Unlocking the Power of Parcel Data With Megan Rudolph From Saddle Creek - Ep. 38
In This Episode
Delve into the critical role of parcel data in optimizing shipping operations, especially as businesses gear up for peak season. Megan Rudolph, senior director of parcel operations at Saddle Creek Logistics, shares her expertise on how to collect, analyze, and leverage parcel data to enhance customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and ensure carrier accountability.
The essentials of parcel data
Megan emphasized that parcel data boils down to two main metrics: transit time and cost. She explains, “Parcel analytics is all the data that allows you to measure those two things.”
Understanding these two metrics at a granular level enables businesses to manage consumer expectations, optimize costs, and hold carriers accountable. Megan also stresses the importance of real-time data, particularly for tracking shipments and managing delivery exceptions.
Leveraging data for cost optimization
Surcharges are a significant factor in shipping costs, and Megan advises businesses to closely monitor these charges to identify opportunities for cost savings. Businesses can use parcel data to negotiate better rates with carriers and make informed decisions about service selection. “Knowing how to leverage that data to negotiate is really important,” Megan notes, highlighting that businesses can shift volume to different carriers if necessary to optimize costs.
The role of AI in parcel analytics
Looking ahead, Megan is excited about the potential for AI to democratize data analytics. She explains that AI can help those who are less data-savvy to easily access and interpret parcel data, thus lowering the barrier to entry for effective data use. “AI becomes a facilitator,” she says, allowing businesses to ask simple questions and receive actionable insights without needing deep technical expertise.
Links
- Connect with Megan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/megan-rudolph-688a4743
- Visit Saddle Creek’s website: https://www.sclogistics.com/
Transcript
Lori Boyer 00:00
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics. I'm Lori Boyer from EasyPost and your host, as always. And get ready. I could hardly sleep last night because I was so excited because we're going to be talking about data today. Those of you in the community know that I just geek out over analytics and data, and that is just my jam.
So last night I was laying in bed thinking about this conversation we were going to have today. We're going to be talking all about analytics when it comes to your parcels. Which I think is so important in today's market. And especially as we're moving into peak season, we are talking parcel time. So I have brought in an amazing expert from Saddle Creek, Megan Rudolph.
Megan, why don't you introduce yourself to our community and tell us a little bit about who you are and what your background is.
Megan Rudolph 00:56
Yeah, absolutely. So first I just want to say thank you for having me. I've enjoyed our conversation so far and really looking forward to talking about one of my favorite things that I like to nerd out about was parcel data.
So a little bit about me. I'm based in Texas. I'm the senior director of parcel operations at Saddle Creek Logistics. I've been in this industry for going on 15 years, which is hard to believe. A lot's changed in 15 years. And have spent time in various roles from sales to solutions to operations.
And my journey has been pretty organic. If you think about it, like, roles like ours didn't really exist 15 years ago. I started working at UPS. I found the D2C delivery space just really interesting and just happened to grow with it. So it's been fun to evolve with it. And to put things into perspective, right? When you know, I started, I think less than, like, 25 percent of the population was even accessing the Internet on their phone, to give you an idea of how many people were shopping.
Lori Boyer 01:51
You're aging yourself, Megan.
Megan Rudolph 01:52
I know. I know. I know.
Lori Boyer 01:53
Oh, no. Yes.
Megan Rudolph 01:55
It all comes back to data, though, because there's just so many unknowns of why I'm so passionate about data. It's like, okay, all of these unknowns. Let's focus on what are the knowns, right? So I think that serves us well in this industry, and I'm excited to talk about it. Outside of work I'm a mom to three boys—three young boys that are eight, seven and two. So you can imagine that there's never a dull moment in my house. Always things, always chaos, which is kind of how I like it anyways. So.
Lori Boyer 02:19
Okay. That is awesome, Megan. I am really excited to have you here. And one of our community's favorite parts of our show is to kind of get to know you a little bit better. We learned you're a boy mom, that's fun. But this season I've been asking everyone, probably selfishly, because I want to get ideas. But, about your favorite comfort food. So, you're just wanting something that's just, you know, gonna hit the spot on that day you need a little something something. What, what is Megan gonna be found with?
Megan Rudolph 02:51
Oh, okay. So I'm very much a savory over sweet person. And I really like a Thai dish that goes a little spicy, like a pad Thai. I would say if I'm splurging on something, a big fan of that. And then opposite of the spectrum, just love a pepperoni pizza. Nothing beats pepperoni pizza.
Lori Boyer 03:11
I'm gonna say pizza can always come in, even if it's not the number one comfort food, it'll work in a pinch. Do you have a favorite, like, Thai restaurant or something where you go to get a dish?
