Ecommerce Automation at Scale: What to Automate and When
Publicado no All The Gate ·
All The Gatedot-ecommercedot-ecommerce_automationdot-online_marketplaceE-commerceIA e tendênciasidioma-enInglêsLogística e pagamentosyt-O8ezAThR9Fc
Vídeo em Inglês, publicado pelo canal Descartes.
About this content: The summary, key points and topics below are generated automatically from the video transcript. They reflect the content, opinions, claims and predictions presented in the video and do not represent a position, validation or fact-check by All The Gate.
Video summary
Operational leaders and industry experts discuss e-commerce operations, automation at scale, overcoming operational challenges, inventory management, picking processes, returns, and shipping workflows to enhance customer experience.
Key points
- Panelists highlighted the impact of automating multi-channel inventory synchronization, which reduced manual updates and minimized stockouts.
- Detailed picklist rules—sorted by weight, carrier, and package type—streamlined warehouse operations and improved picking accuracy.
- Transitioning from legacy systems to modern platforms enabled businesses to scale operations, introduce new product lines, and save hours of administrative work daily.
- Manual processes remain essential for specific tasks, such as initial quality checks on returns, handling complex wholesale relationships, and conducting product R&D.
- Rate shopping and multi-carrier integration help optimize shipping costs and balance volume between different carriers.
Topics
e-commerce operationsinventory managementwarehouse automationmulti-channel shippingreturns processingoperational excellenceorder managementlogistics
What you will learn
- Never automate a process until the manual workflow is fully understood and optimized.
- Real-time inventory synchronization across master packs significantly decreases stockouts and saves hours of manual labor per week.
- Detailed picklist rules mapped to carrier pickup times and marketplace delivery windows improve order accuracy and fulfillment speed.
- Combining automated workflows with human oversight ensures accountability and prevents widespread errors during scaling.
Questions and answers
What was the primary benefit of automating multi-channel inventory sync for One Tree Brands?
It saved about 20 to 25 hours a week and resulted in fewer stockouts due to real-time inventory updates.
Why does Abe emphasize keeping returns processing somewhat manual?
Because assessing the condition of returns manually helps identify resale opportunities, allows staff to file shipping disputes, and helps recover costs from vendors.
What role does Sellercloud play for Primalish according to Akiva?
It serves as the central hub connecting over 10 marketplaces and is utilized daily across different departments in the company.
Video transcript
Transcript from available captions; it may contain errors.
[music] [music] >> Yeah, I'm very excited to to moderate this session here. My name is Johannes Panzer. I'm heading up the e-commerce marketing team here at And yeah, so we we talk a lot about yeah, insights, operational insights, delivery experience. We just just chatted about that and we are now going a little bit further into like operations and like what makes the difference in in operational excellence. And for that, we have a tremendous yeah, lineup of panelists and I'm very excited to welcome Akash again. Thank you, Akash. Akiva from from COO. Abe, Ops Director from Audio Electronics. Supported by our Descartes industry experts, Gary Basco for multichannel and marketplace enablement. Yeah, he deserves an applause actually. And and Ron Lee from from a multi-carrier, multimodal shipping expertise station. So we're going to try to unpack, as I said, operational excellence and automation at scale. Hear what operational leaders how they approach it, how you guys determine what to automate, how where potential tipping points are, best practices, and also obviously also challenges you run into when decide what to automate next in order to, and we heard that in the in the panel before, to meet customers' expectations and to build out a great customer experience. So we're also trying to unpack, as I said, the whole operational um yeah, whole whole area of e-commerce operations, from inventory management, setting up kits and bundles, from inventory planning, from order management, warehouse management. Returns, we touched base a little bit in the meeting before and shipping as well. So yeah, lots to cover. And before we dive in, I would appreciate if everybody from you can quickly say what the business that you're working for is doing, what your role is in the company, and since when you're with JCurve or you're a JCurve customer. And for Gary and Ron, like you can skip the JCurve part. Okay, Akash, you want to start? >> Hello everyone. Good morning again. My name is Akash. I'm a president at One Tree Brands. We manage different brands on different marketplaces. Basically, we're an e-com accelerator. Since I think three three and a half years, we've been a JCurve customer. Yeah, before that also we had one of the JCurve company, Finale, before SellerCloud. So yeah, I would say about four four or four years. >> Yeah, and if I add that that was not part of the discussion earlier, but I think you're really all in. Like you were a Finale customer earlier, you're running for your 3PL business, extensive, and SellerCloud. So we have a good coverage good coverage here. Okay, thank you. Akiva. >> Hi. Hi. I'm Akiva, CEO at Primalish. [clears throat] We are a reseller. We partner with brands. We sell on, you know, over 10 marketplaces, over around 8,000 SKUs. I think we've been a customer of Gary over 10 years. >> They're one of our very first customers. >> With SellerCloud. So yeah, I mean, it's been a long time. Good to have. Good though. Hello. >> Think so. >> Hello. >> Yeah, it's work it's working. >> Hello, my name is Avi Ferrari. I'm from Capital Audio. I'm one of the only directors of Um currently we are on 10 plus e-commerce channels. Um we sell anything from electronics to appliances to makeup, paper plates, really anything that sell. I've been using Seller Cloud for about since