Courtesy Pixabay | Tumisu
The Freestyle team attended the IRCE conference in Chicago the last week of June, and thanks to all the customers, partners and prospects we met, it was an exciting week for those of us interested in eCommerce and the retail industry.
For those who missed the conference, we wanted to provide you with some thoughts on the hot topics discussed throughout the week:
Top 4 Key Takeaways from IRCE 2019
#1: Shipping – Controlling costs and finding ways to use shipping as a competitive advantage was a huge point of discussion at the conference, especially considering the impact of new dimensional weight changes from UPS.
It’s a point we have been addressing for some time, but it was driven home by the conversations we had at IRCE. Worry over the continuing erosion of profit posed by the expanding logistics capabilities of Amazon and a desire to get it right before the holiday season rush starts continues to be a headline.
FREESTYLE’S RESPONSE:
We met with several leaders in the space including our partner Shippo, and we will continue to focus our efforts on providing innovative solutions to our customers.
#2: Revenue Recapture – A new term for us, but it addresses the push to acknowledge the outside influences on profitability that impact eCommerce businesses. Within this category falls the increasing popularity of Surcharges to recapture some of the fees charged by merchant services providers and Fraud protection.
FREESTYLE’S RESPONSE:
We have had some very interesting conversations with partners in these spaces and will have more details very soon on how these solutions will work with M.O.M.
#3: Connectivity – The topic of marketplaces was a very popular one at IRCE and ease of connections is important. We spoke with a lot of service providers with diverse business models and walked away with some great ideas. Of course, a discussion of marketplaces inevitably leads to conversations about Amazon as well as other marketplaces that offer potential solutions.
FREESTYLE’S RESPONSE:
We have great solutions in this space and would like to hear from our readers on this evolving subject.
#4: Sales Tax Nexus – Without a doubt this has been the most popular topic for the past year, and while we did not see many innovations at the show, we did note that one year past the SCOTUS decision, eCommerce companies are now truly focused on reviewing their options to address the problem.
FREESTYLE’S RESPONSE: We feel very confident about our partnership with TaxJar and had a great planning session with them at the conference. We are confident this will continue to be a point of emphasis throughout 2019.
Were you in Chicago for IRCE? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the conference and know what you see as the biggest topics. If you’d like to learn more about the show contact us at sales@freestyelsolutions.com.