Megan Rudolph 03:22
So when we previously lived in Houston, there were a lot more options. Where we're at currently, no. So it's probably why I'm missing it so much. And there was also a Vietnamese place that was really good. So it was when I was splurging or just wanting something that was like, and a little indulgent.
Lori Boyer 03:37
Oh, okay. Everybody share your favorite Thai places for us. Well, obviously Megan is a new place. She's in the Austin area. So let us know what you've got out there.
Megan Rudolph 03:48
Yes, please.
Lori Boyer 03:49
Okay. So at the beginning of every episode, I like to make sure that if somebody is going to have to leave early or doesn't get to hear the whole thing, that they have some takeaways.
So I always ask my guests, Megan, what are the key takeaways that if people only heard one or two or three, however many you've got, takeaways today, what would you want people to remember from today's session?
Megan Rudolph 04:12
I would say, you know, walk away understanding what constitutes as parcel data and good parcel data how to use that data, right?
Because there's, there's all the data in the world, but if you don't know how to use it or what you're looking at, it's really useless. And then to take action now, right? I think even if you're not data oriented, it, you can find tools and resources that are to leverage it. Because it's better to start capturing it now so you can start setting a baseline. And it's not as overwhelming as it might think.
Lori Boyer 04:43
Absolutely. Let's jump right into that. I want to ask you a little bit about it. What, for you, what is good parcel data? What is parcel analytics? You know, you mentioned having a lot of data and not knowing what to do with it. Let's start by defining what you feel like is parcel data.
You know, why, what, which pieces are good parcel data?
Megan Rudolph 05:04
So at the highest level, like, parcel solutions really come down to two key metrics, and that's transit, like how fast it’s going to get there, and cost, because there's no such thing as free shipping. Even though a lot of people like free shipping and so parcel analytics is all the data that allows you to measure those two things.
So, and, and thinking through time in transit, right, that's setting your consumer expectation, right? That's a very important part of a shopper's purchase journey, right? To understand how long am I going to have to wait for this? And so using that data, you can understand, am I meeting my consumer's expectations?
How do I communicate when something goes wrong, maybe, right? If there's an exception to the delivery process. And communicating those milestone events, and is the carrier meeting their performance expectation as well? In some cases, you could be eligible for a refund. So going back to the carrier, if you're using express service, that's overnight or two-day, right? And going back to them and requesting a refund if the carrier failed to perform. Yeah.
Lori Boyer 06:02
Okay. So the most important elements are the transit time, how long it takes to get there, and the cost of everything. How do you know, maybe that your data is accurate or, or, you know, how, how do you collect it? Give us some insight into that.
Megan Rudolph 06:17
Yep. So that's actually one of the more challenging parts of parcel data because it looks different for every carrier that you get it for, right? So going back to transit, it's going to look different depending on, you know, what the carrier provides from that transit data and how you capture it. So, but what constitutes good data, I would say, is everything at the package level.
So for transit, you want to know all of those milestone events at the package level. And it's more important to have real-time data when it comes to transit because you can manage those expectations and those exceptions. And then with cost, it's really important to understand all of the things that drive the ultimate cost of that shipment, right? So thinking of, you know, where is it shipping from? Where is it shipping to? What's the service level? How much does it weigh? How big is the box? And then all of those different surcharges, right? Because surcharges make up sometimes 30 to 40 percent of the overall cost.
So you want an itemized list of all of those things, which sounds overwhelming, but you can get it and data directly from your carriers and then feed that into tools to help normalize it.
Lori Boyer 07:20
Okay. So I'm the kind of person who loves data. And so I'm all like, oh yeah, I'm going to dig all this up. I'm going to find it.
But there are a lot of people who get really overwhelmed pretty quickly with even the idea, you know, maybe it stems back to the whole like fear of math through elementary school, but you know, how, what, what are some ways to kind of simplify that sort of data overload? How do you actually analyze it in a way so that it makes sense?
Megan Rudolph 07:46
Yeah, so I would say set up a strategy up front to know what are you trying to solve, right? Because if you just go at it trying to collect data without a why behind it, trying to get to an end result is going to be more challenging. So I say have a why statement, you know, what is the value of this data and what am I trying to do with it?
Lori Boyer 08:06
Can you give me an example? Like what would be an example?
Megan Rudolph 08:09
So for us one of the ways that we leverage parcel data is for optimization, right? So if we have all of the cost data, all the transit data then we could be more dynamic in our service selection. So we can see, okay, we need to get it there within three days.
