worlds that I dive into. My professional world and then something that I enjoy in my personal time.
Lori Boyer 03:57
Okay, love it. I love that episode too. I’m also a gamer, so shout out to all our gamers in the audience.
Tim Ranagan 04:03
Shout out to the gamers.
Lori Boyer 04:05
I bet we have a lot of logistics gamers out there. Tim, favorite game. Tell us five seconds.
Tim Ranagan 04:10
Favorite game currently? Ark Raiders. It’s brand new. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are playing it right now, but it’s really good. It’s like a third person shooter, so it’s fun.
Lori Boyer 04:19
Love it. And I’m gonna throw out a plug for Age of Empires.
Tim Ranagan 04:22
Hey, that’s a classic.
Lori Boyer 04:25
It’s a classic. I go back to it every so often. I think it works also for our logistics mind. Planning and figuring everything out. But.
Tim Ranagan 04:32
And then I wanted to plug one more episode that I really got a lot of value out of. We had Dylan from Summit Advisory Team and Jarlath from Summit Advisory Team.
They came on and they talked about a topic that honestly, we never really considered this aspect of supply chain, but they talked about neurodivergence. And they, they left a statistic in the episode, and I want you guys to all go out and watch this episode. They said that over 50% of people inside supply chain have some form of neurodivergence, which was a staggering number.
I didn’t know that the statistic was that high. And they really did an awesome job of breaking down some of the components within supply chain that tie so closely to somebody that may be neurodivergent. Really awesome episode.
It’s one of my biggest recommendations that you go watch if you haven’t seen it already.
Lori Boyer 05:28
I totally agree. I’m so glad you called that one out. I had probably more people reach out to me and send me, you know, private messages on LinkedIn and about how much it resonated with them than maybe any other episode because it really is personal and really touches all of us. Even if you are not neurodivergent, you’re definitely working with a lot of neuro divergent people that’s a really great high level breakdown of everything that we’ve had happen across season five. Lori, I’m curious. What were some of the themes that popped up over and over again across all of the episodes this season?
So I think that if we were gonna connect some themes, we had a few different ones that I noticed in particular. There’s a focus on the human element. I think that because we talk so much about technology, we talk about data and we talk about AI, all of our experts bring us back to the human element.
And yes, while all of those things are so cool, and Lori, I know you’re excited about them. It really is the human element that drives all of that. And importance of not forgetting that. I think that was really big. I think that as well, if there was another sort of overall theme, it was about the uncertainty that we’re all experiencing and have been experiencing in the industry over the last year.
Lots of questions around everything from, like I said, tariffs and cross border, AI, saving money, just costs have been rising a huge amount. And even returns seems to be getting a lot of attention and information. We had a couple of great episodes on returns and I really wanna dive into that more in, in our next season because that is, when we talk about rising costs a huge one.
Yeah. But I think the human element. Just the importance of the human element is probably one of the biggest ones that I noticed.
Tim Ranagan 07:29
Supply chain’s all about connecting people. And so I really love that human element component. We certainly felt that across all of these episodes. Okay, so we talked about what themes that you’ve seen over and over again.
Were there any surprises for you? Things that you didn’t expect?
Lori Boyer 07:49
I think maybe there was a few. So I was really interested in some expert insights on how AI is actually working or not working in the industry. And so what some of our experts are saying is that AI is very narrow right now in logistics. Where it’s it’s not as broad as people want, but it’s super effective when used.
And so I thought that kind of narrow focus was a little bit of a surprise for me. I think as well. How many people? It caught me off guard a little bit. Probably didn’t catch you all off guard, but how many people are struggling with money and costs that are being lost and they’re not aware of it?
So I heard that from multiple people. We had Virgil from WeSupply who came on and talked about the cost centers of returns. We had FAST Group come in and they talked about costs that were going on. We recently had an Alibaba episode where we talked about mathia and sourcing and all the costs that come with that.
So I think there was a really strong, interesting theme around the fact that not just that costs are rising, but that people aren’t always sure and don’t have visibility into where they might be losing their money. And talking about holiday season, we don’t wanna be the kid from the Polar Express whose ticket falls out the hole and it’s in his robe.
And so that’s happening for a lot of people. And that’s a big challenge. That was interesting for me.
Tim Ranagan 09:25
We just watched the Holiday Express just the other day. Love that show. But I really love what you said about returns and it being perceived as a cost center. Those episodes that we had about returns were really eye-opening for me, especially because we’re right in the middle of peak season, right?
Everybody’s thinking about cost savings and we’re, once we transition slightly out of peak season, it becomes returns peak season, right? And I love what Virgil mentioned about how returns can actually be a cost saver, right? You can leverage returns to the benefit of your company. He really lays out some awesome ways about how people in retail and supply chain and logistics can leverage returns to their benefit, which I thought was great suggestions.
