I have been in a whole lot of different industries throughout my career.  It has led me down many paths and some of them were revolved around manual labor and other management.  The joy of being able to be in many different industries and jobs is that you get to learn how to deal with a variety of situations.  This year I am glad for my past experiences because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  It has led to such a change in our economy and the way that we do business that my past experiences have come in handy.  Our company has shifted to doing some extra marketing tasks in-house.  This meant that my knowledge of past shipping supplies and how to utilize them came in handy.

We ended up having to order all the products directly and put our own marketing together.  This was a task that needed some past warehouse knowledge in order to get down what we needed.  Working and managing a warehouse led me to understand how manual processes and ordering of products in bulk can be the difference between success and failure.  The reason I knew this was because I had taken a warehouse department at an auto dealership more efficient one summer while I was going to college. It was a great job for the summer and it was my goal to do such a good job that they would hire me back summer after summer. 

I learned that understanding that the way a job was done could be money saving.  This was done by watching different people do the same job.  I learned that some people did things because they were told to do them and some would do what they wanted.  I asked people than to do the job differently than normal and I tracked the type of products they used, the location they did the work, and how much time it took them.  I then found the most efficient way by seeing people with experience and those without expereince do that same job.  From there I was able to track the tape, boxes, and labels that were used and how much of each product was used.  This allowed me to figure out the most efficient way for tasks to be done.  I then created systems after seeing what worked best and had the teams follow those systems.  I walked them through how each step saved their time, and the store’s money and didn’t penalize them for doing more. 

This whole lesson taught me how to take out the marketing department in-house and work on finding the best products and best way to put our projects together.  Then I went shopping for the best shipping supplies stores and found the best deal for our company. It is not an easy task to then take what you know and justify it to a board of directors. So I had to price out local stores to see what they could give us.  Then I went on Amazon to see what deals were available for our products and the time and cost of shipping involved.  When I went to major online retailers I was able to get the best deals and costs and justify it to the board with proof.  I hope these tips help your company thrive through the pandemic as well.

This year we had a pretty good year. Our company is based online and most of our work is ecommerce or services done for ecommerce companies.  This allowed us to be very efficient and relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Many companies moved into this area as well and it was a wonderful boost to us.  But even though our company does most of our work online we also benefited from some in person work.  The surprise for us was how much money we were able to save on our own shipping costs by buying the correct quantities of shipping supplies and from the right locations.

The first thing to know is that we ship different products out for our clients as a part of our company.  We even do it for our own marketing a little as well.  This is a small part of what we do but we found that it does take up a good amount of some budgets we have set aside and looking back on our previous purchases we learned a few things.

We learned that our company was spending more on letters, boxes, and especially tape then we ever thought we would.  The quantities were a bit sporadic and we decided to really focus on the quantity of each item we used and the cost involved.  We then took two months of data and planned out the amount of tape we would need.  We started to look at the amount we used per box and label.  The extra tape we used for each label was actually just as much as each box.  When it got down to the cost of sticky labels vs tape the labels were much cheaper.  We then looked at tape and saw that we were taping each box multiple times on each seam.  This showed us that the tape we were using was not effective on its own.  So we then found out that there are different thicknesses of tape which equates to strength.  This was interested because we talking to a shipping supplies store which told us the difference and the price of the thicker tape was not nearly as much as using twice as much of the thinner tape. Just this little tip alone saved us thousands off our marketing budget each month and that is a pretty penny over a year.  Then we found out another quantity which helped us.

The boxes that we were using were actually not the correct size or the thickness we needed.  Our products we were shipping were very light and the boxes we had were rated for much more than we needed.  Now since we had two months of data we took the number of boxes and bought a big bulk amount of a thinner less expensive corrugated box.  This allowed us to get a better looking package at a much discounted rate per box.

The big deal was knowing. The knowledge of cost of what we were doing and the reason why we were using each product really added up in the end and now our past q3 was much more lean and fiscally responsible.  Plus we took all that extra savings and gave a bonus to all those people involved. Yes it was our entire department, but it was still a big thank you to the people who took the extra time to learn why we were spending more.  Now for the next quarter that will all go to savings and be reinvested in our company.

If you own a truck there is an inevitable time that you will get a call from a family member or someone you have not seen in a long time before.  That call will always go, “Hey how are you? Guess what we did” then they will talk about their new move and somehow wind down to the idea that don’t you have a truck?  Yes, you will say and at some point they will have asked if you were free on a certain weekend and you said no.  Well bam, they got you and you are now helping them move.  This is a good thing and can really help people out but sometimes all those shipping supplies in your truck can destroy it.  So I want to go over a few ways to save your truck from getting toasted while moving all those shipping supplies.

One thing to know is that cardboard can scratch the heck out of your truck.  I have seen it happen when things get thrown in and they are very heavy they protrude.  So this means that if you don’t have a bed liner you need to make one. 

It is a pretty easy solution and a few large blankets or towels can actually stop a whole lot of scratches from happening.  I do suggest strapping them down with a net or straps when the truck is loaded up.  THey will fly around if not secured.  The nets that made for truck beds and moving are really cheap but are made of bunjy and work well.

Now there are usually the odd items that are heavy that get put in the truck.  This could be an elliptical or tv stand.  These usually find a way of scratching the outside of the truck paint.  I suggest getting some painters tape and layering it on the sides of your truck bed on the exterior.  Yes this adds a layer 5 of protection that can help those scratches not happen.  Once you get this done it doesn’t stick or scratch the paint when getting it off. THat is a super nice cheap way to save your truck from looking like it just went through a war.

After that just be available and be the one moving things in and out.  Be vocal and wise about how to move things in and be nice.  Niceness and good direction are usually the best way to save your truck from moving pains.

The retail market is a vast and complicated conglomerate of products and procedures that come together to create a business.  The thousands if not millions of things that have to come together for a single company to even sell a pencil is rather amazing.  Now imagine a new company selling thousands of items and need millions of things to go right every single day in order for them to be successful.  It is a profound and powerful thoughts and is one of the great marvels of modern society.  Today companies can start from nothing and begin the complicated process of being successful and have lots of options and opportunities in order to do it.  So I want to go over some of my favorite things that have allowed my shipping department to get the best shipping supplies for the job.

Trial and error.  This is one of the most important parts of the shipping process.  Lots of things can go wrong.  The wrong products can be sent or the worst retail error of all.  The security tags are still on products that were sent to a customer with no way of removing them.  So having processes in place to take care of this takes time and effort. 

It also usually takes mistakes.  So give yourself some room for error. Bad things will happen and you will have to deal with them. Plan ahead and prepare to also be able to replace things that go wrong.  So if for some reason you are using boxes instead of bags for your shipping supplies be prepared to switch them.  Sometimes it is better to use one medium over another and the reasons can be endless. 

Cost can be a big reason for making changes to items.  If you find out that shipping cost 4 dollars less to use a bag than a box then that is something to keep in mind.  But what if a bag is a dollar more per item than a box? Well there is still a three dollar difference between the two.  But then take into account the damage rate of products.  Have some arrived damaged in a bag vs a box and if so how many.  How much was the damage wand was that enough to offset the 3 dollar difference each time you ship an item out.  These calculations are very important and must be thought through in order to understand the actual cost and best supplies to get.