What are all the services that will get it there in three days for the cheapest, cheapest amount, right? So still beating your consumer's expectation, but also optimizing your cost as well.
Lori Boyer 08:35
So your why may be, hey, I want to be able to hit it within three days. Three days is my why, what is the best cost I can get? So that's kind of where you get your why. And then you just start looking for that specifically.
Megan Rudolph 08:48
Yep. Yep. That's a great example.
Lori Boyer 08:50
So in collecting the data, analyzing it you know, where do you recommend people go to collect their data?
Megan Rudolph 08:57
So there's different sources. Going directly to the carrier is the best option, right? So getting it directly from the carrier which becomes part of the challenges as well because you're, you're leveraging data from outside sources that could change how they manage that data, how they push it to you, but having really great relationships with the carrier to get access to that raw data.
And then if you are a large enough shipper, having a team of people that understand what they're looking at and how to interpret that, right? So it's usually a good balance between, you know, the solution side and operation side of understanding parcel, as well as working with the IT team to marry it—to marry those two things together. And then there's a lot of great tools out there. There's some great resources and could put everything in the dashboard for you while also giving you the ability to drill down to package level detail, right? So you can look at some things like overall delivery performance, average cost and even pulling in other data to measure the, you know, whole order life cycle from when that customer places that order to when it delivers to them.
Lori Boyer 09:58
Okay. I think that completely makes sense. I kind of grabbed hold of one thing you said about creating, keeping a good relationship with your carrier in order to be able to get this data. Does that mean just, you know, reaching out to them and saying like, hey, I'm looking for this data, asking them outright. What does that look like?
Megan Rudolph 10:19
Yep. So every carrier is different in how they give data to you, how they transmit data to you. Right. So everyone should have a carrier rep. So you could reach directly out to them. If you're, you know, if you traditionally worked with carriers through, like, a digital platform, like just going to FedEx.Com, let's say, then you can use chatbots in there to get some of the information.
A lot of it is just understanding where to go if you're not working with somebody. But I would say 90 percent of the time you have a rep that you can reach out to you to say, hey, I'm looking to start getting this information. How can you deliver it to me? And some are going to say, oh, just tell us the FTP, you know, that you want us to deliver to, we'll start sending to you daily and others will direct you to a site to start pulling on some, you know, down some billing data. So it varies, but they're the source to tell you where to get it is the first step.
Lori Boyer 11:06
So first step, just start reaching out, try to gather all that data. Make sure you're looking for the why so that you're analyzing the correct data. Do you have any examples, maybe, of customers or people that you know who have done this successfully that, you know, so people could imagine it?
Megan Rudolph 11:25
One good example is how do I personalize my shopping cart to make sure that it's meeting my consumers expectations, right? So what are the options I should put in there? You know, how fast should they expect it to be? And that's gonna, there's gonna be some best practices, but it will vary by product type and average order value.
But defining, you know, what is my free shipping, right? How much does a customer have to spend to qualify for that free shipping? And one thing we've been talking a lot about lately is, like, a good, better, best option. So your good is going to be your economy option. I'm getting it there and you'll say like two to seven days, it's free.
And then giving the shopper the opportunity to upgrade to maybe like a two day guaranteed or a one day guaranteed. And so you really need that data to understand, you know, what is a realistic time in transit to set in those options and then how much is it going to cost me and how much of that do I need to pass on to my consumer to make sure that we're hitting our targets as well.
Lori Boyer 12:18
Do you have any kind of standards that people could be aware of, of how, what percentage in general. I know this is, nobody loves to give me numbers straight up, but you know, that people do pass on, you know, to their customers. I know some people are so nervous about passing any of it on. And some people pass 120 percent of it on, you know, trying to make it a little, how do they find, how would our listeners find that right balance?
Megan Rudolph 12:44
Yeah, that's a good question. And one that comes up often from, you know, clients that we work with too. I would say not a standard, but average order value is a pretty big driver, right? So if you are in, you know, high end retail and your average order value is over 250. The higher the cost, the higher the expectation in terms of speed.
And they all, there's also an expectation that the cost for shipping isn't going to increase significantly as well. Right. And so your free option might be quicker than if your average order values 30. And, and we can talk about that. You know, the lower end side as well but you kind of have higher stakes when you come in at a higher price point.
And then you still want to offer options to the consumer to upgrade at an affordable cost to them, right? So maybe you can get a guaranteed three-day for 5.99 or guaranteed overnight for 19.99. And then when possible having, like, a buy online, pick up in store option, if that's available as well. Yeah, on the other side, if you have a lower average order value, your consumers are a little bit more patient when it comes to transit, right?