April 2026. So I'm particularly new to this, but I've been selling on e-commerce for about six years now. >> Hey everybody. Some of you guys already might recognize me. I am Gary Basco, senior account executive for Seller Cloud or as my official title states, the Seller Clown. >> [clears throat] >> Hard to go after that. My name is Ron Lee. I co-founded a product called Probably quite a few years ago now. So I've spent a lot of time talking to customers. There's some folks out here on multi-carrier, multi-modal shipping. So parcel, LTL, freight, packing, that's all my wheelhouse and I love talking about that. >> Gary, how long are you with Seller Cloud? >> I've been with Seller Cloud for about six years now. >> I guess we have like altogether like multiple decades of e-commerce experience here. So that's even more excited to hear from you guys some practical examples. And this is what I would like to get us started. So I would like to ask like to to Akash first like what is the most impactful process your organization automated using data technology and what business problem could you solve with that? >> I can say this every day. Like you know, one of the issue that we ran in the past was multi-channel inventory, right? I would say like we have multi-executing bundling like before take up Seller Cloud, right? We used to do manual process like update the inventory to these two packs, how many you have. Current process right now is updated on one master pack. Everything is getting updated. So that saved us about I would say 20 25 hours a week right now. So that helps us. >> It wasn't anything outside of the time save that you would say that that helped you with your with the business and operational excellence overall? >> Yeah, so we have less stock out these days, you know, because of we are updating It's a real-time inventory sync right? So we have less stock >> Cool. Exciting. Um okay, so I mean I'll pick one. Go with pick lists. At Pro we we have different types of pick lists. We have ones that are by weight. We have them by carrier. We have them by package type. It's something that beforehand was This is with Seller. Beforehand was you had to sort and figure that out and then we put in a lot of rules to have those in place. One of them that's at the end of the day is a catchall. So it's a rule that has a rule. You know, we do have a lot of rules in place. We do a lot of custom printed items and you know, we use it for that as well. And we also have that process for transparency code. A lot of products now are using that and what happens on it if it's missing a code, there's another rule for that as well. So for us, pick lists is a big thing. We have a light lock that run every single day and that's something that's made possible with Seller Cloud. >> And what was So so what is the I guess so with like obviously before we talk about before in a couple of moments actually like but but so if you think about like what did that give you? What opportunity did that give you like the capability to split these picklists into like very great well very detailed um specifics that uh I guess that would be would be interesting. >> Um I mean a lot it it made things first off streamlined it made things extremely more accurate. Um I mean having uh you know the right picklists for the for the right stuff I mean gives the pickers they come they bring the stuff we know we have different pickup times so if USPS comes at you know they come twice a day we have UPS comes a different time we have FedEx come another time so we want to make sure that we're picking within a time range we're picking the right items that will be ready for those times same with marketplaces every marketplace has different requirements as to when it needs to arrive there and we know when it needs to go out so we use different rules and have different picklists to account for those those times. >> So so taking the complexity of thinking out of the process basically is what the problem that you can solve here. >> Correct. >> Okay okay cool. All right so hey um I know four months is early but uh what would you say? >> So even though it's early one thing that I majorly use is the scheduled tasks. So I have a bunch running at the moment but the most complex one that I've created was with returns. So my warehouse would process a return and in the notes they can put what was wrong with the return. So if it was missing something items damaged much skydiving without a parachute it's there. Daily I would get a report and then we are almost done with it we creating something where an AI will read it read the report that Sellercloud prints us and will actually file dispute cases within Walmart um you know and then claim it that way. >> And so [clears throat] hey so we I would like to stay with you and actually move over to like a little bit like a little bit of a look back how did you guys work before and I know it's it's it's it's pretty so I think you have some good some good story to tell there. And we prepared a picture here. >> I believe you have a picture of my old system. So for all of you who don't know >> Share Share with us, please. And you can share as much as you want, but we want more. >> This was called the Wang. Um it was older than Christopher Columbus himself. My grandfather started with it, and he uh cursed me out a couple times because I wasn't allowed to switch. So we had to basically have orders coming on files, and we would have to run PowerShell code and scripts just to import in. And it was just impossible. You couldn't have you store your PC codes. You couldn't link inventory together. You always manually writing POs and printing. The print process was In order to print something on this thing was it would You had to hit like nine keys. It was help 12 11 2 9 change the printer class. If you don't know what that means It was a mess. Um but Celigo came in and saved the day basically cuz it cut out maybe eight hours of my day stressing when I had over 500 orders to process. >> Wow. That's That's really impressive. So like what what would you say was the most fragile Well, I guess let's take a step back again. Like for how long did you work with that like the whole like or when did you