From Order to Doorstep | Stories With Traction Podcast

 

SHOW NOTES:

SUMMARY: In this episode, Andrew Serby and I talk about shipping products to customers.

ANDREW SERBY BIO: Andrew Serby is the founder of EnterMarket, a full-service third-party logistics (3PL) provider supporting the broad and maturing needs of companies operating in the wholesale, retail, and e-commerce marketplaces. Andrew founded the company in 2001 with the initial goal of servicing packaged media companies with their manufacturing and logistics needs. Andrew quickly expanded EnterMarket’s capabilities to serve the needs of a broad array of consumer product companies. EnterMarket combines sophisticated technology with a customer-focused solution necessary for full-service warehouse and fulfillment, kitting and assembly, and freight management. After 20 years of operation and expansion, Andrew sold EnterMarket to Beanstalk Innovation. EnterMarket is the e-commerce and retail backbone for Beanstalk’s aggressive growth plans as a full-service 3PL service provider. Andrew joined the leadership team at Beanstalk to lead the sales and business development efforts. Since joining Beanstalk, Andrew has helped the company grow 3-fold in 2 years.

Before starting EnterMarket, Andrew was a Senior Director, managing the outsourced integrated supply chain services for BMG Entertainment’s North American operations. For over a decade, Andrew led BMG Entertainment’s supply chain initiatives, driving efficiencies that resulted in over $300 million of savings. Andrew earned a Business and Psychology degree from Skidmore College.

For more info, click HERE. 

MATT ZAUN BIO: Matt is an award-winning speaker and storyteller who empowers organizations to attract more clients through the art of strategic storytelling. Matt’s past engagements have catalyzed radical sales increases for over 300 organizations that range from financial institutions to the health and wellness industry.

Matt shares his expertise in persuasion with executives, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs, who he coaches on the art of influence and how to leverage this for profits and impact.

For more info, check out Matt Zaun HERE. 

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors.

Matt Zaun 

Andrew, welcome to the stories with traction show.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

Thank you so much, Matt. Thanks for having me.

 

Matt Zaun 

I appreciate your time. know how busy you are. I really appreciate you sharing insights with us before we get into those insights.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

Can you just give us a little bit of background on your company? No problem, Matt. I founded a company called Enter Market 22 years ago with the idea of servicing small to mid sized businesses with a sophisticated warehouse solution.

Did that for 20 years and two years ago made the change to bring on investors and grow the company substantially.

so the last two years, I have focused on buying other companies like my own and creating a national third-party logistics footprint that solely focuses on small to mid-sized companies, consumer product companies, and their fulfillment needs.

 

Matt Zaun

So here's why I wanted to have you on, Andrew, is because I think there's a tremendous amount of frustration right now with companies that feel that they're competing with how quickly Amazon can deliver products.

we've been basically primed as a culture that do you like that primed as a culture? Amazon Prime, but in two days, we get our stuff.

if it's longer than two days, we get frustrated. And a lot of companies are trying to figure out how do they expand their warehouses?

How do they figure out how to set up channels to get products to their for their customers quicker. So can you take us through recognizing the frustration, but some of the things that organizations can do in order to at least have the customer perceive that they're getting their stuff quicker?

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

Sure, so I kind of have a couple answers on that. One is the reason I talk about doing a national footprint is to create an opportunity at East Coast and a West Coast opportunity for e-commerce fulfillment.

So brands that have a reasonable skew count, we can house their product in multiple locations, one of these goes, one of the West Coast, to create a quicker time to market because time to market does matter significantly.

The other factor I would say is that while people think they want orders in two days, they really want a tracking number within same day, next day.

And we find that consumers are calm as soon as they have a tracking number that it's shipping. If it takes three or four days to get it, we don't see the type of customer frustration.

We find the customer frustration happens when they don't get a tracking number within two or three days. If it takes two or three days to get a tracking number, and I talk to our warehouses a lot about this because I tell the story, know, I do this for a living and I order something and if I don't have a tracking number the next day, I think the company's a hack and I'm frustrated and I assume my order's not coming and I do this for a living.

And so I think it's very important to understand as a brand that you have to work with a warehouse that's getting your orders out the door, which will lower your customer service complaints.

And if it takes a few days extra to actually arrive, you will not hear that problem.

 

Matt Zaun

So this is fascinating to me because this ties into an element of communication, right? So what I'm hearing you say is that if the customer has that communication,

indication they're getting that email and explaining to them what will be at their doorstep. They're set at ease a lot more and it's amazing the experiences that companies can do with this.

I can actually be creative. So as soon as you said that it reminded me of a story last year I was ordering something for the holidays.

And I'll never forget it was a smaller company. And the lead time was pretty long. was well over a week for them to get it to me.

But yet the email communication was phenomenal. I got that tracking number right away. There was a story about how another customer had used the product and how I should get excited.

Then like two or three days later I got another email keeping up that excitement with the tracking information. And then the day before I got an email.

So the communication along the way was almost as if they were getting the excited along the way. I think a lot of times companies feel that they're at a disadvantage if they can't get product to their customers right away.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

There's an element of story time that could take place within the email marketing back to the customer. So I appreciate you saying that.