And they understand that they may have to pay a little bit more for shipping or spend more in order to qualify for that free shipping. So, and consumers are savvy, right? They're going to shop their options. Or so those, those things that are, can become a competitive advantage if you align the expectations correctly.
Lori Boyer 14:11
Absolutely. And testing and making sure that you kind of play with it and see what kind of differences is always so important. I've heard you say before, Megan, that, one of the things I actually love that I've heard you say is that parcel data looking at it is so important when it comes to customer expectation.
So I guess first, what do you mean by that? And then I want to talk about specifically, we're going to break it down by transit time, by cost, and by carrier performance. Let's talk about each one specifically so we can talk about it. But in general, why do you feel like it's so important when it comes to customer expectations?
Megan Rudolph 14:49
Yeah I think I consider myself a professional online shopper. It's part of, you know, part of my job, right, to know.
Lori Boyer 14:55
And part of being a mother too, I think. A working mother anyway.
Megan Rudolph 14:59
I just finished school shopping, so very familiar with that. But I would say as soon as somebody gets that shipment verification, anything related to an order, like your order is being processed.
And then once it's shipped then there's that expectation that it's going to be delivered, right? And then there's, there's variables outside of that that are uncontrollable, but it's a very high touch point for merchants and retailers when it's in transit. And so the more communication that you can provide related to transit status, the better.
So when you see an email that's, you know, your order has been picked up and it's out for delivery today, communicating those milestones is really impactful, and it can also reduce some of the time spent on the customer service side. You know, as you get inquiries about, you know, where's my order? I haven't seen an update in a while.
And it's also important to communicate when something goes wrong, right? So, you know, if the delivery date's going to change for whatever reason you know, an email that says we're really sorry, but it's gonna, it's going to be delayed by a day and it's going to get there tomorrow. And it's also good to set, or to communicate when you've done well.
So maybe the committed time was Friday, but you got it there early. So in those marketing emails or those update emails, like, hey, congratulations, you know, happy early birthday or however they want to message it to, to say. When you, you know, outperform the expectations.
Lori Boyer 16:19
So do you recommend these communications come by email, by text message, by phone call? What, what are the best ways to do that?
Megan Rudolph 16:27
I wouldn't say phone call. I would say email is probably the most common. And then if people have the option to opt into text at checkout, then let them have that option. Right. Because, you know, some people, I think it overload, you know, you're, you're getting so many emails or texts a day.
So letting the shopper really drive how they want to receive those updates is important, but being able to do it, you know, through either route is just as important.
Lori Boyer 16:51
Yeah, I, I've been reading some studies recently that show, you know, email, the rates as we're getting so many more emails, the rates of people opening and reading are going down and down over the years.
So I, I think that completely makes sense that, again, give them the choice. So reaching out, you mentioned at some point, you know, you don't want too long to go. I've had an experience where I ordered something and I don't know what happened, but it got really long to the point where I was like, okay, I'm never going to use this company again.
And eventually came, but there was too long of a time where they didn't contact me. And I think for me, it was a couple of weeks. Is there sort of a standard? I mean, obviously, we're not going to be texting him every hour. Well, now it's moved here. Now, you know, how long is too long to go between messages if something maybe is getting a little slow?
Megan Rudolph 17:39
So I would say, focusing on the milestone events, right? So, you know, your, your, your order has shipped and that it's in transit. And as you, as you provide these updates, providing like that estimated delivery date, which kind of goes back to having the data to be able to do that. Right. So providing that estimated delivery date.
And then, you know, I would say the consumer expectation is anything outside of 7 days in transit is too long. Right. So we have this expectation. We got really close to same day, next day expectation pre COVID. That's reset a little bit, but there's still a, a, a need for speed. Let's call it. And, I don't really recommend anything outside of seven days.
Fortunately, most of the services and carriers know that. And so there's not a lot of options outside of seven days. But if anything goes wrong, I think communicating immediately is what's important. You don't want to send an email tomorrow that says, hey, it's not going to be delivered today when that was yesterday.
So I would think communicating all the milestone events. And as long as you're staying in that seven day or less window, you should be okay. And you'll have the data to know if there's been an exception.
Lori Boyer 18:48
Okay, perfect. So when you're looking at the data, what are maybe red flags or, you know, what kind of metrics should they really be tracking when it comes to transit time?
Megan Rudolph 18:57
So understanding, you know, what, when did we expect it to get delivered? So the carrier said, if I ship today, it's going to deliver on Thursday. Knowing what the expected is versus the actual is the, is a big thing on the transit side. And on the cost side, same thing. So if you are using some kind of rate shopping or dynamic routing, you're estimating those costs up front to make sure that you're selecting the most, you know, economical option.
