The Future Of Ecommerce Shipping — Erez Sages | Why Sellers Must Adapt To Trade Laws, How AI Avoids Delivery Issues, How Automation Speeds Up Shipping Tasks,

The Future Of Ecommerce Shipping — Erez Sages | Why Sellers Must Adapt To Trade Laws, How AI Avoids Delivery Issues, How Automation Speeds Up Shipping Tasks, Speaker 2: This episode is sponsored by Bravo. Speaker 3: Time to take your marketing to the next level. Brevo is the all-in-one marketing platform that helps you connect with customers through email, SMS, WhatsApp, and automation – all from one easy-to-use platform. Keep your customer data organized, personalize every message, and drive real engagement effortlessly. Try Brevo for free or use eCB to save 50% on starter and business plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Head to brevo.com slash eCB today. You will find the link also in the show notes. Speaker 2: Hey there, this is Claus Lauter and you're listening to the Ecommerce Coffee Break podcast, the show that helps you become a smarter online seller. In today's episode, we discuss how to navigate global trade shifts, the future of eCommerce shipping and what this has to do with AI. Joining me on the show is Erez Sages. He is the founder and CEO of iBundle, a pioneering tech eCommerce logistics platform optimizing international supply chains for global brands. So let's welcome him to the show. Speaker 3: Hi Erez, how are you today? Unknown Speaker: Hello, I'm great. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 2: Erez, shipping can be very complex. What are the biggest issues affecting global eCommerce shipping right now? Speaker 1: I think that at the moment, we can see a lot of diversity and changes in regulations. Just yesterday, we had the announcement of Trump's new administration signing the executive orders, changing the way the U.S., one of the biggest consumers in the world, are approaching eCommerce and tax and duties and how they look at the cross-border shipping trade. So I think that's one of the main concerns at the moment in our niche of B2C, B2B, cross-border shipping. That's a huge threat and a huge opportunity at the same time. So I think that's one of the most interesting issues at the moment and what are the solutions out there and how I asked a logistic company or eCommerce business how they are going to handle it from their perspective. And now it really depends where you are. You're in China, you have different duties, you're in regulations, you're in the UK, in Europe, and each country got its own kind of method. So it's complex things, and we know that supply chain is complex anyways. To add to it another complexity, which can be very …very downside and also a great opportunity for lots of the brands that haven't got into a cross-border and to sell cross-border worldwide. Speaker 2: Shipping logistic has been a very traditional business for a very long time, but there's a lot of innovation specifically with AI that came in. And as everyone has to ship out their products, obviously you need to look into it and optimize. What are the latest innovations in tech when it comes to logistics? Speaker 1: I think that the latest – we're looking at ourselves and iBundle as entrepreneurs in the supply chain and we involve a lot of AI in our system. Optimize the routes, so understanding what is the best way to ship from A to Z and to find the best route in order to do it. And there's lots of ways, there's lots of providers. That's their job. That's what they're doing on a day-to-day basis. And we're here in order to find the best solution for every single package and to determine which option is going to be the most beneficial for the business and for the client. The eCommerce world is developing enormously and it's changing a lot in the past five, six years. The logistics aren't, and there's a gap, and this gap can be leveraged due to technology. First of all, understanding what are the problems. Second of all, understanding how to solve them within the existing options and to add on them lots of other different shipping methods using technology capabilities. I know it's a buzz and everyone likes to say AI because it's the new thing out there, but I can talk on our behalf and our innovation part of it is I would say kind of a brain behind the scenes that controls the shipping tower, who controls each and every route, each and every way from A to Z, which one is the best option, not just on price-wise, on time of arrival, on regulations, on was the journey was successful. In the past, was it not successful? So we learn all those and we learn not just from us, we learn from A lot of different logistics providers, eCommerce businesses, we learn from their data and we learn from their past experience on age scopes, on regulations, on EPAs, on last mile providers, on returns, percentage of return per query, percentage of loss, percentage of damages. And then we show our customers that we think that's the best option, not just one, but multiple options that we think you should approach from your destination from A to Z. In that way, we find a cost-effective way for our clients and for their clients, B2B2C, and we're always trying to create a successful path. So, the logistics world It's not that they don't care if the package will make it or not. They do, they care, but to some instance, like the big threes, UPS, FedEx, DHL, you can ship with them and it's great. They won't guarantee anything as well, but you can ship whatever you want to wherever you want. It might stuck in customs, it might go back. We're trying not to do that. We're trying to understand, first of all, if What's the success ratio for that package and that material to arrive from A to Z and what we think you should avoid doing? It helped us a lot. Obviously, it's a lot of taking upon of us and a lot of things that we need to understand before we decide. Nothing is 100%, but the chances that the journey from A to Z will be accomplished by this method are high likely. So, the system will choose that option because we don't want to have thousands of whizmo, where's my package, from end clients to the business and get hit by them. That's not cost effective for us, even though if it's going to cost for all of us another $2 at the end of the day. We prefer to have low ISMOs, great success, and I think that's where the eCommerce world is going at the moment as everyone wants quiet. They want to sell their goods. They want to make sure it arrives to the client. They want to make sure it's in a comfortable price so they're still making money or subsidizing the shipment but not hearing back from their customer a bad experience at the end of the day, which reflects on their store. So, I think that's the key element at the moment with eCommerce global shipping. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of business can feel you. And I have been a seller for eight years on Shopify. And the last thing you want to do is dealing with customer requests when UPS or one of the bigger ones messed it up. And then you have an unhappy customer, probably not a returning customer. And it's just a lot of waste of time involved in there. And obviously, it comes up for a cost. Now, let's talk about cost. I want to do things a little bit differently when it comes to cross-border shipping. Tell me how that works. Speaker 1: Yes, so we're trying to find, for each customer, we're trying to find the best option for him. So we know there's not, usually there's not one shipping option for customers. He has some expensive items that he would like to ship express and have some insurance on top of them. And that usually is around 15-20% of a regular medium-sized business. The rest used to be, four or five years ago, used to be shipped by postal services. Now, these days, most of postal services are not really compliant with eCommerce services. You can't really ship something with a post option from A to Z in a marketplace and not have an answer in three weeks' time, where's my package? Your grade is going to go down and therefore, what you just said at the moment, not happy customers, not happy business, not happy marketplace, everyone's unhappy. It's a combination of those things. Because the postal offices are failing, it's a fact, and they lost, in the past two years, 70% of their volumes into consolidators, into other providers, because they can't afford that type of service. Everyone needs to be Amazon-oriented service, it needs to be there, it needs to be on the spot, it needs to be fast, it needs to be cheap, it needs to have the old package, and it's very hard to do so. We always find those 15-20% of, we call it express and fast service, and the other 80% with mixed options that we can find and help the customers. Usually, they're a bit higher than the postal service, but they're much more sufficient for eCommerce businesses. So, it's always in between. It really depends on the business itself sometimes. It depends on the checkout strategy that the business has, free shipping. So, obviously, you need to choose something that will lie in between the express and the postal, just in between. And that's the aggregators, the consolidators, the freight forwarders, the type 86 into the U.S. and the I.O.S. sensors into Europe. So we're finding the best solution, tailor-made payer customer, and we're integrated to all of these brokers, last-mile providers, freight forwarders. So we actually, we're building the shipping method for the business itself. So I think that's also very unique and doing everything by the system, by that brain that I said before. That's our secret sauce, how to build it all and make it all work. Nothing is always 100% automatically, but most of the stuff that we do are automatically and we involve AI in it, like we mentioned in the beginning, and makes things much, much faster. And it's just a very exciting time to be in that industry, I think. Speaker 2: It just highlights that shipping logistics is a very complex topic. I didn't know that 70% of the volume went away from the traditional post office, which shows you that you need to be on top of the game to not lose money by shipping as an online seller. How does it work if you are an omni-seller? So you're selling on multiple platforms like, say, Amazon, Shopify, eBay, whatsoever. Now, all of a sudden, you have different platforms you're selling on, and with that comes more complexity. How can you handle that? How can you make that easier? Speaker 1: So we have a multi-channel for those eCommerce brands. We have more than 40 different integrations into marketplaces. And website builders such as Shopify, WordPress, etc. And in a few clicks, we integrate the stores into iBundle that we get all the orders into the system. And for every client, we choose rules. So there's kind of a rule after we understood the method we want to operate with you. We operate automation rules. We'll choose every time the option for Spain, use X, Y, Z. For X, you need documentation, say, country of origin X in order to avoid taxes. So, all of the things will be behind the scenes automatically and choose the best option for your shipping. It doesn't matter where it came from, which marketplace. Obviously, each marketplace has its own rules, its own regulations, its own tracking method. So we're trying to be very sensitive to it and to provide them whatever they need in each marketplace. And the customer, at the end of the day, has visibility. That shipping tower, you can look at it in one place, in iBundle. And understand this order came from Etsy and it went with X. This one came from Amazon, went with Y. This one is also, I have another, I have a warehouse in the U.S. where I do some Amazon, I do some of my own, so I have that as well. So I can manage everything from one stop shop, if you call it, if you will. That's how we support those multiple integration marketplaces. Speaker 3: And now a quick break to thank the sponsors of today's episode. Are you looking to take your business marketing to the next level? Meet Brevo, the all-in-one marketing and CRM platform designed to help you connect with customers, drive engagement and grow your business. With Brevo you can manage all your customer interactions in one place, nurture leads through their built-in