How Tech Can Supercharge Your Store’s Shipping Operations — Amit Rosenthal | How Tech Is Transforming Freight Forwarding, Why Online Merchants Face Logistics Challenges, The Impact Of Geopolitical Factors Affecting Logistics (#284)

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Claus Lauter [00:00:00]:
This is episode two eight four of the ecommerce Coffee Break podcast. Today, Amit Rosenthal, CEO and founder of Proboxx IO, joins me on the show, and we talk about how you can provide a more transparent, streamlined logistic experience using the latest technology and innovation in freight forwarding. So let's dive right into it.

Voice over [00:00:19]:
This is the ecommerce Coffee break.

Claus Lauter [00:00:24]:
A.

Voice over [00:00:24]:
Top rate shopify growth podcast dedicated to shopify merchants and business owners looking to grow their online stores. Learn how to survive in the fast changing e commerce world with your host Klaus Lauter, and get marketing advice you can't find on Google.

Claus Lauter [00:00:43]:
Welcome to the hello, welcome to another.

Claus Lauter [00:00:45]:
Episode of the e commerce Coffee Break podcast. Today we want to talk about technology and innovation and freight forwarding. Now that's pretty much all about logistics and everything that comes with it. And I am by far means no expert in logistics at all. So I'm really looking forward to discuss all these topics today. And as an expert on the show, I have Amit Rosenthall. He's the CEO and founder of Proboxx IO. He has over 20 years of diverse experience in logistics management.

Claus Lauter [00:01:12]:
He has successfully navigated complex global supply chains and developed comprehensive strategies to streamline these processes to improve productivity and reduce operational costs for their clients. Ahmed's expertise spans from transportation management to warehousing, distribution, inventory optimization and last mile delivery solutions. So we have a lot to cover. Let's welcome Emmet to the show. Hi Amit, how are you today?

Amit Rosenthal [00:01:34]:
Hi . Thank you. Thank you for having me. How about yourself?

Claus Lauter [00:01:38]:
I'm very well, Amit, let's dive right into it. I don't have much of a background when it comes to logistics and freight forwarding, and I'm always curious to find out more about that. Maybe let's start with a definition of what freight forwarding stands for.

Amit Rosenthal [00:01:51]:
Sure. So freight forwarding, basically taking product box, whatever it is, from point a to point b. This is the most simple way to explain freight forwarding. I can say that from history, background and still up today, the business of logistics is basically handling and covered by the shipping line itself or the airline itself. So like 50 years ago there was no freight forwarding at all, or 60 or 70 years ago. So basically you as a seller or you as a buyer, you approach shipping line, said, hey, I have a container or I have a load from point a to point b. But what happened was that eventually ping line, as the overall commerce business grew around the world, shipping line could not focus on the smaller clients, right? They can focus maybe on Walmart or businesses side as that so basically, freight forward are like subcontractors, so to speak, subcontractors of this shipping line. And we are basically representing now all the shipping line right available.

Amit Rosenthal [00:02:57]:
And we are basically connecting between all the subcontractors through the logistics chain. So it started from once the cargo basically pick up from any vendor at any origin and until it's basically delivered to any destination. So in this supply chain, there is really, I don't know, to say dozens or hundreds, but let's say hundreds of people and hundreds of subcontractors, starting from domestic trucking company, port authorities, warehousing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Everyone involved in taking cargo from point a to point b and the freight forwarding, basically managing all the people or all the subcontractors through the supply chain to eventually have a successful delivery.

Claus Lauter [00:03:45]:
Now, a lot of online merchants, maybe Amazon, maybe Shopify, they're always keen to get a tracking number, and that's pretty much all they know about is, like, what's happening in the background. And as you said, there's many, many parties involved in there. So how can you operate a supply chain efficiently? Where do you start there?

Amit Rosenthal [00:04:02]:
So I think before we dive into that, the key point I would like to make here is that from my experience, let's say even a good and experienced Amazon or Shopify seller have really, I don't want to say the more experienced one, have maybe 5% knowledge to comprehend the scale of what's happening behind the scenes. Okay. I don't think anyone ever been at any port around the world, but if you ever will go to Long beach, let's say, in USA or to New York Port or Miami port, you will understand, or brimmer or whatever, big port around the world, champai, whatever, you simply will start to understand the comprehensive scale of. What does it mean even talking when you're talking about logistics, right. So because of the scale and because of the operation, because everything, so mostly Amazon seller will I have goods from point a to point b. Give me rate. The rate is okay. All right, let's move on.

