The holiday season is right around the corner, which means businesses across the U.S. are gearing up for the busiest and most competitive time of the year. For many of those who have experienced financial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, the holiday season could potentially land your business a good chunk of revenue. But it's crucial that you play your cards right to keep your holiday gains from turning into holiday losses.

That said, here are a few tips you can use to help get your business ready for the upcoming holiday season so you don't find your business falling behind in the rush.

View Original Article on CNN Business
New York (CNN Business)Soon, you may not need a label or a box when you're trying to return something at FedEx.
The company is working with Happy Returns, an e-commerce return technology company. Customers will be able to return products in person — without a box or label — for an immediate refund or exchange from participating retailers.
At the FedEx hubs, returns are sorted by retailer, prepared for resale and shipped in bulk back to the retailer that sold them originally. Refunds and exchanges will be initiated by the retailer at the time of drop off.

Halloween is right around the corner, but it isn't werewolves and vampires your business needs to be scared of. It's the ghosts of your missing packages and the refunds your business has been forced to make on behalf of those packages.

Not all Ground and Express packages are delivered on-time despite carrier guarantees. In fact, if a package arrives late or goes missing, there may not even be any recourse with the carrier. Instead, you're stuck with a complaint from your customers that could impact your bottom line and a loss of revenue by refunding the client's shipping costs.

But how does this incident end up happening and what keeps your carrier from being held accountable for their lateness? It turns out, it could be your parcel shipping contract.

Due to many Americans staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, the e-commerce industry has seen an uptick in business. According to CNBC, FedEx and UPS have seen their best quarter in decades, and traders are expected to back them.

• “New Normal” includes Freight and Accessorial Increases 4.9%-9.5%
• FedEx Introduces 6% late payment fee
• “Frozen Tiers” to end October 2020
• Learn how to mitigate these new increases, See below

​FedEx announced their 2021 General Rate Increase on Monday evening, September 14th. Overall, FedEx Ground Home Delivery, Express and International rates, will increase an average of 4.9%. Accessorials, fees and surcharges will see an increase of 4.9% -9.5%. While base freight rates mirror last year’s rate increase of 4.9%, Accessorial fees and surcharges will continue to add to the carrier’s bottom line. Although SmartPost and Ground Multi-Weight service increases have yet to be posted, suffice to say they are on their way. 

Given the recent rounds of Peak charges introduced over the past few months, 2021 Rate increases should be of no surprise. Due to the ecommerce explosion, rising costs, capacity and yield management concerns, carriers have went on the “offensive”. If you were fortunate enough to have your revenue tiers temporarily “frozen” due to COVID, FedEx will be thawing them out in mid-October. If all of these changes are not enough to digest, you will also want to make sure you pay your bill on time or else you will receive a 6% late payment fee, courtesy of FedEx. 

Keep in mind that these increases are only “service level” averages, while fees and surcharges will incur entirely different increases. Each company’s impact is uniquely dependent on a variety of factors. Let AFMS help you sort out the changes and how they will affect your business.

To get down to the details of this increase AFMS has prepared an expert analysis that you can find here.

Many companies too preoccupied with the key factors of their business to pay close attention to their shipping. This is especially true of small businesses, which rely on a smaller workforce and may not have the time or resources to sit down and go through their parcel shipping contracts line by line.

However, if you're not paying attention to your shipping at all, then you may find yourself losing more money than you think. That said, how can your business save money on shipping costs over time without sweating the details? Here are three ways you can save some serious money.

When it comes to parcel contract auditing and parcel contract optimization, there are a few key terms you ought to know: RFI and RFP. RFI and RFP stand for refund for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP). Both differ from request for quotation (RFQ).

RFI and RFP each serve different purposes throughout the procurement process, but both are used to obtain important information. The more you know about these RFx documents, the more you can do as a business to improve your position when it comes to shipping and your shipping contract. Both RFI and RFP are instrumental in cost savings, risk mitigation, and process standardization.

The U.S. Postal Service has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, suffering a $4.5 billion net loss in its most recently reported quarter. After decades of operating without taxpayer subsidy, the public service received no rescue funding since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. To stay afloat, the USPS has been prohibiting overtime and cutting transportation costs.

Many small businesses and entrepreneurs rely on the USPS to make shipments. This is especially true of international entrepreneurs who may otherwise have to pay substantial shipping costs that are more expensive than the item being shipped. An end to the USPS could not only mean a significant loss to small businesses but also a shift toward larger carriers like FedEx.