So if, also measuring when your estimated rates don't match what you're actually invoiced by the carrier. So those are the two biggest things. Cause that, you know, that allows you to make sure like, am I meeting my consumer's expectation? And then are my costs in line with what we expected to ship for this package?
Lori Boyer 19:40
Okay. So what, what is maybe acceptable margin of error? You know, what, how often should they be outside of kind of your, your service level agreement?
Megan Rudolph 19:51
For delivery and transit the carriers have set an expectation of like, you know, less than 2%. I think when you start taking in the uncontrollables, like weather, you can maybe stretch out to 5%.
Lori Boyer 20:04
Yeah.
Megan Rudolph 20:04
And I would say, you know, in terms of cost estimates, you want to stay in that same bandwidth that you want your cost to be, you know, within 5 percent of what you expected to pay for that shipment. Especially if you're, you know, writing any kind of cost estimates back to your shopper in the card as well, right?
There are some direct integrations where you can estimate charges to pass on to the consumer. So if you're, you know, saying this is going to be 5, but you actually get charged 9, right? How do you recoup that?
Lori Boyer 20:31
So, and are we looking at, how much data do we aggregate? Are we talking a month's worth of data? And then we say, well, you know, we were on time 99 percent of the time, so that was fine. But our costs were maybe 3 percent higher than I anticipated. You know, how, how much data should we be looking at?
Megan Rudolph 20:48
I think it depends on the size of the merchant and how much volume you're doing. I think monthly is a good expectation. I think if you are, you know, if, if you are a provider, a fulfillment provider, right? That you're going to do it more often as a part of the service of managing the client's parcel business. And so I would say weekly, especially if you're a large shipper, just because of the amount of data is a good, is a good practice.
But on average, I think I would think a month and then retaining that data in a way that you could look at trends month over month, year over year trends as well.
Lori Boyer 21:19
So but real time tracking you feel like is the most important data and then keeping the other data though to to review trends over time. Is that how you would?
Megan Rudolph 21:28
Correct. Yeah. So for for tracking, for live tracking data, that that's where real time becomes really important. And then once it's delivered, it's really just how long did it take to get there? You don't need to know all of the rest that happened for it to deliver. And then cost data is just as important or maybe more important, right?
Because of, just the cost of shipping is increasing year over year. And so we retain quite a bit of cost data. I think we go back to 2013 from what I, if I am, if I'm thinking correctly. So we retained quite a bit of cost data and I would say as long as you can look at multiple, like maybe three years and back, you can kind of measure the trends as the carriers increase those rates and how they apply to your business.
Lori Boyer 22:11
Okay. So let's talk cost then. That's kind of our next area. So you've got this data. So let's say you've got three years of data. What is it you're doing with it in order to optimize your costs?
Megan Rudolph 22:21
So what we look at is, you know. We really hone in on the surcharges because carriers, they increase the rates annually.
And now it's more, more often than annually. We got in the habit of doing it once a year, right? But now, you know, they've gotten in the habit of it's, it's happening pretty often. So having enough data in three years is just for long term trends. I would say you don't necessarily need that, but when you're looking at a rate increase, you want to look at, you know, your previous year data.
And how is this increase going to impact me? So you could budget accordingly. You know, this is the time when merchants will look at, do I need to increase my cost, like the cost to my consumers? Are there other opportunities to reduce costs? Do I need to go back to the carrier and negotiate? But yeah, we're really looking at you know, base transportation charges and how much those have increased.
And then, you know, how much are the other surcharges and fees increasing and how much does that apply to our business? So if you're somebody that's doing a lot of wholesale distribution and you don't do a lot of residential shipments you don't really care about the residential surcharges. So it's really important to know, you know, what are the areas that impact me? And so you have to have that data to be able to understand that and quantify it.
Lori Boyer 23:30
It sounds like the most important in terms of optimizing costs are those surcharges. Are there common surcharges people should be have their eye out for where carriers try to slip something in?
Megan Rudolph 23:41
I wouldn't say there's a lot of surprises anymore. It's more the fluctuation on them, but ones to expect, let's think ecommerce, right? So residential. So if it's going to home and it's going with, you know, one of the major carriers, it's going to get an additional fee. Delivery area surcharges, which I think there's an impression that this is like rural areas, but if you look at a map it's mostly covered in areas that, you know, would receive one of those surcharges.