Amit Rosenthal [00:05:07]:
So for the unexperienced one, the business seems very easy. Okay. I don't want to solve, but I don't understand the complexity behind the scene in that regard in terms of creating more efficiency for the business. So in general, freight forwarding, logistics, shipping line vendor, really like old fashioned businesses, right? Very, very low innovation, still working like the same. It was like 70 years ago. Think about airplanes, okay? Or Boeing or whatever, same aircraft eventually today or 50 years ago, basically the same when talking about shipping line and all the businesses behind it. So innovation is something that in my opinion very new in the logistics and the freight forwarding business. I think we can say that because of Amazon maybe, right? And because of the scale Amazon logistics.

Amit Rosenthal [00:06:02]:
Amazon is not a freight forwarding company even though they are providing no freight forwarding company, but Amazon eventually logistics business. Okay? So they want to run all the logistics starting now from the supplier, but especially whatever is like purchasing from their FBA store for FBA facility. So in my opinion, this is the innovation that brought, in my opinion the innovation into the FBA world and into the straightforwarding world is that you cannot work with sellers working in the Amazon platform with the most innovation leak for maybe and still working with email chain. Okay, I have equipment, send me the details. The details are wrong. Okay, send me again an email gluten, solve emails. Okay, where is my shipment? What's going on? Why it's delayed, why it's arrived on time? Where is it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So many questions for one lousy shipment.

Amit Rosenthal [00:07:00]:
So just for myself, if we're talking about my side and about Bobox, so we're working with some of the aggregators on the Amazon space, those aggregators, and sometimes ten brands, sometimes 100 brands, they can run between, let's say 20 skus to 2000 skus, right? So those companies, and again, as bigger you are as a seller, it doesn't matter if you are shopify seller or an Amazon seller, but the bigger you are, the more shipment you have, right? So once you started to operate hundreds of skus and hundreds of shipment per month, starting with back and forth email is simply a task that you will not be able to manage. Doesn't matter if you will bring ten VA to support you, right? So one of the regulators that we worked on the space told me, listen, amit, okay, you gave a great customer service. Your team and yourself are responsive like crazy, but it's simply nightmare. So think about creating a software of your own. So I said, you know what, I agree. I have nothing to say. But you agree. So we basically made like a reverse engineering, right? We started to think what is the process, how the process should look like, what is the shipment status that any seller doesn't matter if it's a superfluous seller or Amazon seller looking for how we can integrate with the shipping line to understand exactly the vessel location, et cetera.

Amit Rosenthal [00:08:37]:
And we build the platform accordingly. Again, the idea behind it, and by the way, in every innovation tool, all right. You're going to have some people who are going to say, wow, it's winning. Some other people who said, oh, I don't know, it's too much complex for me. But eventually, in my opinion, for the end user, it definitely get much more efficiency to the process. It gives much more visibility about where's the shipment location, what's going to be the next step, et cetera, et cetera. And eventually doesn't matter if you are a seller or if you are a buyer, purchasing like whatever product it is you want to know where is your cargo and when it should arrive. That's the two maybe biggest factor for anyone doing commerce or handling commerce or purchasing commerce or whatever.

Amit Rosenthal [00:09:27]:
So efficiency and visibility is a huge tool for anyone because as a seller you always want to know where's your inventory, where the stock going to arrive into whatever destination you want. And as a buyer, you always want to know, okay, I purchased shoes two days ago when it's going to be at my end. So the next basically innovation in the freight forwarding business. Now there is many companies have started to create tools similar like Probox that are using. In my opinion, the businesses in general understands now the importance of building a platform like that and give extra miles or extra information to their customer audience. So now it's something that 2023, especially now 2024, more companies will accept new tools in the freight forwarding business. Many, many other subcontractors, shipping line, trucking companies, whatever, also created tools, similar tools with API connection. So the industry in Greenland goes to that direction for sure.

Claus Lauter [00:10:43]:
Hey Klaus, here, just a quick one. If you like the content of this episode, subscribe to the weekly newsletter at newsletter ecommercecoffeebreak.com I score and create 50 news sources so you don't have to saving your hours of research. Grow your revenue with ecommerce news, marketing strategies, tools, podcast interviews and more. All in a quick three minute read. So head over to newsletter ecommercecoffeebreak.com to subscribe as at 100% free. Also you will find the link in the show notes. And now back to the show. It's interesting, I didn't know that that Amazon basically, obviously on the forefront of ecommerce, started this kind of trend to optimize.