start e-commerce and like what made you >> So I started e-commerce like six years ago. >> Yeah. >> And we were doing fine, you know. It was just really the length it took to just complete an order, right? Cuz everything was manual. You had to put the order in manually. You had to put the tracking number in manually. Then you had to invoice it manually and then print out a different invoice number, which then you had to send manually. Everything was manual essentially. Um so we just needed to cut it out cuz again I couldn't innovate. I couldn't source new products and different opportunities. I couldn't list on multiple channels with inventory syncing correctly. It It slowed down operations. So after a lot of back and forth with my grandfather, we finally or I finally to sell sign us up. >> Okay. So and you because I I love this statement from you called it the dinosaur system actually. Um so what did that dinosaur actually like like do? Was it mainly for like making sure inventory so >> Is is is it like tracked for that for accounting purposes or what was it? >> So it really wasn't all in all system back in the 1930s. Um again we started as a retail store back in Manhattan. So you know when you have no systems like scanners and UPC codes back then weren't a thing it really was an efficient system. You know wholesale it can tell you what in what warehouse you have merchandise. It can tell you um you know different price classes right? It had 13 different classes for different vendors and different customers. It really was made for wholesale. Wasn't made for e-commerce where you're cross-listing you're sending you know inventory updates you're tracking data back and forth. Uh and to just expand on dinosaur it ran without Wi-Fi and on A-backs. So and and it was hack proof. Couldn't hack this thing even if you tried. >> That's crazy. It sounds crazy and it was crazy I guess. >> I think the only thing that we haven't helped you automate so far with Seller Cloud is your grandfather. >> That's crazy. [laughter] God bless him he's 80 years old but there is no automating him. He's sick today with the flu and he's still in the office. So there is no automating him. >> Family stories. Okay Akiva how did uh life look like uh or what what what are the stories that you heard how how life looked like before? I know you came in four years ago but like is there anything you want you can share you want to share? >> Um I mean there there is tons. I mean they've been around since 2010 so a lot has evolved um but I mean even in the four years that I've been there a lot has evolved. Um times are changing fast you got to keep up with things. Um I mean for us it's you know we run a pretty big operation. We want to be as efficient as possible. Um, you know, make things streamlined, but at the same time, um, you know, you want to make a process automated. You want to make sure that you start slow. You want to make sure that you know, you have the right people in place. Um, you also want to you know, look at it from I personally I look at it on a floor level and then I look at it um from the outside. You know, I spent uh quite some time studying every single uh you know, part of the warehouse and how things are run um to see where things can be changed. And you know, there are times things can be changed and things do work out. And there are times you have to pivot. Um, you know, holiday season is is one of those times where I think I experienced um being in the warehouse at that time. Um, chaotic is is an understatement, but there is a calm within the chaos if you are prepared and you have a system in place. If you don't have a system in place, um you're at the mercy of whatever happens. So being that we have lots of rules, um you know, we have a lot of marketplaces, there's a lot of different requirements. Um, SoundCloud for us is kind of our central hub. It's where you know, everything kind of connects for us. It's something that every person in our company, for the most part, no matter what position they're in, is using it on a daily basis. So for me, it's been used for a ton of different reasons. Um, what it was like, you know, prior to that that was I don't know, but I you know, I know that things have changed a lot. >> Yeah. So in the last four years, what would you say like just what what what sticks out? What changed the most? >> Um, I would say one is the amount of places we sell. Um, you know, that Amazon's still you know, is is our biggest uh by a long shot, but you know we sell you know I'm close to 10 or or more marketplaces. Products [clears throat] have changed you know how things get packaged. I will say one of the biggest changes that I've seen in the last since I've been there is the transparency between our office and our warehouse. I felt that there was always a disconnect and I think in any business you know a lot of companies their warehouse is not even with their office. It's in another location and makes it even more difficult. You know for us we're lucky enough our office is with the warehouse. So I think that having that connection and having that you know back and forth so a buyer buys something they may not know how it's packaged, right? That may add another $2 into the cost without them even knowing. So it's things like that you know which then help the buyers when they're purchasing an item understand what goes into it, what makes it you know protective but yet at the same time you know you you have healthy margins. Not all the time does that work out. I'd say carriers have changed a lot. Time to a customer is only getting tougher. You know I know Mindy brought that up before, but I I would say that probably one of the deepest things we battle on a daily basis is trying to get things out to the customer on time. >> They would they appreciate it actually. