044: How to Handle Supply Chain and Shipping Issues
Sarah Williams covers tactics for subscription box owners facing shipping delays: extend planning to 60-90 days, use US warehouses and air freight strategically, and keep backup items ready. She recommends transparent communication with subscribers and surprise coupons to maintain goodwill when delays happen.
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Almost every day inside my membership Launch Your Box, I see a member post about how to handle a product shortage, a supply chain issue, or a shipping delay. Everyone from Target to small business owners are dealing with it. Let's talk about how to handle these issues as they come up. Come listen. Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to talk a little bit about how to handle supply chain and shipping issues. And as you heard in the intro, literally every day someone in our Launch Your Box community is posting and asking questions like, how do I handle this? How are you guys handling this? What should I do here? And I think it's such a common issue going on right now that we need to talk about it, and we need to talk about what you should do, how you should plan for these things. And if you haven't experienced it yet, I'm going to say that you're lucky because you'll probably experience it soon. We saw a lot of issues start to arise really early on in 2020 as the pandemic was affecting a lot of overseas product supply, you know, issues first. As that pandemic traveled into the U.S., it started to really shut down a lot of things for us, and we had to get creative. We're now well after— it's been well over a year now and it's not getting any better and it actually is getting worse. So I want to talk about how we still move forward in our subscription box business because we can. It's not— it's— we're not to the point of let's burn it down. Like, let's— I can't get any product, everything's delayed, I can't find what I want, let's just burn it all down. We're not burning anything down. We are going to figure it out. So many small businesses have been pivoting and being problem solvers and figuring it out, and those are the businesses that are going to stay afloat. Those are the businesses that have been thriving, and those are the businesses that are going to get through all the issues. So it's totally possible. We've been making it work. You know, we have thousands of subscribers here at our Framed Warehouse, um, and I know that many, many of our members have been very successful over the past year, and they keep growing, and they should keep growing. And so there's ways to figure this out, and I'm going to help talk you through some of that today. And I think the biggest thing that people don't understand, and I would say just regular people, like not small business owner people, but regular people don't understand, is that all those ships that are sitting out in the Pacific Ocean right now trying to dock and unload products, many people believe that that only affects big business, that only affects like the Walmarts and the Targets and all of that. But really, it affects all of us. It's affecting small businesses in the same way that it's affecting big businesses. Even if a small business isn't buying directly from a manufacturer overseas, they're typically buying from a wholesaler that buys from overseas, or they're sourcing raw materials that come from overseas. So just because you don't have a direct shipment out sitting in that boat doesn't mean that you aren't affected by what are on those ships. And what's not being able to be brought to your wholesalers or your vendors or your suppliers. All that stuff waiting to come in is not for big businesses, just them alone. It's for small businesses too. And so that's affecting everyone right now. Let's first talk about product supply, because I think that's the real— that's the first issue that everyone's dealing with. I can't find enough products. I'm having trouble finding products. And it's okay, everyone really is. We just have to get a little bit creative about the way that we're finding products right now. One of the questions that I get asked all the time is, should I be buying overseas still with all the shipping issues overseas? Should I still be buying overseas? Yes, you should, especially if you're someone like me that has thousands of subscribers. I just can't go buy thousands of pieces from a lot of places in the US. I can't. They don't have it in stock. I have to continue to navigate overseas shipping to get the amount of products that I need. And so if you need hundreds, if you need thousands, if you're in that higher level with your subscription where you're needing to source product overseas to get the quantities that you need, you have to continue that. So yes, you should still be buying your products even though we're having these shipping delays. We've been dealing with them every month, but we're getting through them. So I don't want you to stop because there's not a lot of alternative if you need 1,000 or 2,000 pieces of something, it's not readily available around the US very much. And so I don't want you to stop buying from overseas just because of these shipping issues. What used to take 30 days to get from port to port into our door is now taking 60 to 90 days. So we've just got to work out further than we ever have before. And that takes discipline for us. That takes a lot of planning, that takes a lot of organization, and it takes us being disciplined enough to sit down and look past