I think it's close to 30 percent of the population now. Interesting. Yeah, so I wouldn't say that I live in the country, but I live in a zip code that gets assessed an extended delivery area surcharge fee. And the zip codes, those change annually too. So knowing what the zip codes and how they apply. And then if you're a big bulky shipper, if you ship, you know, workout equipment.
Those additional handling charges are a big one to keep an eye on as well. And then, during, as we go into the holiday shipping season, they're going to have, you know, peak adders on that, Especially on like the additional handling or oversize one oversize packages too.
Lori Boyer 24:42
And so is this where you then say, okay, you know, I'm looking at this. These surcharges are too much. You know, are we shifting our volume to different carriers who have lower surcharges? Are we trying to negotiate a better rate? You know, how do you take advantage of when you find those things?
Megan Rudolph 24:59
Yep. So assuming that you're leveraging some kind of technology that allows you to rate shop and you have.
Lori Boyer 25:05
Everybody better be using technology today, especially with data. Come on.
Megan Rudolph 25:09
Yeah, but if you're if you're leveraging the right system, it's going to make those decisions for you. And that's the ultimate goal, right? You want to take all of the human decision out of it and you want to have all of the information and data in there. So the system can make the best decision.
But it, you also do use that data to go to the carrier, right and renegotiate. Right now is a very interesting time for shippers. You know, two, three years ago was a really difficult time to get aggressive and competitive rates in the market. That's since shifted, and so knowing, you know, Knowing how to leverage that to negotiate is really important because you don't want to spend time trying to get a concession on something that's not going to really impact you overall. But you know, hey, if I can get a 10 percent concession here, it's going to have a really big impact on my overall spend.
So knowing, you know, what are the areas to focus on? In those conversations with the carrier and it also demonstrates your knowledge and subject matter expertise when you can come to the table and say, I know what I'm talking about, right? And it facilitates a much more productive conversation.
Lori Boyer 26:11
Okay, so I've had some, you know, especially ecommerce people say to me, but Lori, if the carrier's late, that's not my fault. I wasn't the carrier. Won't, won't my my consumers be mad at FedEx or UPS or whoever? What, what is the truth around that, Megan? What, what role does the carrier performance relate to your consumer's experience?
Megan Rudolph 26:38
Yeah, so there's probably different opinions here. I think that ultimately the merchant or the shipper owns that, right? So they're the ones that are contracting the carrier and, and the ones that need to hold them accountable and understand that, you know, how often is it an outlier exception versus a true performance issue with a carrier, right? Are we seeing a trend where we're actually having delivery issues in a region or across the board and being able to quantify what percentage is really missing at the time, right?
Because it's the ones that are missed that you hear the most of. And so making sure you're like, okay, we understand that there's this group of, you know, consumers that we missed the mark on, but it's 1 percent of our overall shipments, otherwise the carrier is doing well. So, but owning that and I think it's, it's also good for a brand to own the consumer experience, right.
And making sure that they understand, how do you accommodate those things, right. Do you offer for a free return if they're unhappy? Do you, you know, offer to pass a discount code? And building those additional costs into your overall budget based on, you know, the market that you're in and what your consumers are looking for.
Lori Boyer 27:42
Oh, that makes sense. So you mentioned a minute ago coming to the table, kind of being knowledgeable and knowing like, look, this surcharge isn't the same as what I'm seeing across the market, or can I get an extra, you know, free returns for this? What other strategies can businesses use as you know, they're working with carriers or trying to kind of create, use analytics to, for their benefits?
Megan Rudolph 28:08
When you have the data to know, it's very powerful. The other is to, you know, know who are the other carriers that you're working with that they might be competing with, right? So there's more, there's more, you know, carriers that have entered the market. So previously when we were just really talking about, you know, brown and purple there's a lot more people in the field and shippers have gotten a lot more sophisticated to be able to leverage those services.
And so being able to come to the table and say, I'm paying 20 percent less for a service that's delivering, you know, a day sooner than what you're able to offer. You know, I'm going to have, I'm, I'm, I'm going to be required to shift more volume to this if you're not able to accommodate. So in, in being able to back that up with data is really, really impactful.
Lori Boyer 28:50
Yeah, I think any argument is always better with data. My poor husband, because I'll come into everything with all the data and analytics around why this is safe or why we can, he's he's not that way. So he's like, I hate arguing with you. Okay. So I have a few questions that I just want to throw out that our audience has kind of around parcel analytics.
And we'll just get an expert's opinion on it here. So first question is how could I use data or analytics to provide a more personalized kind of experience for my customers?