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> I certainly thought as you all have talked one of the things that seems that as you looked at changing from that to a more modern system you were you were buying the ability to adapt and as we work with a lot of customers what we see is a lot of firsts and then trying to figure out what to scale. Like maybe the first time you need free that uh now I've got it or or I've got to scale my LTL freight or uh now I'm doing more exports. I see an opportunity for that or uh you know Kashi you were talking about expanding you know coast to coast. I'm just curious as you were looking at your system change, did you have in mind not only I got to be able to do this now but what's the next thing? Like we're going to acquire another company or I got a big product that I'm trying to launch. Were there anything like that that came to mind beyond what I have to do now what's going to be next around the corner? >> So I'll start with that. Uh now that I have Seller Cloud uh I can tell you one thing that's for sure. I can now focus on bringing in my biodegradable line which I had no time before. Uh I also got involved with a athletic wear company who's now producing uh yoga pants uh Pilates socks and you know anything athletic wear. And I just had a phone call the other day to explore a partnership with Home Depot to create pet pet products. So being that I'm with Seller Cloud allows me to actually take my time and actually do the due diligence to look into the stuff uh you know do the research the development behind it the creating just the physical aspects of the creating a line. Um so I'll speak to that. Um yes we are always looking to the future always seeing uh you know what else is out there. I mean technology is changing rapidly. The use of AI is playing a big part of our business. Um you know I'd say one thing that I'm looking at at least in the future is to have the end of our shipping line automated. Um you know right now we have a pretty good system in place. We've invested money in all sorts of equipment. We had a boxing machine that we spent a lot of money on um you that directs the box, it it, puts a label on, tapes it, labels it. But what we realized is it was actually just a bottleneck because it works well if you have the same product that's going over and over. We have thousands of different types of products that all require different types of packaging and boxes. Um, so for us we actually went a little more manual on our shipping line and we, you know, scanned LPN. It goes down the shipping line um, and then it gets packed and then at the end it gets weighed, um, shipped. And one of the things also we're hoping quite soon is to be able to have sort of that automatically um, choose the carrier. And that last final step at the end the goal is to automate it and have it sorted. Um, so it's a bit of technology, a bit of machinery, um, but that's that's one of the goals. >> So let's unpack that automated carrier selection a a little bit later. Just I want to make sure that Akash can share with us like how you guys worked before. Um, and uh >> Dinosaurs? >> Dinosaurs. >> Yeah. [laughter] And our robotics. >> I mean with those Q stack I think it's a I would say don't quote me on this one but it's a dumb proof, right? Like you just use tapes and the You know, just don't use a brain. Let the scanner scanner gun use hope all the system. >> Is that something that you would So that that's great news for first of all. But so is it something that you would generally consider as a general like tipping point like that's the the most important I look at my labor costs and then >> I used to go into the warehouse almost every day, right? I literally spend 1 hour see what's going on, look around like okay where can I do automation here, right? Well they were picking, they were looking at the labels, picking the SKUs, going to the location, okay, is this the right one? Checking barcode. It took way more time than, you know, they should be. So, you know, that way I found out like okay, I called my one of my buddy Rick, he's not here today, but he's like hey, what can I do here on this one? And he gave me some example like okay, you know what, try SKU tags. I was like I did try in the past, three years ago, I didn't have any success. Like what what changed? Like oh, it's completely brand new. Try it now, if it doesn't work, it's on me. And it's working right now. >> So So So what are the signals that you guys are seeing typically until you come to a point okay, like that's I can't we can't work continue working that way? >> Yeah. Uh I mean as you increase I mean as you grow the business, right, you can't have the same process. You have to evolve with the uh you know, technology as well. And that's where we came in like okay, you know what, like we are behind on this thing. Like a lot of like Amazon, you look at everything is automatic, right? Walmart, everything is automatic. A lot of 3PLs are So there's so much automation, right? And we were behind. So I was like yeah, let's start with the step one, floor one, what can be done first, right? Then we can look into the next thing. Like I was talking to Gary the other day like hey, can we have something to be integrated directly with the like Seller Cloud where we can just ship the product. I don't have to log into another platform and ship the product, uh use the carrier like do the what you whatever great shopping and everything. Like can we do from one platform? I don't want to log in to different platform, three different platform and just do everything. >> Yeah, so reducing complexity. >> Reducing complexity, yes. >> Okay, I got a funny story around that. So uh a warehouse manager walks into the back and sees two of his workers fighting. He looks at them, breaks them up, says what are you guys doing? And they both look at him and says well, you told us to come back here and start boxing. So [laughter] it's it's those types of discrepancies and inconsistencies that you have, especially in the manual side of the business, that when you put up those types of guard rails with a system in place that that you can really start to scale and scale smarter. >> I do want to touch on that for a second. As much as automation is great, I do want to say that keeping an eye out for manual processes is always key. A simple example is like I would have, you know, five different truckers with multiple pallets going out a day. You know, open ended question is how would you know what pallet goes on the truck in 0.2 seconds? You might say scanning it, QR codes, putting it in a