Claus Lauter [00:11:18]:
And it's sort of surprising to me to hear that the whole logistics sector sort of was outdated until now. The innovation finally kicks in. I thought it was always optimized. I used to live in Hamburg and I was fascinated by these huge container ships and I thought, okay, there is a lot of software behind that to get this done, but apparently it only picks up now. I like the idea that you create clarity for the seller. The seller is under pressure from their buyers. As you said, they want to know where the shoes are or when they arrive. And on the other hand there's a lot of things that are out of the hands of a seller coming from the production plant that might be in Southeast Asia or somewhere else and then getting to a warehouse that might be an Amazon warehouse or wherever it goes to.

Claus Lauter [00:12:00]:
How do you deal or where do you get the information for like for instance the Panama canal drying out. So now the ships have to go around South America. It takes all longer. That means a proactive system obviously is very helpful. But where do you get all these data points from?

Amit Rosenthal [00:12:16]:
Right. That's a great question by the way. We can give by the way. True, like a huge, huge political issue now that is going on in the Red Sea. So you know the Red Sea there is the Suez Canal, right? Basically this is the bridge between far east to Europe. Now I don't want to enter into too much into politics, but there is the Yemen and the footim of the Yemen. This is like a tourist group called the Footim. And they basically launch missiles to every vessel that is related to Israel and to United States now.

Amit Rosenthal [00:12:51]:
So what happened is that all the biggest shipping line in the world such as Costco, Evergreen, Merris, MSC, basically the biggest shipping line in the world. Now they cannot go through the Red Sea because they're getting missiles every time they go through this region. So now they aim to bypass through western Africa. And this increased the routing from far east to Europe like in 20 days. Okay, so think about the whole supply chain what happened because of that. So if you ask me where you gather the information. So if you somebody that handling ecommerce or commerce and most likely you will not be aware of everything going on in the logistics world, right. It's simply you have other tasks to do which monstrously on the daily basis.

Amit Rosenthal [00:13:45]:
So that's something that in my opinion it's the responsibility of any freight folder you are working with. So we're sending a lot of marketing emails mainly about the political situation. There is a lot of website you can read about the news, the situation and everything. But you have to recognize that sometimes small know even if there is now a crazy storm in United States, okay, in the east coast so many airports can be closed, right? So think about the effects now even two days, two days. The main airport, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia are closed now. So think about the impact with delays and earthling that's gone on due to that. So sometimes, even if it's like a small accident or a small incident, which doesn't appear too much big in the news, whatever, it can have a huge influx eventually on the supply chain. And sometimes people try to recognize why there is a delay in my shipment or whatever.

Amit Rosenthal [00:14:52]:
So it's all about political news and the situation around the world. It has a huge and crucial impact eventually about the whole supply chain from start to finish.

Claus Lauter [00:15:03]:
No, it makes perfect sense. And I think knowing about this and having a system that you can deal with and inform your customer, your buyer about it, that there is a delay, it's always good to be proactive in communicating because that obviously will help preventing complaints from your customers. Tell me a little bit about the onboarding process or the process on getting on your platform. What kind of steps are involved? What kind of homework does a merchant have to do before they can get started?

Amit Rosenthal [00:15:28]:
Right? So basically we do not charge anything in terms of sign up or whatever. You can sign up, you can request the quotes free of charge. The sign up process is quite easy. You sign up, enter your email, your password, and you are in. And from that point on, you can add your SKU details, you can add your supplier and consignee details, you can generate quotes, you can track your shipment in much efficient way. So the process is quite easy. Everybody can try us, everybody can try to get a quote. Everybody can check our prices.

Amit Rosenthal [00:16:06]:
We have nothing to hide. And in every competitive business and sometimes think about like any service provider, I would assume, right. There is a lot going on in terms of trustworthy, right. But trust is something building along the way. Right. So normally in any business, first thing you are looking about the price. If the price is okay, then you're looking about the process. How do they communicate? What is their process time, what is the transit time, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Amit Rosenthal [00:16:40]:
And eventually you decide, okay, I got a good reputation about whatever company, let's say about Probox. This time I tried to get a quote. The response time was fast, they were communicate, the price was good. Let's tie them then it's our obligation or any service provider obligation to produce. Right? And then let's say you are a new seller, or let's say you are experienced seller, you will never, that's at least for my experience, you will never give anyone all of your business on the day one. Right? But it's a trust process, meaning you will start with first shipment then, okay, second one, third one, fourth one. And I'm telling you one thing, cross, and this is for never, never had anyone or any client that everything went smoothly with him in whole the history with Popox. Because in logistics, I told you, eventually we are the connector, right? We are connecting dots between subcontractors.