Megan Rudolph 29:22
First, starting, what are you offering as options in your shopping cart, right? Making sure that you know, it's you're providing multiple options to give them the power to choose. Because some people are going to expect that expect fast shipping just because that's their expectation.
Other people are procrastinators and they waited to the last minute to order this dress for this wedding that I'm going to this weekend and I'm willing to pay the extra 25 dollars to get it here sooner. So that's why it's important to have the options. And then, in terms of the personalized experience.
So once that order ships providing that communication to your point earlier, right? We're inundated with emails, but I know one email that I always open is your order shipped or any kind of thing related to the status of an order or money that I've spent. And so personalizing that to the shopper, you know, including, you know, what are the orders if it's shipping in multiple boxes. Sometimes you're going to see it shipped from different warehouses based on inventory, so it's going to show up differently. So making sure that you're communicating that they're going to get two boxes, they're going to arrive on different days, but you're going to get your order in full. And, and again, that will also reduce the amount of time you spent addressing some of those consumer inquiries.
Lori Boyer 30:33
Yeah, I think there's a couple of things for me as a mom who has bought a billion things online. It's a little embarrassing, how much I've bought, but there have been a few times that I have been surprised. First, transparency is so critical in today's, you know, that just creates a great experience and always knowing what's going on and where everything is.
But also for some of you kind of maybe smaller businesses, I've received in some of those emails that are updates, little notes, like, oh. Please let us know what you think about this or something that's a little bit beyond, you know, the sort of standard, just your package is here. It's in St. Louis, you know?
So those are fun ways to personalize with the shipping. Any other examples you have of anybody who's kind of used parcel data that way?
Megan Rudolph 31:20
So maybe not in terms of communication, but like let's think about going into holiday, holiday shipping, right? Sometimes we're going to see a slow, right? And so making sure that even in banners on your website, you're saying, hey, it's the holidays.
You know, we want to make sure you're getting everything in time. So make sure you order by December 12th. If you want to guarantee that it's delivered by Christmas and allowing, you know, them to say, okay, I got it. I need to place this order by then. And then sometimes even incentivizing them to order sooner by running promos early, because those peak surcharges step and they get higher, they increase as you get closer to the holidays.
And so if you can, you know, have someone plan ahead, order earlier and incentivize them with a 20 percent discount, then you're going to be able to offset some of those charges that you may incur further down the road.
Lori Boyer 32:06
Okay, that is a great point moving into this peak season, especially because it we have the shortest time between Black Friday and Christmas had in five years.
Consumers don't always register that, like we have almost a week less than we usually do. So great point on letting people know about shipping dates, encouraging early sales, all of that. So this is a question I'm not surprised that I got, and it's around sustainability. There's a lot of challenges with sustainability and being eco friendly.
How can we use data to kind of improve that and not, like, bust the budget with trying to, you know, be sustainable?
Megan Rudolph 32:43
One of the things we haven't talked about is package size, right? So, the size of the package and how much you're utilizing of that box. So, minimizing, like, the amount of cardboard that you're using by maximizing what you're putting in that box.
And then, the sustainability piece, a lot of that is specific to a market or a brand. And so consumers are also more sensitive to it and willing to share some of the costs associated with that, right? So if you're working with a carrier that has a carbon neutral or, you know, some kind of offset program, you could say, you know, you could have the consumer select this specific service.
That, you know, may charge them an extra dollar 50, but that goes to like a carbon emissions program. So knowing what services offer that and, and like I said, it, this, this. We're at currently. It is pretty industry specific where we're seeing that or brand specific. And so you can work with you know, different vendors on packaging that's more sustainable. Leveraging partners that have maybe done it well previously and leveraging your network. That's a big thing we haven't mentioned yet, but you know, there's, we all aren't experts at everything. And so reaching out to those when you have them is really, really important.
Lori Boyer 33:56
That's so true. It's so important for you to understand your demographic and understand there are some audiences that that's going to be wildly important to, and some that it's never even crossed their mind. So I love, though, Megan, you say this again and again and again, and I think it's where data can be so important, but offering choices to consumers, simply having that option there, even if someone doesn't select it, will give you, you know, give a positive experience that someone thinks, oh, I'm the one who chose not to help the environment, not the company.
And I have to shout out to EasyPost here. We do anything you, so if you are a business that uses EasyPost, I'm sure some of our EasyPost customers are listening. All of our packages are offset and carbon neutral for free. So, you know, you're welcome to get a badge and put that on your site. There are lots of things you can do and there's lots of companies besides EasyPost. Carriers as well who offer those kinds of things, you know, just find out about it so that then you can let your own consumers know.
Another question, what, are there any specific risks? That they should be monitoring for through their, their parcel data.