certain location in the warehouse. My answer is color coded stickers. If there's color codes on your BOL and it's on the pallet, it goes on the truck. You don't have to read, you don't have to think about it. It's just color. So sometimes automation is really good, but it's always key to have those manual processes out. >> Yeah, I'll also add to that. So first off, I would say don't ever automate something until the manual process is dialed in. But I I do agree with Abe there. There are some times that, you know, you can overdo it and overcomplicate things by saying, oh, let's try to automate it. There are sometimes very simple fixes you know, for different things. I I like to save time. I I honestly don't like wasting time and I don't like watching people waste time. So we try to be as efficient as possible, but there also has to be realistic expectations. You know, people are not machines. They're an integral part of the business. [clears throat] One sort of manual change we did, I was watching them unload a container, 40-ft container, which took about a half a day. It wasn't pallets, it was box. You know, floor to floor to box, yeah. I found it very painful watching them. Not only because it was a lot of manual work, it was just backwards. It took six people a half a day. And I said there has to be a better way. And I went and thought about it But a lot of big companies, it's all automatic. They have machines that pull up to the trucks and containers and unload. We don't have a loading dock. So I So let's just get manual rollers from Uline, connect them, send the boxes down. So we reduced our labor by 50%. It took three people half a day. Right? It's stuff like that that are just simple fixes. I don't think that's an overly complicated fix. But it's things like that that if if you look out for it, you will see those things. See what you can automate. Sometimes not everything can be automated and you know, you have to go back to the original drawing board and find a you know, a simple fix sometimes works better. >> Yeah. Thank you. I had one of my customers that I was talking to last week that put this in a really good way. He said in my operations I'll look and I'll see if I ask two people with the same information to solve a particular problem and they solve it the same way, probably ready to automate. You know, they if if it's a whether it's entering data or making a decision which carrier to use and that sort of thing. So I think that to me was kind of a helpful way to think about automating a task. The other thing when you were talking about adding rate shopping that I've seen a lot with the most successful rate shoppers that I work with is they after their first or second carrier change, they start thinking this is probably something I'm going to do all the time. You know, I'm I'm probably going to have another carrier I'm going to want to change in 6 months and I'm going to start thinking about how do I figure that out? How do I evaluate or benchmark when I'm going to be ready? Let's not wait till the contract ends. Let's do it you know, every three or four months or if we can get it down to a month, the carriers are pricing weekly, it'd be better that we be think about it even if it's just a trust but verified kind of situation. I've had customers that that put rate shopping in place and it immediately shifts volume, let's say from FedEx to UPS is the one that came in mine. It was kind of funny that it was It's day two go live and big FedEx trucks show up not picking up on picking on carriers, but they show up and they're almost empty and the UPS truck is overflowing. Well, it only took about two weeks before the UPS rep showed up at the door to say, hey, what can we do about this? And you kind of balance it back. So I think that's a a good factor when you think about automation of being ready to for the next change. >> So I I'd like to pick up on what Akiva said Gary. Um is there anything else Gary or any other yeah areas where you would not recommend to automate yet? >> I mean that's a tough one. Yeah, at the end of the day, you know, I I if there's things that you can eliminate task wise the more that you can automate it it basically anytime you automate something you're going to then have to find what is the next manual thing that you're going to have to be doing because when I automate this that's a A now I'm automating it so I can get to B and there's usually manual tasks just like you mentioned there's somebody has to figure out how to get it done first and then after two people come up with that conclusion on what they're doing then you can figure out how to automate that next step and then the next step, but that's what growing and scaling really is. It it's really figuring out first what you need to do, what you want that system to do um and then if they [clears throat] can do that really at the end of the day too. Um you know, you have to see what kind of your system can do and what the other systems that it integrates with as well. Uh it's one of the toughest parts about building automations for our customers is even though it's something that the system may be able to do if the partners that we're working with aren't able to interact in certain ways then then we lack the the ability to create those automations and so if you can't automate it um that's where manual process is so that you can at least grow that business to where you can automate it comes in. >> I think I should have probably asked my question differently. Um so let's assume you automated what you feel you prioritized is ready to automate. You have the the tooling in place. What would you like to focus on? Manual. Because it's important to your business. >> [clears throat] >> Honestly, the manual side of things has got to be finding new products, finding new opportunities. At the end of the day, your system can automate the inventory sync, the orders, but you as a head hunter need to go out there. Me as a salesperson, I've got to follow up with leads and stuff like that. As sellers, you need to find what's the next thing that I'm going to be able to sell. And that's a manual process, being being able to to to track that down. And and it's also going to be more