Completely agree with that. I mean, I really think communication is the key to all business, right? It's not just for us to communicate with our, with the brands and they communicate with their customer.

It's vital for everyone to understand the entire supply chain. So we have to understand the mentality of our customers' customer.

And that is very important to success. And we have to provide them the tools that they can answer their customers' questions.

So real time tools, accurate, up to date is crucial to providing a good customer experience in e-commerce.

 

Matt Zaun 

So you mentioned understanding the customer of the customer of the customer. You it's amazing because what you do sounds like Greek to some people, right?

Your world is not other people's world. So when they hear stuff about fulfillment and all these different elements, like they don't understand that.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

So how do you break that down into terms people can understand? Well, I think it's just very important. I'll give an example, give the story of, so one of our clients was having trouble with getting product into Walmart successfully.

And they were getting what the industry called just chargebacks for basically not having the good show up as Walmart wants them.

So we as a warehouse could say, well, we did what we were supposed to do. And we followed the rules and sorry, Walmart is just trying to charge you because they can get away with it.

We didn't take that attitude. We said to the client, hey, let's see if we can get it set up a tour and we'll go to the Walmart warehouse and talk to the people that are levying these charges.

And so we showed up, we figured out. We spoke to them, we figured out what would help make it go away.

And the whole situation went away. So it's not just about talking to our customer, it's getting to the next level and understanding what's important to their customer to provide a better service.

And I think it's crucial that we don't just go one deep in the supply chain. We go every direction and try to be a great provider to these consumer product companies that need this help.

 

Matt Zaun 

So I appreciate you mentioning going to the warehouse because I've heard numerous stories of leaders going into a warehouse and taking a learning tour, actually learning all the different aspects of the warehouse so they know what it looks like, what people on the ground are doing, how they're even seeing their product.

story comes to my mind, I hope I'm getting the company right, believe it was barefoot wine, where the owner of the company went into a warehouse and recognized all

All the crates looked exactly the same. So they started to color code their line so that they knew that the employees were gonna treat it with respect because they continued to connect with those warehouse employees.

So there was less line being broken because of the warehouse employees having a relationship with the owner. So there's something we started going into a warehouse and actually seeing what's taking place so we understand it.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

I appreciate you mentioning that. Yeah, I completely agree with them. ask our clients to visit their location, try to be once a year.

And I explained to them how crucial it is for you to show up and the people that do the work every day on the floor to meet you and for you to show your appreciation to the people that have hard jobs working on a warehouse floor.

So I do think that it all comes down to personal communication and a personal touch. I think is. crucial to business, especially in the small and mid-sized businesses.

That personal touch and that sense of caring goes a long way. And I speak a lot about that. speak a lot about a culture of caring.

We care about our employees. We care about our customers. Most warehouses talk about KPIs, metrics,.9 shipped in this. And I talk about a culture of caring.

I talk about the fact that we care to fold the tissue paper over in your box. So when your consumer opens it, it's the experience you wanted them to have.

We tied the bow the right way. We put the label on in the place that you wanted it done.

And that consistency and that care is what separates the brands from having a good customer experience and it separates us from other warehouses who focus on metrics and I focus on what matters to

 

Matt Zaun 

customer. That's a really good point. I appreciate you mentioning that. Let's talk about the stress that comes with the holiday season for people that are shipping products.

we just experienced Black Friday. We are quickly heading into the holiday frenzy with ordering. a lot of people are excited.

lot of people love December. They love experiencing the holidays. But yet there's a lot of stress for people that do want to deliver to their customers in a timely manner.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

So can you take us through some best practices when it comes to holiday shipping? Sure. Black Friday is almost the thing of the past.

Friday, every brand decides when they're going to start their Black Friday sales. We actually found that the holiday season started on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

that most of our clients ran a lot of their Black Friday specials on the week before. And so what we found was incredible uptick in orders to a crazy level.

We have experienced three times order volume than we did last year. And that goes to growth, but it goes to a lot of factors.

But we're finding e-commerce is just booming, absolutely booming. And so we hit our holiday peak, starting our peak the Saturday before, and it has not stopped yet, which is wonderful for our brands.

But it creates a lot of stress for the warehouse. The warehouses are working seven days a week. We normally ship every e-com order within same day or the next day.

And this time of the year, we're probably out two or three days, which creates that stress. that I talked about and the increase in customer service calls.

So when you get three times or five times the volume, it's just harder to keep up to that same service levels.

So this is where small-to-midsized brands need to communicate and we as a warehouse need to listen our customers and get the orders out and the priority they ask us to get out.

And so, and what will happen is by tomorrow, we will catch up from the last couple weeks. this two weeks has created a lot of stress for the employees who are working seven days a week and for the customers who are having to field more customer service calls.

anxiety is high. The good news is we're still three weeks out from Christmas and it will hit a steady state from here out.

worst is behind us. This was the peak of Christmas for us, these two-week period.

 

Matt Zaun 

Now leading up to Christmas though, what, like what are some, you continue to mention communication, so communication with warehouse employees.