CRM, reach them through email and SMS and boost retention with powerful automation efforts. Effortlessly create personalized multi-channel campaigns that ensure every single customer gets the right message at the right time. And that's not all. Brevo offers AI-driven personalization, advanced analytics, seamless integrations and more, giving you everything you need to market smarter, not harder. Get started for free or use code ECB to save 50% on starter and business plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Head over to brevo.com slash ECB and take your marketing further with Brevo. You will find the link in the show notes. Speaker 2: Okay. It makes perfect sense to have everything in one place, specifically with platforms like Amazon, where you need to prove that you have delivered on whatever and to get punished if you can't. You want to have everything in one place. Now, if you have delivered successfully to the client, obviously, there's a huge percentage of clients who are sending it back and have a return. How do you track returns? Speaker 1: So, there's two kinds of returns. In very high levels, there's two kinds of returns. There's a return to sender, which was a kind of a failure to arrive to the client. So, everything arrives to our facility, we get scanned there, it shows on the system. And we decide with the customer, some customers would like to store it, some customers would like to ship it back, some customers would like to wait with it a few months until they have some kind of a bundle to go back. So it depends. That's option A. Option B, it's an option to provide, because we're dealing with cross-border, so to provide those customers with an option to return their goods. And it arrived. It's not my size. I want to return it. So we have a unique link for every customer. That customers there can print the label, go and drop off their package in the next post office. It will all arrive to our warehouse. We will consolidate it again and ship it back to the destination. So we provide both options for returns. Speaker 2: You talked me through your Shopify app. How does it work to calculate all the shipping rates, tax, duties, whatever, so that the customer during the checkout already knows what he pays for the whole logistics process? How does it work? Speaker 1: Yeah. So, we have an iBundle app on Shopify. It's very easy to use. It's a simple download, and then Ivan will provide you after we have a conversation. You can download it and have everything in place, but it's recommended to have a conversation with us afterwards so we can build the structure for you. While you're doing it, we can advise for the client what's going to be the duties and tax in origin, in destination, what's going to be the shipping cost. Shipping options that we can provide him. Two shipping options. One is free. It's free for the client, but it's not obviously free for the business, so he needs to know how much it's going to cost. Flying from the UK to the US to Texas, that's option A. But if it flies to Alaska, then obviously that's not apples to apples. It needs to reflect also to the client and the checker. So it really depends on the customer himself, the business, the strategy he wants to have on his Shopify store. Do I want to show the dues and tax or I don't want to fray the client? I want to pay it myself and deduct it from the price. So there's lots of ways and we can choose whatever option you want and eliminate whatever you don't want. A lot of customers don't want – back in the days, two years ago, no one would want to show the dues and tax on the checkout, so you won't – it led to 60% of cart abandonment. Just to show the duties and tax on the checkout. And so a lot of people would avoid it. And by the way, most offices arrive at the destination calling you, you have $60 to pay for that package, and now either you pay it or not. And that's too late. That's already too late. You want to be at the checkout itself and make sure that the strategy you took is the right strategy per that destination. And you want to be as upfront as you can with your customers and make sure it's It's free shipping. Make sure they know that it's in tax. Make sure they know that's the ETA so you have not as much noise as it can be. And keep your clients happy. That's the most important thing. And automate your process as a business, not to deal with it all day long and understand from multiple charts and multiple services which option should I choose. And so we save on that a lot of time for our businesses going over charts and deciding which option should I use today for this destination, for this way, for this zip code, with this commodity. And there's a lot into it. And the system does lots of organization in our business's mind in order to reflect every time what's the best, what's the really best option for you. That's our aim, to make it simple and to make it cost effective for the businesses. Speaker 2: Yeah. Who's your perfect customer? How long does the onboarding take? Speaker 1: It really depends. We have micro-businesses, small and medium-sized businesses that they can onboard by themselves. And if they're tech-oriented, usually they will get it pretty fast and can start shipping by themselves. I think the best clients are medium-sized clients. Medium-sized, each country classified differently, but medium-sized customers that They have some experience. They have some experience. They understand. They're not just pushing for the lowest price out there, but they understand the value of automation. They understand the value of finding different methods. They understand the value of support and automated support. And businesses that understand that automation is the new tool, you don't have to hire 20 people just to find the tracking on each packet. You can understand that and usually those are the best clients. We also work with a lot of logistic providers that provide solutions for eCommerce businesses. We're logistic providers who provide eCommerce to eCommerce businesses as solutions. So we work there as a partnership and we provide them both the full solution. It