Lori Boyer 10:17
Yeah, I loved that as well. That’s fantastic.
Tim Ranagan 10:20
What did our guests teach us this year about, or this season, I should say about the state of logistics? We had guests from Forrester on, we had guests from Alibaba.com. We had guests across the industry. We talked about cross border, we talked about returns, we talked about carriers, talked about AI, data, analytics.
We had it all. I’m curious, Lori, if you could quickly summarize what they’ve taught us about the state of logistics at this stage in 2025.
Lori Boyer 10:50
Okay. I would say that while we’re in a state of uncertainty, it’s also a stage that’s primed for opportunity and creativity. One of the best times, what research shows, one of the best times to really grow your business or to become successful is during times when things are a little uncertain, when there are challenges, because it makes us buckle up, buckle down, I guess we should say, and figure out where are efficiencies, where are we, and I think that’s really the state we’re at.
We’re a little bit uncertain, but there’s also a little bit of an excitement. There’s an excitement about how can we figure out what the gaps are? Where can we stop bleeding money? Where can we take advantage of new technology in order to accelerate our growth and to use the newest tools in AI to change and adapt and really to evolve what’s going on?
Really cool things. I think there’s a lot of excitement in this industry that is tempered by that uncertainty. But I encourage everyone, be excited and don’t let the uncertainties weigh you down.
Tim Ranagan 11:57
Yeah, I think you summed it up perfectly when we were chatting about this previously. There’s certainly uncertainty, right?
That exists right now in logistics, but there’s a whole lot of creativity happening, and so it’s finding that blend between uncertainty and creativity and like you said, buckling down and figuring out what’s gonna help improve your logistics, improve your operations, and then just charging forward with a lot of confidence in what your decisions are.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, Lori, season five’s over. Special shout out to all of our guests over season five. You were wonderful. Thank you for donating your time and your thoughts. Season six is in the works, right? And we’re excited about season six, just as we’re excited about season five. Any sneak peeks into what we have coming up, Lori?
Lori Boyer 12:46
Okay. I am really excited for season six. I’ve been doing a little bit of a revamp of how we’re organizing it ’cause we were having some requests come in for some specific things. Expect to see we, one thing we haven’t touched on, Tim, are EasyPost Insider episodes. So those episodes where we talk specifically about what’s happening at EasyPost. I’ll usually bring on a product manager or something is talking a little bit about the roadmap, maybe the latest tools.
I get, when I talk with customers, they really love those episodes. Because it’s easy to miss what is going. And we’re gonna be continuing to have those. So if you are an EasyPost customer, please make sure that you’re flagging those EasyPost Insider episodes. Those will keep you up to date with all the latest products and offerings and everything that you have available to you at EasyPost.
I’m also gonna be doing a really specific carrier series, so I have a lot of carriers who reach out, who really want to come on and share what it’s like. And where maybe different carriers might fit well for your particular business model. We will be having all kinds of really great carrier guests and we’ll have a series kind of carriers so that you can learn which is the best carrier for different situations and different types and where you can diversify your carrier mix in order to really, like we talked about, save those costs and make sure you’re hammering down. I’m also gonna, I just have a bunch of fun guests. We’re gonna have a few of those kind of neat neurodivergent and just the human side as well, and, as always, you know me, I love data.
You will be able to see all the latest what’s going on. If there’s a big event happening, we will be covering it. We’ll be bringing in the people who are smart enough to tell us what we need to actually do about it. So stay tuned. Season six is gonna be big. It’s gonna be so fun, and I am just really excited.
Tim Ranagan 14:33
Lori, those are all really exciting topics that we have coming up in season six. Thanks for laying out the scene and giving us a sneak peek into what we have coming up. Really excited about the carrier conversations. I think that there’s a lot of, like you said, we’ve had a lot of guests reach out and been interested in learning more about the various carriers that are operating within our industry, both the big four as well as a bunch of the regional ones.
So excited about that series. Thank you all to our listeners, we’re gonna wrap up our episode here. We’ve got a lot coming up in season six of Unboxing Logistics. We wanna give another special shout out to all of our guests across season five. Thanks for making it so great and informative. If you would like to view any recent episodes of Unboxing Logistics, you can view them on our website at easypost.com/podcast.
You can also listen to them at anywhere you listen to any of your regular podcasts, across any of those networks. Also, we would love to hear any comments, feedbacks, or insights from our guests. You can reach out to us on LinkedIn at EasyPost, or you can also connect with Lori. She’s also really active on LinkedIn as well, so we’d love to hear any comments that you might have.
Until next time, thanks for joining us on this episode of Unboxing the Trends.
Lori Boyer 15:49
Yep, and we will see you in season six. See you, everybody.