What does that look like with the weeks leading up to Christmas? What could some individuals do to make sure they're making those connections?

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

I just think it's very important to set expectations as a brand on your website in terms of, especially as we get close to Christmas time, because the carriers have caught offs when they will no longer guarantee.

So we're working with brands to understand what's important to them. We're changing the shipping method to, you know, two-day air or different shipping methods as it gets closer and closer to Christmas.

But you as a brand, you know, it's crucial that you communicate and you stick to what you said and we deliver for Christmas, because there's nothing worse than people having expectations and being disappointed.

You're rather pass up a few sales by communicating and not getting an order than failing on a

 

Matt Zaun 

customer. That's my opinion. That's really good point. also, I appreciate you speaking to the creativity of this, meaning you said that Black Friday for a lot of your customers started the Saturday before Thanksgiving and what that meant for them.

So I would encourage everyone listening that if you're going to have quote unquote Christmas deals, they can decide a certain day that is plenty of time to make sure that the products could be there and have a build up marketing campaign to that specific day.

doesn't need to follow everyone else, right? And one of the ways to get above the noise is to create a unique day that we can promote.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

So I appreciate you mentioned that, Andrew. Yeah, it's interesting, Matt, because believe it or not, the year before, most of our clients, the volume started kicking up even a week earlier.

So I would actually say that our peak started later this year than previous year. And so the previous year was much easier for us because the period was

spread out much longer. And so this two week period became so crazy because, you know, just the tremendous jump in a consolidated period.

Last year was probably over more of a three week period or four week period.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

Because people ran their sales even earlier last year. And there's one other interesting thing that's happened this year, which I will kind of share is, you know, we talk about Amazon and people's websites and all the other ways that they promote their product on, you know, all the Walmart.com and Target.com and all these different sites that people promote their products online.

One of the big new players this year is the TikTok marketplace that has created a huge buzz and a huge increase in orders, especially in things like cosmetics and kind of those impulse fund purchases.

 

Matt Zaun 

So I have to ask you, because I would venture to say based on what I know about my audience, that the overwhelming majority of my audience is not on TikTok.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

But their kids are.

 

Matt Zaun

So good point. What would be some things that you would even mention regarding TikTok marketplace that people should be aware of?

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

I mean, to be honest with you, it's really only become a relevant marketplace in the last three or weeks.

But from an e-commerce brand, have seen some brands have, you know, it's tripled their volume. I mean, it's bigger than it's the biggest channel they have right now.

And so it just it's here to stay and it's only going to grow. And I think it's become a major player and I don't see it going away.

 

Matt Zaun

Wow. So essentially, because it's going to continue to take over, this will be something that companies are going to need to figure out.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

I think that depending on your product, right? depending on your demo and your product. I do think that the TikTok marketplace will be a major player and it will become, you know, you never thought about TikTok marketplace before, you know, maybe I mentioned it or in the last few weeks, but it will be a common, you know, platform for purchasing over the next year.

 

Matt Zaun 

So I've never heard of it. I'm not on TikTok myself. It's not where my prospects and clients are, but I understand what could happen based on what you're saying, because I know how powerful of a platform.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

I don't think there's a question that you will be in a year from now. You'll be like, of course, people buy stuff on TikTok marketplace versus never hurting, you know, hearing of it before.

 

Matt Zaun 

Sure. Wow. Okay. Well, I've learned a lot from you today, Andrew. I appreciate your time. There's three things in particular that I'm going to have as takeaway from our conversation.

I really appreciate you mentioning the tracking number, okay? Because I've heard from a lot of business. businesses that have been freaking out regarding we're not getting our product out in time.

I think there needs to be a perspective shift that at the communications right and they can even be creative about it, adding different stories and messages in their marketing emails back to the customers after they purchase with the tracking number.

I really appreciate that point. I also appreciate you mentioning a lot of businesses view the importance of KPIs when it comes to the warehouse.

You said culture of caring, which leads to people caring enough to take learning tours in the warehouses so they understand the process.

That was a really good second point. And then the third point you've mentioned, again, it ties into communication and creativity.

We can decide when the promotion starts. So you'd mentioned, you know, this year, the Saturday before Black Friday and even in years before weeks before that, we can decide, hey, this is the day we're going to do our marketing campaign.

This is more We're going to push the messages out and we could take advantage of getting above the noise because if everyone's doing Something at the same time.

We're going to stand out by being creative. So those are three of my takeaways I know people listening might have gotten other takeaways and you might have caused a lot of interest based on what you do So if people want to get more information on you and your services, where's the best place they can go to get that information?

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

And they can reach out to us on our website at veriday fulfillment USA calm and think Matt you'll publish that in writing for me and Just happy to help happen answer any questions You know doesn't don't feel like I'm having to pitch anyone on new business always just having to help people and Create long-term relationships, so it's what we're all about and If I can help anyone and give any advice always happy to be there for anyone Perfect.

 

Matt Zaun 

I will include that in the show notes people can just click and go right there. Andrew, thank you again for your time.

very much appreciate our conversation.

 

Andrew Serby (EnterMarket)

Matt, I appreciate being on and I hope you have a wonderful holiday.