works amazingly together. We found that you can scale and you can work in a lot of places worldwide with this kind of partnership method. Those are the two favorite clients, I would say. Speaker 2: Okay, cool. Obviously, you charge for this. What's your pricing structure? How does that work? Speaker 1: We don't charge any monthly fee or anything like that. We charge per transaction. So every transaction that a client made on the system, that's why you can ship a thousand or two shipments a month. We will charge you just on what you ship. We don't take any additional charges outside of it. In order for it to be cost-effective, we started from We're very micro businesses and we grew with them to medium and we have some enterprises as well. But our heart is always with the small and medium size that are struggling. And for them, it's just the difference between the game, if I'm going to survive or not, usually with those businesses that ship 100 shipments a month. It's a small business and every cent counts. And we know that. We know that we started at that point. So it's very important for us. Not to be cheap, but to have access to all kinds of customers who want to have access to our system. That's one of our flags that we started with, and we support that. Speaker 2: Okay. That makes sense. And I think the very important thing that you highlighted earlier is that you need to be transparent with your clients and not having them upset when they get the notice that they have to pay another $60 or something on that. Cost of acquisition of a new client is already very high. Profit margins for a lot of online sellers there are not that huge. So you really want to optimize, you want to be transparent, and obviously you want to use automation as much as possible to make your own life easier. Now, before our coffee break comes to an end today, is there anything that you want to share with our listeners that we haven't covered yet? Speaker 1: I think that we just heard yesterday on the Trump administration, which is going to shuffle the cards a bit. A lot of businesses that used to do B2B will shift to B2C or try to do B2B under the B2C on the minimis up to $800. So I think it's going to be a lot of shifting towards those kind of methods that we support. So I think that it's also very challenging from one end, but on the other hand, it's a great opportunity and businesses shouldn't be afraid from these taxes, but try to find creative ways and we can help there how to handle those kind of scenarios and there's many options that can be done from many places worldwide into the U.S. It's the biggest market out there. So I think we would love to support those businesses anywhere in the world that need solutions into the U.S., into the U.K., into Europe. We're scaling very fast in those regions, and we're always looking to optimize and find new partners in regions that we don't work at the moment. To have AI Bundle exposure out there, yeah, that's I think the only part. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah, I'm with you. I think there's a lot of opportunities out there. Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty right now, but if you have an expert on your side like yours to coach you through this process and make the most out of it, then there is huge opportunities and you might even be better than most of your competitors and crush the market with a better solution than the others have. Where can people find out more about you guys? Speaker 1: So we have a website. I bundle labor on LinkedIn. We're on Facebook and emails, of course, and I can share my email afterwards and happy to answer any questions, any business that has any consulting on his cross-border shipping. We're very happy to help. Sometimes we're the best solution, sometimes we're not. That's okay. We're friends with everyone and we just like to improve ourselves, improve the way shipping is done on the cross-border way. We find it fascinating. I find the logistic world fascinating and how to involve the tech into it. It's just mind-blowing when you understand it fully. So happy to share it with the listeners, customers, knowledge base, domain experts. Speaker 2: I hope a lot of listeners will reach out to you if you're selling online. Logistics is the most important thing and to have that, you need to talk to an expert. So I will put things in the show notes and you're just one click away and I hope to talk to you soon. Thanks so much for your time today. Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Speaker 3: Before you leave, don't forget to visit the sponsor of today's episode. Time to take your marketing to the next level. Bravo is the all-in-one marketing platform that helps you connect with customers through email, SMS, WhatsApp, and automation – all from one easy-to-use platform. Keep your customer data organized, personalize every message, and drive real engagement effortlessly. Try Bravo for free or use eCB to save 50% on starter and business plans for the first three months of an annual subscription. Head to bravo.com slash eCB today. You will find the link also in the show notes. Speaker 2: Hey, Claus here. Thank you for joining me on another episode of the Ecommerce Coffee Break podcast. Before you go, I'd like to ask two things from you. Speaker 3: First, please help me with the algorithm so I can bring more impactful guests on the show. Speaker 2: It will also make it easier for others to discover the podcast. Like, comment, and subscribe in the app you're using to listen to the podcast and even better if you could leave a rating. And finally, sign up for our free newsletter and become a smarter online seller in just 5 minutes. We create content from more than 50 sources, saving you hours of research and helping you to stay on top of your eCommerce game with the latest news, insights, and trends twice a week in your inbox, 100% free. Speaker 3: Join now at newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com. Speaker 2: That's newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com. Thanks again and I'll catch you in the next episode. Speaker 3: Have a good one.