personal type of process because if you're going to sell something, you should believe in that product. >> So maybe hearing from the others like what do you think is the I don't want to say favorite manual process, but where would you rather focus on putting your hands on manual rather than >> So like I said before, really the BOL with the colorful stickers is really key that we use. But if I had to pick another or just at least save myself from automating something, it would most likely be where in the pick list, right? You can have a pick list where like you mentioned [clears throat] before, you can do it based on weight or by location or a specific you know, box size it goes into or even how many it fits in the bin. But if you keep it manual like we do because we have like rooms that everything in because that's just the way the building is designed, it just allows you to just pick by room and just that's it. So you pick by the room, you walk out of the room, you never walk in the room again. But you have to be manual in order to do that. If you're focusing too much on an automation sale, it's going to tell you and create a room map for you to go below the place without even picking. >> Akiva? >> Uh yes. Okay. By the way, Abe, on that note, we we actually you know, our pickers have so they're not going you know, we have a pretty big warehouse and so that they don't go in circles. You know, their pick lists are in order. So it tells them exactly where to go, what to pick. But yeah, I mean as far as that is sort of automated, they're manually picking. One thing would be nice, you know, I know you want to hear the opposite. I'll get to that, but but if it the automated would actually tell you you know on the receiving side when it comes in where it should go based on orders, based on season, you know, because we have a lot of Christmas. That would actually be pretty neat. What I'd say we'd keep manual there are certain elements I guess on on the on the packaging side that we'd keep manual for precision, you know, especially assembling disassembling products cuz we do a lot of kits. I mean trying to think of what else we do manual. We were trying to move as much as we can you know be safe, but also you know as times grow it's it's very hard to keep up with things on a manual. You know I I like to be as efficient as as possible not get ahead of ourselves but always looking to see where we can save time. Time is money. You know, but at the same time you you don't want to cut corners. That that's one thing that you know speed is is great, but if you're going to cut corners then you know the no being in this business because at some point it's going to come back at you. You know you you want to have that balance. So I'd say there is a balance of automation and manual aspects to it. But we're trying you know to make things more automated. So yeah, I'm sure there'll still be some manual stuff. >> I'll add another point that I just thought of. We process returns daily. A lot of people automate that process, don't send back returns, put it in a random location and just leave it there, collect dust, and then I'll think about it when I pick my nose. In our scenario it's more of a manual process. I want to see where the return is, how bad is it, what can I do with it? Can I resell it? Can I put it somewhere? Because at the end of the day, that's where the money is. That's your profit that you don't see so much. And if you even think about it, you can file disputes like I created that scheduled task to file a dispute on top of the fact that you're going to resell it. So you're just gaining your money back. So keeping that process manual and figuring out how the return is and what you should do with it is crucial when it comes to when you just deciding between three, four bucks. If it just adds up. >> Hey, as far as our money's definitely not in returns, but if you if you want a job, we'll hire you as a returns manager. >> That's great. [applause] So being that we're 50 years old, we can essentially send 75% of our catalog back to the vendor if it's damaged. So being that we could do that, that's why we want to process returns because not only we can get our money back from the vendor, we can hey get our recoup our money from the shipping with filing disputes, but it still takes a manual process to do that. So no. >> As far as processing the returns, 100% I mean we have a team that goes through it. Um you know, they entered it into a system. It's still a work in progress, especially in the holiday times it gets chaotic. >> Yeah. >> We've also turned off a lot of returns on the marketplaces. We do a lot of fragile items of just you know, a one-way trip that comes back broken. Um but it's it's still something that is I guess somewhat manual slash automated. That's kind of something that's sort of in the balance of both. >> I think we are all struggling to find the manual process right now. >> Yeah, it's also a little bit challenging because we're moving outside of operations and going into strategy. Like what what Gary brought up obviously like you want to spend more on strategy. Uh I can do that if you have things in place automated. You don't need to worry about that for sure. [clears throat] So but but speaking of the like how do you I would like to talk about like hey how do you measure the impact like an automated process So so Akash you said earlier hey like costs labor costs is definitely one >> Costs KPIs right you know have what's a manual process looks like before and after like I'll give you an example right with a manual process we were about to we process about 60 to 80 orders an hour between two two people picking and packing right now you know Thanks Gary with SKU tech we're about 140 to 150 orders an hour I mean the manual process well I'll go back to your previous question what manual process you are still doing I was able to find one thing okay so in the whole process you know inventory forecasting right that's a manual process I mean here I can do everything like hey they can see like oh last 30 days last 60 days last 90 days they will see the spike as well right and you will need a human touch in the end like okay is this the right number because