the next 90 days. Like we need to be looking at the next 6 months, the next 8 months. And it's hard sometimes when you're in the moment and you're, you know, we're right, right now we're, I'm, it's the middle of November and I'm thinking about summer boxes and it's hard to do. It's a hard state to put your brain in, but we have to continue to work out further. The other thing that is really helpful when you tend to buy overseas often is a lot of the manufacturers overseas have US-based warehouses that they hold product, product that's in stock, product that's ready to ship. And so what you can do is you can get a list from your manufacturers and say, what do you currently have in the US? Can you send me a spreadsheet? It can come with pictures and quantities and prices, and you can really shop from what's already here in the States and not have to worry about the, you know, overseas shipping delays right now. So that's one alternative that you can really talk to your manufacturers and see if they have warehouses in the, you United States and see what they have them stocked with. We've gotten several pieces that way lately, and it's a great alternative versus having your custom stuff come. The other thing I want you to think about is air shipping. So if we're still buying, we're buying overseas, I'm still buying overseas because of the quantities that I need, but I'm thinking about what can I air ship versus what has to be on a boat. Yes, air shipping costs more money. It just does. Right now it costs more than it's ever cost before, but the cost of doing business, the cost of having an item for my subscription box versus the cost of being stressed out for a month or two because I don't know when it's going to get unloaded from a boat, it really offsets itself. And so yes, when I airship, am I reducing my profit margin? Yes, I am. So I'm going to negotiate a little bit better. Hey, I need a better price on this product because I have to airship it. And so it becomes a negotiation tool with you and the manufacturer. And so I'm going to pay more to airship it, but I'm going to have it very quickly. There, there's ways you can airship product. You need to think about the density of your product and the bulkiness of your product. So we want to ship— we want to airship lighter products, smaller products that can be packed, you know, tighter. We had some handbags that we airshipped recently. When you need 1,000 of them, that's a lot. And so they vacuum sealed them for us so they could pack more in a box. And so that's one way to get, get some things in in a different way. But we had to do that because our timeline was short. Some things that we had planned for December were not going to show up. We had to make alternative plans. And so we had to pay for that air shipping and it's working out. I'm not stressed about it. That item is already here and I can sleep at night. And so sometimes paying a little bit more money for air shipping helps you sleep at night. I'm going to tell you to do it. Now, the goal for me is to work out further so that I don't have to pay that expense because I need something so quickly, quickly. This December box had been planned 6 months ago, but that's a whole nother podcast episode. I feel like that's a whole Jerry Springer episode, really, because of the issues that I have dealt with with that particular company. But anyway, Still buy from overseas. I still want you to do that. It's still a necessary thing for us to do, especially when we are dealing with higher quantity subscription boxes. If you have 50 subscribers, if you have 100 subscribers, if you have 20 subscribers, you don't need to deal with overseas madness right now. But if you have 300, 500, 1,000, you probably need to be— you still need to be looking at that as your best resource. Even though shipping costs are rising, even though air freight costs so much, you still need to look at that because because it's going to be able to fill your product need better than the alternative. If you're on the lower end of your subscription box, maybe you have 20 subscribers, maybe you have 50, maybe you have 150, we have some alternative routes. You don't have to deal with overseas shipping because there's a lot of things available for you in the United States. And so I want you to look at your wholesale vendors and people that you're buying wholesale from, ask them what's ready to ship. So if you're sitting here right now, right now I'm recording this podcast, it's the middle of November. If you don't have your box finished for January or February, you need to get on the phone with your, your wholesalers, get on the email and say, hey, I'm looking for something in this color or this theme in this quantity for my January or February box. Can you send me a list of stuff that you have ready to ship? And we call that RTS. In the industry ready to ship. That means they have it, it's in their warehouse, they can just slap a label on it and ship it to you in the next couple of days. What do you have that is ready to ship? And you can start making buying decisions on what your suppliers have ready to ship. They're not waiting for it to come on a boat, you're not waiting for it to come on a boat, they have it in their warehouse, it is ready to ship. You need to start making contacts with your wholesale vendors, and let's get January, February, and March planned out right now, and that we don't have to wait on some product. At least get January done, get February on the books, because we've got to start thinking about