On this episode of Better Yet, Better Trucks’ fireside chat series that showcases innovators and visionaries in the parcel shipping space, Better Trucks CTO Mike Koleno sat down to talk about how technology is being used to bridge the gap between shippers and carriers with Pooja Daftary, VP at Shippo, the industry’s number one shipping tool for e-commerce merchants.

Digging into the evolution of the industry as customer expectations have changed, Pooja had some great insights into how critical technology has been in those evolutions and providing a good experience for the end customer.

“You start with kind of the, even before you get to the customer journey, right, even with just providing merchants access to shipping capabilities. Then, you kind of move into the customer journey. Right. And that's where I think some of the advancements that we've seen is the ability to provide options to merchants, right, and setting the right expectations. If you're in checkout today, customers want to know, they want to know when the packages are going to arrive,” said Pooja.

“We want to be able to manage customer expectations. And it's absolutely critical and customers expect that. So I think there's been, I would say, a lot of innovation within the industry. I mean, even when you look at Uber, right, that's where proof of delivery, things like QR codes for returns have become very critical from a capabilities perspective. And these are expectations that merchants now have, right, which is, and I think it's important for companies in the space to really set the expectations, manage the expectations by constantly communicating with our merchants and end users. And I think that is something that's remained consistent across the various companies that I've worked at,” finished Pooja.

Mike wanted to address how Shippo specifically addresses meeting consumer expectations and helping their customers.

“And as those merchants get bigger, so taking 3PL as an example, at that point, we are truly providing that infrastructure, right? Because like a 3PL, reliability and latency becomes very critical to those types of customer segments,” continued Pooja from the quote above.

“An added second or multi second where there's a delay in label creation, that could mean significant issues from a productivity perspective for the people that are on the ground picking and packing. So it's really that, creating that value and serving that customer, meeting them where their needs are across the various different platforms that we've built and created,” said Pooja.

“Then once integrated, this opens up a whole world of opportunity for us carriers to effectively become another choice for merchants and for shippers and to provide an alternative set of delivery capabilities outside of the global carriers that many, many folks are most familiar with,” said Mike on Better Trucks’ experiences working to integrate with Shippo.

“On your end, right, you're launching a lot of innovative features and we are able to unlock those capabilities to the rest of the merchants that are on our platforms, hundreds and thousands of merchants. We're able to unlock those capabilities and bring that innovation to them through our platform. So I think it creates this really nice way to really connect the dots between both the shipper and the carrier and bringing capabilities really to either side through that connection that we're building within the ecosystem,” finished Pooja.

Mike asked Pooja about how API integrations are playing a role in the evolution of technology in the industry.

“That is exactly the problem that we're solving for shippers because shipping can be complex and for a shipper that's generally not their core business,” said Pooja.

“I think shipping can be very complex. There are constantly changing requirements around compliance and things that we need to make sure that the shippers adhere to as it relates to the items that they're shipping,” stated Pooja.

While discussing integrations, Mike had this to say: “Inevitably, in order to get these integrations both technically and operationally off the ground, there requires some coordination, especially in those early days when new shipper meets new carrier.”

When asked about the role Shippo plays for their shippers, Pooja explained that it’s about connecting shippers and carriers effectively.

“And I think on the carrier side as well, right, bringing that acquisition, helping them grow that volume. And I think part of that is providing that support on both sides and helping you all understand what the shipper's needs are, and also sharing data around where the shippers are shipping from, right, which will help you further optimize within your network. But on the shipper side, really helping them understand and breaking down the shipping complexities for them by providing that support. Because shipping, as we all know, can be very complex and we really want to solve this for both sides of the ecosystem here,” stated Pooja.

Mike wanted to discuss diversity and women in the supply chain thanks to his interest in how people land in supply chain roles.

“I mentioned sort of my own sort of fascination with people like myself who are coming into this industry, who are still, I would say, kind of learning some of the historical legacy side, but also looking to disrupt similar in a way, in which you mentioned earlier, I think this has been an industry that has been short on diversity. And it's really gratifying for me to see individuals like yourself, women in supply chain and tech,” he noted.

“It's very interesting that the supply chain, e-comm, tech industry. Right, Continues to still be very male dominated,” replied Pooja.

“I think as leaders within the industry, I think we need to create the right experience and the right opportunities for female leaders. And I think there are two key components here. Right. I think at a company level, I think we need to create those right opportunities and offer women that seat at that table within supply chain, within tech. And again, I've only been at Shippo for eight months, but feel very fortunate about having the opportunity here. And we are a female-led company. Our CEO is female. And it's great to see the environment that the company has created to promote diversity and inclusion. But I think the other component here is I think it needs to start early. Right. I think it needs to start with educational institutions. I mean, you mentioned you have two daughters, right, and then providing those opportunities and helping young girls pursue that career and gain academic experience within the right fields that promotes their career in that direction, I think is also very critical,” stated Pooja, giving her take on how we can promote women in the supply chain.

Lastly, Pooja had some advice for women looking to enter the supply chain.

“The one piece of advice that I will offer here is don't be afraid to switch careers or take that leap of faith. I actually, my personal story here, I started my career in finance and I was actually supporting the operations and the logistics team, but from a finance and FBNA perspective, and as I continued to work with them, it was definitely very interesting and I wanted to move over, but I was very anxious. I didn't have an academic background in supply chain, and I was really worried about taking that step. And I was very fortunate to have a great set of mentors that helped guide me and encourage me to take that step forward. So I think my advice here would be don't be afraid to take that leap of faith, that step in the direction that you want to pursue and lean on mentors, build a great network of mentors that can help guide you and encourage you to move in that direction,” Pooja offered.