inventory forecasting is a I think one of the biggest challenge in the e-com industry right so that will require a lot of human touch >> Gary you want to pick up on that >> Yes so that that bodes I guess a good question on what should you automate what shouldn't you automate where where do you need to find that accountability from a human person on there because at the end of the day you can't send AI to jail you know what I mean so is is that really the the biggest delineation do you think that you guys would say whether you should automate something or not is where you need to have accountability >> Um so I I would say on on that yes there has to be accountability so even if something is automated you have to have someone that's overseeing that automation especially building that automation testing that automation the people involved in it the softwares, the tools that are used in it. But no matter what, and it's something that, you know, I will be touching on later, no matter how good your technology is, no matter how good your automation is, you still need a human. Maybe less of them, but the way I see it is you you always need someone that is overseeing it. And as far as KPIs, I mean, yes, there are automations we put in place that have cut things in in half if if not I mean, we just shipping and I spoke about a shipping line. It used to be done around five, you know, our orders that are going out to customers for the different marketplaces, they're done by one now. You know, so it's >> So so sorry, five people? >> No, 5:00 p.m. >> Okay, 5:00 p.m. >> Yeah. >> And they done by one so >> They're done by one. Well, then they so now then they make more pick lists. So they get out even more that is technically early-ish. But we also cross train all of our warehouse employees. So they have to work so we have three departments mainly in the warehouse. We have receiving, you know, which they also pick. We have FBA, prep, and fulfillment and and we have shipping. So we cross train all of our employees there to be able to do all of the jobs. So if they finish something early, they can go like right now they finish shipping early, they all go to FBA. You know, we have about 300,000 units and adding going into FBA for the holidays. So it it takes a lot. So, you know, that whole team goes over there. >> Yeah, Ron, go ahead. >> Maybe think of one I wish I had thought of this, but one of my customers had the most fantastic annual process that hooked into KPIs and automation together. So I was out visiting them, and they had mounted inexpensive cameras over top of every packing station, because you can get them mounted pretty inexpensive. And they were routing the video to a central store area. We started talking about it. Well, they were having a problem with customers reporting missing inventory, especially high value items. They get the box, it's not in the box, they issue a claim. So it was kind of getting out of control, at least from their perspective. So what they started doing is when they would get the the comment from the customer, they wouldn't get aggressive. They would just send the video clip back, because the software would tell them the time and date, who packed it, that box, exactly when it was packed. They could just easily go and open up the the video file where it was and clip out the 10 seconds of putting the item in the box. And it substantially reduced the claims from customers. Uh and it also gave the packers a feedback loop. You know, they could go and look and see something got damaged, something was missing, we put the wrong item in there. Even though they're scanning verifying it, sometimes [clears throat] they still make mistakes. So I thought that was a great manual process that then tied into a automation feedback. >> That that's actually very true. We're actually beta testing >> Right? >> Yeah. Yeah. We're we're actually beta testing that on one of our shipping stations. Yes, we have that problem a lot. Customers says they didn't get it, came this way, didn't come that way. They got this product, not that product. A lot of times they are right, uh but a lot of times they are wrong. But aside from that, I think the biggest thing is to see how they pack things um and to see again, what I'd be looking for is how efficient they pack something. And we put a lot of software in place to make sure that you know, different items get different package types. And again, that's something else in Seller Cloud also that we have is each product will tell you what type of package it needs to be in. The box number, does it need bubble, does it need shredded cardboard, um you know, does it need cutouts, things like that. So for us, you know, the the camera thing is I I think will be very uh and and it could pick up with pretty crazy. Um and [snorts] I did that a little bit manually because I was having some complaints about our FBA process how they were doing things. So I just decided to do it with my phone and then process that through a pick up on any better ways of doing things which is actually a pretty fun process to to see but um it's yeah I'd say that's actually a really good one. >> How long ago was that? >> Eight two years ago I think. >> Had a big impact. >> So just a little teaser like Akiva like runs a full AI session later on so you should definitely make sure that you join that. I guess there are some some of those gems you're going to reveal there as well. Um eight like over the course of the last four months like what would you in terms of measuring impact would would you say is standing out? >> Oh major. Um just imagine writing 300 tracking numbers down on a paper every day and then have to type it into a computer. It's that simple. Hours and hours of my day was just cut out just by automations and just the way Sell Account moves. >> So it's a completely shift uh like a complete game changer actually for your operation. >> I still have the computer or at least the system. It's going into my museum if I become a billionaire. Who knows? But uh it's definitely a change. >> So I actually have a good question for you and I uh know know Nate's business a little bit. Um it's not just e-com so a lot of our customers also do wholesale you