what's going to be in stock after Christmas. The other thing that you can do is reach out to makers. And here's one more thing I love about the Launch Your Box community. We have so many members inside our membership that are makers. They make things, they have lasers, they have machinery, and I can, I can ask for any quantity of any design. So if I'm looking for something specifically, I can get 500 made of this and it's all the same. I don't have to go to a wholesaler and say, do you have 500 of this? I can go to a maker and say, can you make me 500 of this? You have to give them enough time because again, we're small businesses. Some people have employees, some people do it all themselves, so you have to give them enough time. But when you can go to another small business that makes things, you can get any quantity that you want based on their ability to fill that quantity for you. And some things that I use our local makers for are going to be like jewelry. We get a lot of earrings from the makers in our community, any kind of wooden items. So many laser cutters are in the Community. So many people with machinery are in the Community. Shirt transfers— if you're making shirts, there are screen print transfers, there are DTF transfers. There's a lot of transfers available in the group. We have a lot of candle makers. We have people that do gourmet food. So there's a lot of things that you could get to go in your box from makers, and they can really make you any quantity, and they don't have to rely on, you know, you finding a wholesaler that has enough in stock, you can say, I need 75 pieces, I want it to look like this, can you make this for me? And typically they have raw materials on hand and they can make it for you in the amounts that you need. So don't underestimate these makers in our community because they are able to fill a need and they have stuff that they can make for us right now. And so Reach out to them and use them as a resource for your subscription boxes. There are a lot of t-shirt people inside our community, t-shirt subscriptions. They add t-shirts to their boxes, a lot of t-shirts. And that's one of the industries that's been hit really hard this year because the t-shirt quantities are not what they were circa 2019. In 2019, I could plan like 6 months worth of t-shirt designs. And then the month before I needed them, I could go online and order the quantity that I need, and they would show up the next week, and we would screen print them and move on. We can no longer do that. Um, and it, it's interesting because, um, we have to be smart about it. We have to be smart about what we're doing right now. And this happened this week. I was looking at t-shirts for December for my different subscriptions, found a really cute purple shirt that I was going to use I figured out the quantities that I needed. I don't have a design made yet, but I, I always have to pick the shirt before I even make the design, because right now I'm just ordering the shirts that are in stock. I don't get to pick what color and style and all the things that I want on this shirt right now. I'm going to my shirt vendors, I'm seeing what they have in stock in the quantities that I need, and that's going to be the shirt of the month. And then I'm going to figure out a design to go on that. If I pre-make my design and then I'm struggling to find a shirt for the design to go on because it doesn't match my color scheme or whatever, I'm in a, I'm in a tailspin and I'm, I'm like throwing this pity party for myself because I made this cute design and now I can't find a t-shirt to go for that it matches with. So now I start with the t-shirt. What is in stock? That's all I'm concerned about. And then I'll make a great design to go on it. So the other day I had this purple shirt. I'm like, oh great, they have all the sizes I need in stock. They have a healthy quantity in stock. Let's see if we can find a piece of jewelry to match this. So we went on a little jewelry hunt because we match earrings or bracelets with our t-shirts. We found something that worked. So then I came back to order the shirts. Literally an hour and a half later, one size was completely sold out. So now I have to start all over again. You've got to jump. You got to jump on what's in stock. At that time, especially when we're talking t-shirts. You cannot post a mock-up this day and age of what your t-shirt's going to be without having that t-shirt in stock, because what's going to happen is you're going to go back to order it and they're all going to be gone. You've already shown your subscriber what they're getting. Now you have to change the plan. Now you may have to change the design. So start with what's available, grab it while you can, and then you work out the details later. I'm hoping I'm hoping we can go back to the days of we can plan this out months in advance and have our color schemes picked out and all that great stuff. But right now we have to work with what's available to us. And so we can't throw this pity party for ourselves because now the shirt we want is not in stock. You got to grab it while you can and then sell what you have. And that's, that's the day and age that we're in. So we have to problem solve this. We're not going to stop selling t-shirts. No, we're not going to do that. We're just going to order differently. We're going to create differently and we're going to problem solve as we go along. So we're turning ourselves into problem solvers. We are small business owners, but we are problem solvers. Every