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What To Look for in Your UPS and FedEx Contract

UPS and FedEx contracts are complex and confusing. That’s by design. The details of your carrier contract can make a huge difference in your total shipping costs. For most businesses, shipping is one of the biggest expenses. It’s also one of the most challenging to predict and control since the parcel and freight shipping world is an ever-changing landscape with carriers able to add fees and change your costs at will. With shipping rates at an all-time high, too many are unknowingly being overcharged by their carrier. 

The secrets behind shipping costs

We’ll uncover a few hard truths about shipping with UPS and FedEx. The reality is the UPS/FedEx duopoly dominates parcel shipping. There are other players in the game like regional carriers, the USPS, and postal consolidators, but the “big two” still dominate the market share for parcel deliveries in the United States (excluding Amazon’s in-house deliveries). 

The "Big Two" Parcel Carriers

Without competition, there’s no transparency. And without transparency into your shipping data, you lack the visibility and insight necessary to make cost-saving shipping decisions. 

There are a few reasons why UPS and FedEx customers are overcharged:

FedEx and UPS can increase their rates without notice (peak surcharges) It’s challenging to understand what…
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10 Tips for Emerging Brands to Navigate Distribution Success
Fiona Lee and Larissa Russell

You’ve scaled your production, cultivated your unique branding, and grown your presence in the Consumer Packaged Goods world. Now, you’re ready to boost your sales, visibility, and reach through nationwide distribution. Where do you begin? How do you find the right distributor?

There are a few key factors to keep in mind as you kick-start a launch into retailers nationwide. The experiences we’ve had growing our Pod Foods platform have taught us a number of lessons that we’re thrilled to share with others who are looking to grow their own emerging brands. Consider the following ten factors to ensure a strong, enjoyable, and cost-effective partnership with your distributor:

1) Prioritize transparency               

It is critical to select the right distributor for your expanding business and to determine a transparent and reliable platform that will work as hard as you do to get your products placed. Prioritize the distributor that delivers the most insightful look into your company’s sales, inventory, shipments, and analytics, as these metrics help support your retailer relationships.

Additionally, keep in mind that efficiency is paramount in this industry. Emerging brands rarely have surplus cash to waste on supply chain inefficiencies, so make your distribution partner aware of …

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Making Sense of Scents: A Look at the Fragrance Industry

The scent of roses takes me back to my childhood garden, while frying bacon transports me to my grandmother’s kitchen.

Of the five senses, smell is our sense most closely tied to memory. More perfumiers are catering to that, with personalized fragrances and a new generation of perfumes targeted at today’s shoppers.

Scents remain popular with consumers. According to a 2021 Mintel report, Fragrance Trends in Beauty, 51% of American respondents wear perfume even when they’re not leaving the house, and 62% use fragrance to boost their mood.

Personalized perfume

Some perfumiers are offering quizzes to help customers select scents. Most of Pinrose’s customers opt to take the company’s online quiz, says Nancy Shalek, CEO. It was developed with scientists and the company regularly analyzes quiz results to ensure customers like what it predicts for them and often updates the quiz to keep it relevant based on consumer feedback.

Katrina Sellers launched Jules & Vetiver because she was tired of seeing mass-market perfumes “marketed the same way they have been for decades: with fancy, expensive-to-produce custom bottles, celebrity endorsements, flashy ads. It’s focused on selling an image, and almost no attention is paid to what’s in the bottle.”

Jules & Vetiver

But customer …

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One of the most intriguing coverages you may hear about in business insurance is inland marine insurance. While it has nothing to do with the sea, it has everything to do with protecting the stuff you use in your day-to-day business activities. 

Inland marine insurance is a first-party coverage. A majority of the policies you use to insure your business can help in the case of your business or product causing damage or inflicting injuries—but what if something damages the equipment you need to run your business? That’s where inland marine insurance may be able to help you. 

What is inland marine insurance? 

Also known as business personal property insurance, inland marine is a type of insurance for the tools, equipment, and other types of moveable property you use to run your business—while on the job or being transported across land. If an insured item is stolen or damaged, your insurance policy may help you repair or replace the item. 

Who uses inland marine insurance? 

If you regularly transport property or store it away from your primary business location, you should consider adding inland marine insurance to your business insurance plan. 

Inland marine insurance is often used by businesses who: …

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Mushrooms Truly are Magic for Retail and Foodservice

I recently went down a mushroom rabbit-hole. And not the kind you may be imagining.

It all started with RangeMe’s Q2 Retail Roundup Report, in which I learned that the keyword “mushroom” was trending on RangeMe among food, beverage, health and beauty care retail buyers in the United States. After digging deeper into the data, I found that buyers were searching for every variety of these formidable fungi from fresh mushrooms to supplements, beverages, jerky, and even coffee.

Armed with these insights, I took to the 2022 Plant Based World Expo floor at New York’s Javits Center to see what retailers, food service operators and brands had to say about mushrooms. I was not disappointed. Mushrooms are indeed becoming a favorite among buyers and are no longer just a staple in the produce section. They can now be foraged throughout the store in multiple categories. According to NielsenIQ Retail Measurement Services, NielsenIQ Product Insight, powered by Label Insight, there has been significant growth among some up and coming mushroom ingredients in the past three years, particularly products containing Reishi (up 72.3%), Lions Mane (up 534.5%) and chaga (up 238.4%). In total, sales of mushrooms and products containing mushrooms are up …

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Why Typical Store Locators Are Falling Off the Map

It’s no longer breaking news that customers want multiple ways to shop. Whether it’s through online ordering with curbside pickup or purchasing directly from a retailer, meeting the omnichannel demands of the modern consumer requires brands to support several buying options in the most useful, convenient, and accurate way. 

In other words, we want our cake and we want to eat it too, but we also want to know exactly where we can locally buy the cake (preferably with multiple retailers listed so we can choose our favorite bakery and have a curbside or ship-to-home option available). 

The most common way to inform customers of where to find a brand’s products is via a store locator on their website. Up until now, store locators have caused more headaches than added value for both consumers and brands:  

Old data – The inventory data available for store locators is typically a couple of weeks old at minimum and is based on retailers’ point-of-sale (POS) data. Therefore, if a brand’s product is rung up at a register within the last couple of weeks, the item could still show up as in-stock at that location. This results in customer frustration when arriving at a…
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