Amit Rosenthal [00:17:45]:
But eventually, sometimes things can go wrong. That's the reality. Okay? So in my opinion it's not if something went wrong, that's meaning that you have to delete the service provider you're working with. But it's how they respond and how they operate and what is their solution they're providing. So that in my opinion the biggest goal, and this is something that trust and time bidding together. So don't think that you will walk with, by the way, not just with pro books, don't think you will work with any freight folder in the world and everything will always go smoothly. It just simply doesn't go like that. But try to trust your folder, try to work with them together, right.

Amit Rosenthal [00:18:31]:
To understand what's going to be the process. If something happened, what would happen and so on. And with that information you gather, decide if you want to go with whatever.

Claus Lauter [00:18:41]:
Service provider you're working with, who's your perfect customer? Are there specific industries or niche that you work more with than with others?

Amit Rosenthal [00:18:50]:
I would say that anyone doing retail between China or India to USA or any Amazon seller around the world, because like retailers in the USA always will import goods to the United States and Amazon seller doesn't matter if you are in Argentina or in United States or in UK or in Israel or in Ukraine or you work wherever, but eventually doing most likely from China to USA, or from India to USA or from China to whatever FBA center. So it doesn't matter the history or the background you are coming from, but eventually in terms of logistics, you will do basically the same exact process. So as long as you are Amazon seller, as long as you need the freight solution, you are the perfect customer for poor books.

Claus Lauter [00:19:39]:
Okay, excellent. Before we come to the end of our coffee break today, is there anything that you want to share with our listeners that we haven't covered yet?

Amit Rosenthal [00:19:46]:
I would say that in my opinion, the biggest thing when you're dealing in freight forwarding business, especially international one, is to understand the person behind the computer. Right? Who is he? What is his background? Where does he come from? Because Krause, I'm sure, and we have like two minutes chat before we started. There is a different mentality. If you are a German, there is a different mentality if you are israeli, there is a different mentality if you're from Australia. But me as a company owner, we have to know how to handle each of one of them, right? So you have to understand that each one comes from a different mentality and you have to adjust. And in my opinion, this is the biggest thing I gained from doing like international business. And this is something I try to always advise to my staff member that, okay, I don't know, maybe this one has a bit more feelings, this one is more cold, so to speak. This one, we can build more relationship, but everyone come with a different mentality and with a different background and we have to adjust.

Amit Rosenthal [00:20:52]:
So that's the biggest thing I would say.

Claus Lauter [00:20:55]:
I think that's very important. I think that's a lesson learned if you do a lot of international business, that you not only look into the facts, into the cold facts, but also in the emotions and of the cultural background of people to make it a good business relationship. I like that a lot. I understand you have a promo code for our listeners of pro box IO.

Amit Rosenthal [00:21:16]:
Yeah. Would like to give a 200 discount for anyone coming from the podcast. So it's a coffee break. 200. I believe we can share it with the audience. We can share also the probox portal and if everyone would love to come and test us out. So you can add the promo code and hopefully you gain some shipments with us.

Claus Lauter [00:21:37]:
Okay, perfect. Where can people find out more about you and probox?

Amit Rosenthal [00:21:40]:
Every social media available. YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, WW, Probox. P-R-O-B-O-X. Imo. And yeah, in every social platform basically available.

Claus Lauter [00:21:55]:
Okay, I will put the links in the show notes, then you just want to click away. Thanks so much for your time today. I have learned quite a bit about logistics and freight forwarding and now I understand that it is even more complex than I thought and it's better to work with expert there than trying to figure it out on your own. Thanks so much for your time today.

Amit Rosenthal [00:22:11]:
Thank you.

Claus Lauter [00:22:12]:
Hey, Klaus here. Thanks for joining me on another episode of the E commerce coffee break podcast. Before you go, I'd like to ask two things from you. First, please help me with the algorithm so I can bring more impactful guests on the show. It will make it also easier for others to discover the podcast, simply like comment and subscribe in the app you're using to this to the podcast, and even better if you could leave a rating. Thanks again and I'll catch you in the next episode. Have a good one.