day we show up to work and we have to solve those problems. We cannot wallow in despair. We cannot say, burn it down. I can't find a peach shirt that I want. I'm not doing this anymore. It's too hard. We can't operate like that. We have to manage our expectations for ourselves. We have to work with what we have. So much of it is out of our control. What we have control over, we have to take control of, and we have to problem solve and continue with Plan B and get ahead of the game. Okay, so we can navigate product supply issues. We're not going to throw in the towel. We're going to navigate this. And I'm telling you right now, the people that have the mindset of I will figure it out are going to figure it out. The people that have the mindset of, if I can't get this exact thing, I don't want to do it, are not going to do it. So shift your mind to whatever the obstacle is, I'm going to bust through it, and you will, and it's going to be great. Ideally, this day and age, as a subscription box owner, you want to plan to have your stuff 60 days before you need it because there is going to be a delay. So if you can get yourself ahead enough to be 60 days, have your products arrive 60 days before you need it, you're going to not be stressed. You're going to be able to get ahead of the game and you're going to be able to plan a lot better and you're going to sleep at night. And I want everybody to be able to sleep at night. I don't want you up laying in your bed wondering if, you know, I've got an item right now that's been sitting on the It's been sitting at Long Beach for about 3 weeks. And I'm just wondering, when is it going to arrive and is it going to arrive? And so I don't want you laying awake at night thinking about those things. It's going to happen a little bit here and there, but if we can problem solve ahead of time, get ourselves in front of this, um, then we'll be able to sleep better. Things are going to run smoother and we're going to feel better about our business. We're going to be able to manage our growth. We are going to be able to continue to grow. We are going to be able to get more products. We just have to get ahead of it and quit being reactive and start being proactive to the things that we're doing. Let's talk about shipping delays because it's becoming a problem and it's been a problem for me almost this entire year. And I just at the point where I have to laugh at it now. And honestly, and not in a, not in a funny way, but it's like one of those ways, if you don't laugh, you'll cry. And it's okay. We're having product delays. Every single person on the planet that is shipping stuff is having product delays. You're not, you're not the only one. You're not the first one. You're not being targeted. Everyone's having shipping delays, big businesses to small businesses. And so you've done everything that you thought you should have done. You ordered the product early, you were on top of it, you had it planned out for months, and now it's not here when you need it. And there's a couple of things. The big question in the group is my product for my box is not here yet. I typically ship this week. What do I do? And so the important thing to think about is determining its ETA. So is it going to be here in a week to 10 days? So if it's going to be late anywhere from a week to 10 days, I'm going to tell you to delay your box. We're going to delay the box. We're going to ship this box, but it's going to be later in the month. And you need to be transparent about it. You need to tell your audience, listen, this is what is happening. There are delays. 90% of the people out there understand what's happening with the shipping industry right now, and they understand the delays. They're going to be fine with it, especially if you have long-term subscribers. They're going to be fine with it because they know that you regularly ship at this time every month and you can't help the delay. So you just have to be transparent with your audience. Keep your subscribers updated via a Facebook Live, a text message, an email. Let them know what's going on. Let them know when you expect it and that you will keep them updated. If you realize that your box isn't going to be here and it's going to be longer than 10 days, we need to look at replacing this item. And I know that's scary because you're like, okay, now, now I only have like a few weeks to replace this item that I've sourced and found, and it fits perfectly in my box. We have to shift. We have to shift because what happens if we go 2 weeks and our stuff isn't here and then it's another 3 weeks? If our customer gets charged again for their next month's box before the previous month has been delivered to them, we're going to cause a lot of upset customers. You're going to have customer service issues, you're going to have cancellations, you're going to have people feeling like they've been ripped off, and we don't want that. So we need to salvage that. Do not wait until the last minute to make this decision. You have to get them something before their next pay period comes up, their next draft date. So here's a scenario for you. We were waiting on our items for August. I'm thinking of August. We had very specific pajamas that were coming that we had ordered months in advance. There should have been no worries, no stress. It had been planned months and months in advance. Pajamas, they sat at customs for almost 7 weeks and it was completely out of the control of my vendor. It was completely out of my control and they sat at customs for 