Megan Rudolph 35:00
There are certain products that come with some regulations and compliance. So that's one thing we haven't talked about, parcel data. So going back to rate shopping. So if you are, instead of selecting a service, you're, you know, looking through a portfolio of services.
But when you come with, if you're shipping hazmat, you know, wine, tobacco, other regulated products, not all of them are eligible for that service. So having the data that indicates, okay, this is you know, a cosmetic that has an aerosol item in the order, it has to ship via ground. And so that's one of the things with, mitigating the risk is making sure that you have all of those indicators on the order to make sure that you're selecting the right service because those compliant fees are very steep.
And it's, you know, I think you get three strikes and you're out. So that's, that's one of the things to consider that we haven't talked about when you are trying to optimize across different service levels.
Lori Boyer 35:50
Megan, I would think, and, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but the more complex your shipping becomes, so if you are shipping hazmat or very expensive items or very large items, furniture, the more you do that, the more data kind of becomes important, especially when it comes to carriers and potential surcharges.
Megan Rudolph 36:09
Yeah, definitely. And I would say though, regardless of how big you are right now even if you, even if the data is manageable through manual methods today that's not sustainable as you grow. So regardless of the size of the shipper, I say, you know, have a strategy now, standardize what you want your data to look like.
That way, as you grow, you are already set up for success versus getting to a point where you're saying, hey, we need some help here. We need to get some visibility to this. Backtracking to retrofit that is a lot more difficult than just starting off on the right foot.
Lori Boyer 36:43
I cannot echo you enough on that. I spoke recently with just a brilliant leader of a very large corporation, and everything he did was in preparation for growth and setting yourself up for the future.
Otherwise, you end up being so reactive. And all your time is eaten up with responding to, to problems. So that is so smart, Megan. I love that. Please make sure you're setting yourself up for the amazing growth you are going to have. Okay. Anything in particular, this is my personal question. That you're excited about or future trends you see coming with parcel analytics. You know, how it, how is AI working with all of that? What, what is, you know, Megan's crystal ball here?
Megan Rudolph 37:28
Yep. I was going to say, so AI is one thing. As soon as you started to talk about the crystal ball, what's exciting, AI is the buzzword for everything. But one thing that makes me excited about AI, you know, I'm a data oriented person. Okay. Not all people are, and I think that AI becomes a facilitator for that. So if you don't, if you're not great with data, right, but you have an AI tool that says, show me how many labels I've created, but haven't been picked up by the carrier, right, you give it a prompt, and it can tell you versus having to go and interpret the data.
So that's the thing I'm most excited about, I would say, is giving the opportunity to those who aren't leveraging data very well today, a less of a barrier to do so.
Lori Boyer 38:12
Yes. Oh, I love that because, you know, you can take it and you do that same thing. You know, how many labels did I not, you know, we're not on what my timeframe.
And then you have followed up with is, what does that look like? You know, historically, how would that compare to other companies? Is this at what rate to consumers start feeling upset? There's so much you can just ask your questions out. And so I totally recommend that if you are not that comfortable with data now is a great chance to get in, get some of those AI tools.
A lot of them are kind of free to try even now and start playing with it. And it's really cool, the things you can do without having to jump into the data. So, okay, any final thoughts, any advice for listeners? You know, anything else final before we go?
Megan Rudolph 39:01
Again, just thank you for having the opportunity, giving me the opportunity to speak with you. I've really enjoyed it. For, for your audience I would say leverage your network of people. There's a lot of great resources out there, you know, go to LinkedIn, LinkedIn, and just, you know, start typing parcel and people will pop up, right. You know, podcast.
Lori Boyer 39:18
Are you on LinkedIn? Can they connect with you there? So start with searching for Megan.
Megan Rudolph 39:23
Yes. Yes. And then, you know, there's, there's some really great trade shows out there. But there's a lot of the the resources in the space like EasyPost and other vendors that we've worked with. They have great resources and case studies. Just go to those websites and reading.
You know, what are the things specific here that I'm also having challenges with? But then reaching out to people that you've worked with previously and leveraging the knowledge that they have.
Lori Boyer 39:50
Absolutely. I speak with people all the time, obviously, as I host the podcast, but there's so many people out there in your network that you're probably not aware.
You could just give them a call and say, walk me through this or, and they could at least point you in the right direction. You have so many resources we're often not tapping. So thank you so much. We've learned so much. There were tons of great takeaways today. Thank you again for being here. Really appreciate having you.
Megan Rudolph 40:18
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the conversation. Thank you.
Lori Boyer 40:22
See you next time, everyone.