know doing drop shipping and everything like that. So there's it's it's multi-faceted um with most of our companies and about 40% of them are are also doing wholesale and it's so having a system in place what are some of the automations that that that really helped to not just increase the e-com but also help you manage and essentially co-mingle these businesses so that they can be um more cohesive together. >> So we're still working on a couple of kinks. Like I know that other drop shipper companies will send us shipping labels. Um the one thing we can't figure out at the moment is, you know, if you create the order manually and you deem it a ship because you have the label and you put the tracking number in it closes the order. How does the warehouse know to ship the order with the label that the drop shipper um sent you? But before that it's really uh we're able to put a schedule test together with a safety quantity of inventory to send to wholesalers. So yes, we are selling on e-com. Inventory is sinking. If I have 100 of an item, they will get an inventory of let's say 20 for the day. And if they need more based on their demand, I will manually tell them that. Or, you know, as I go on I'll build something more. Uh I have an integration now with a drop shipper um site that we use that's connected to fabric through Shopify connection. So it's really, you know, as much as Sellercloud is built for e-com, it's definitely could be used for wholesale and just other drop shipping companies we deal with. >> It sounds like to me like this is uh should be a to be continued next year or whenever we do like a next round or maybe a virtual round actually because there's so many things in motion and we're running a little bit out of time and I want to make sure that you guys get uh get your lunch and the possibility to exchange with others. Um so I would like to close uh the or the closing round actually and ask everybody from you and starting with Akash actually uh to complete the sentence of uh an operations ready to automate a process when? >> Oh. Got to think about it. When operations ready to automate the process? When you know the basics of the your full like you know like a ground level working complete ground level work, then you can automate the process. >> Okay. You know? >> Um I I agree with that. I mean, you first have to have all the kinks worked out. You first have to uh make sure that, you know, all all the parts of that process are are in check. Um, the people that are that are doing it, again, any tools, software that's involved with it before you just go ahead and you know, press play and let it automate. I mean, you really have to uh you have to put in hard work to make sure that it's going to run smoothly and even once you press play, there's going to be a lot of editing along the way. But again, even once you you never you put your foot on the gas, but you always have to have a person that's ready to put their foot on the brake. >> Time. It's really just time. Um, you know, hey hey, you want to, you know, [snorts] transition to automating things in 3.3 seconds. You know, fast as speed of light, you want to save time, you think it's the right thing to do. But like Akiva said and like Akash said, make sure you're doing it correctly. Make sure that everything is functioning correctly because even if you press play and you don't know that something's not operating correctly, you can have zeros on all your things in 2.2 seconds and now you got to sit there like a donkey and change each thing manually. It's not fun. And I've done it. So again, it's really time. Take your, you know, you do your due diligence and make sure that the system works before really automating it. >> Gary, other recommendations? >> If you aren't using Seller Cloud, hit me up. >> [laughter] >> What do we typically hear actually? Like what can you share from these conversations you have actually? >> Really at the end of the day, you know, I'll double down kind of what Abe's mentioning. Yeah, time is money. Um, and a lot of our customers are kind of on that type of rope where they're they're teetering left and right and and when the costs of doing things manually start to outweigh the margins that you're able to make from what you're selling. You know, you you almost start cannibalizing your own business. And at that point, you need to start looking at what you can do on a cost savings, time savings basis to optimize and utilize all the resources that you have in the most efficient way. >> That makes a total sense, Ron. I like I like my customer's answer earlier when two people with the same information, you know, make the same decision. But I think the other I'll echo what I'm hearing from this group that, you know, most often we see people deploying new technology when there's some mix of cost, service, or efficiency that they're trying to attack. Sometimes one of them's leading, sometimes several together. If you find something that it's not just cost or efficiency, but it's also service and it has an outsized impact on revenue, that's a great one to go after cuz you're going to get that impact at lower cost, but you're also going to get You know, maybe it's being able to produce handle your freight and do bill lading really effectively cuz you just want a really big corporate client, but you're expecting now I'm going to win five more of those. So I better be good at that cuz I'm going to win more of those. So appreciate you guys' insights and I hope any that you guys can take the audience can take something away. And yeah, there's multiple conversations that you can have during the day or the course of the next days. And yeah, thanks so much. So I know we are on time now, but if there are any questions, feel free to ask them. And if not, like you guys are here, right? So there's nobody leaving right after this session. And you're going to hear from from our panelists more on the course of the next day or two. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> 👂 >> 👂
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Assuntos: E-commerce, Logística e pagamentos, IA e tendências. Publicado no YouTube em 2026-11-12.
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