7 weeks. So I should have had these pajamas early July for my August box and now it's the first week of August. I'm not panicked yet. I'm thinking, okay, they're going to be here anytime. The second week of August comes, there's no movement. And I think, okay, I have to come up with a plan B here because I cannot go another 2 weeks without a plan B. I got to figure out what I'm going to do if these don't arrive. I still wanted to give it a little more time because I had everything else here for that box. And so that next couple of days, there was absolutely no movement on these pajamas. I started to figure out plan B. Plan B was September's item was already here, the big item for September. I could shift the September box and the August box. I could flip them. That would give my pajamas more time to get here. Those could go out in September and then I could, I could do September's box in August. It wasn't ideal because of my themes, but I could make it work. The problem was I didn't have all the pieces for the September box here yet. And so what I had to figure out was what could I get ordered that was in stock in the US right now that would go with that September box that would replace the items that I don't have yet. Got on the phone, found some product, had them ship it next day. Okay, we're going to make this work. We're going to shift and do the September box. And so we started monogramming and we started prepping things for the September— we were going to mail out the September box for August. As we started to make this shift and plan this, all of a sudden our August pajamas showed up. Now it's August, like, 25th. And we typically ship out our boxes by the 15th. And so I was like, let's stop. Everything's here. We're going to go back. We're going to ship out this August box. We're a little bit ahead for September now. We're just going to keep moving forward. We shipped out August, um, with the items that were meant for the August box. We now have this extra item for September, which was great because I was still missing September items. And P.S., that September item never came for my September box. I was glad that I had emergency ordered it in August. But what happened is my subscribers got boxes kind of back to back. They got one at the end of August, they got one at the beginning of September. They were super happy. I was very transparent with them all through the month of August. My other item for September was delayed, so it never came on time to ship those September boxes. So I was grateful that I ordered that extra product, and we just moved on. September is now done. Now we're in the situation where my October box item, the main item of the box is not going to arrive at all for this box. It's not even going to be late. And I have 3 weeks. I have 3 weeks to put a whole new box together because the other items that I have for this box are here, but they won't match anything without this main item. This main item goes with these other 2 pieces seamlessly. So now I'm 3 weeks out from October and I have to plan a whole new box. And here's how the thought process goes for me. I have 3 weeks. 2 weeks to plan a box. So let, let me think about what, what I can do. The first thing is that that September item that never showed up is now here. It was a pair of sunglasses. So I've got this sunglasses. I'm going to start my box off with a pair of sunglasses. The next thing that I ask myself is, what can we make? We make products here. What can we physically do? We have a local screen printer. I can get shirts very quickly. We could make a cute shirt to go in this box with our sunglasses. And so I get online with the t-shirt suppliers that I have. I find something in stock, buy it that day. I literally have it the next day and we, we get it printed. So now I need a jewelry item to go with this and I need a lot of pieces. You cannot find 1,000 pieces of jewelry literally anywhere in the US that I have found. If you know those people, hit me up, send me a DM, send me an email. I'm always needing a lot of jewelry. And so we went and we looked overseas and what we had, had 3 weeks, remember? So we had to find something that was completely in stock that could be airshipped to me and that would match my t-shirt that I had just designed and put together. And we found something and I had them literally in a week. So we had bracelet sets, I had sunglasses, I have a shirt and I need one more item. And I knew this was going to be a fall-themed box. So I got in touch with another supplier that I have used multiple times for my subscription box, and I said, what do you have fall-themed in about this price range that I could put in my box? Well, they didn't have anything in the quantity that I needed, but what they had were this series of little fall signs that were all the same color and pattern. They just had different sayings on them, and there were enough of 3 different designs to fill the quantity that I needed. So I bought 3 separate designs. 3 designs and we just mix them in, in the boxes. So someone got one of those 3 designs. They were the same size, they were the same colors, they just had different sayings on them. So it's okay to do that every now and then. I don't recommend doing that all the time because sometimes it can cause like, well, I wanted that one and I wanted that one, and I just try to eliminate any of that I missed out feeling that I can. So we literally put this October box together in 3 weeks, and I was so nervous about it going out because I just threw it together, but people loved that box. And honestly, they might've loved it more than the original plan that I had. I don't want you to think that if you put something like that together last minute, that people even know that people even know that that was last minute thrown together because we have the ability to make something go together and curate it in a very special way that creates an experience for them. So they got a fall sign, they got a fall shirt, they got a bracelet set that matched and some cute sunglasses that never showed up for September. And so that's how we problem solved our October boxes. And now the, the interesting thing is, is the items that were not going to make it for October showed up the last week of October. Now these items are here and there's a lot of pieces. I have a lot of subscribers. I'm going to have to use those items, but I need to shift them into a new month. And so it's taking those pieces, it's problem solving. What do we do now? Now we have something for one of our spring months. Months, and we're just changing a little bit of the color scheme with that item that we originally planned for fall. We're going to make it lighter and softer for spring, and we're going to roll with it. You just have to keep adjusting. You have to keep adjusting what you're doing and not get tripped up that if everything is not the way you planned it out in the beginning, woe is me. We're going to problem solve and we're going to keep moving forward. So here's what I want you to learn from this discussion today. One, we've got to work further out on buying and sourcing products. And it may require you to, to get some working capital. If you have to buy several months upfront at a time and you don't have the cash flow in your business to be able to do that, you need to look into getting some working capital to help you purchase items a little further out. It will be worth it. So look into that. Number 2, you need to fill your immediate needs with ready-to-ship items. Contact your vendors and look for, ask for ready-to-ship items. Fill those boxes that you're curating now for the next few months. With ready-to-ship items. Connect. Number 3, connect with makers. They can make a lot of things for you. I get 500, 600 pairs of earrings made on a regular basis from local makers. And you can customize stuff. They can give you the quantity that you need. So do not count out other small businesses. If they have the materials, they have the manpower, they will make you something and they'll be happy to do that for you. Number 4, problem solve your shipping delays and do not wait till the last minute. You cannot curate a whole new box in one day. You need to see the problem coming and you need to react to it. Right now I don't have all my pieces for my December box. December is a few weeks away. I've got to think of Plan B. So what is my Plan B if this item doesn't arrive? What can I look at getting or sourcing that would fit with this box box, but might also fit with another box in the future if this original item arrives. So you've got to kind of have these transitional pieces that you can use in different boxes in case you get into a situation where something doesn't arrive on time. I'm going to think about that now. I'm not counting out that this product isn't going to make it. I'm just planning a what-if. And now I've got some products sitting on hand that I could replace any missing item with because it's a transitional piece. It could go with different things. Okay, and the other thing that I want to bring up, number 5, we haven't talked about yet, but surprise and delight your customers. We did this in August. They waited a whole month to get their sweet little box from me, and they were so gracious and so nice. We put a coupon in their box that month. We didn't tell them. When they opened their box, they had a $10 off coupon they could use in my shop for anything. We gave them 60 days to use it. So many of them used it. So many of them were thankful. It was just a small little gift. If you've got a free gift you can throw in a box just to say thank you for your patience, thank you for your grace, just surprise and delight them if you have to delay something, but be transparent about it. Do not let these issues stop you from moving forward. The people that will be successful in business are the people that can problem solve through product supply chain issues, shipping issues, and any other thing that comes your way. These issues, they're hard right now. I'm not telling you that they're easy. They're hard. But business is not easy. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. You're going to be faced with problems every day in your business, and it's how we react to them and it's how we problem solve them that's going to propel us forward or shut us down. And I want all of you to keep working keep going through that obstacle that keeps— that gets put in your path because you can be successful with this. You can have a successful subscription box and you can be profitable at the end of the day. And so we just have to keep working it. Just keep working it. Come back next week for a whole nother episode. Do not burn it down. Don't burn it down. Keep moving forward. I'll see you guys next week. Make sure you subscribe to the Launch Your Box podcast. Talks podcast. I'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review it. Let me know which episode is your favorite so far. Don't forget to join me next week right here.
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