How to Ship Inventory Across Borders with Steve Bozicevic

11/21/22 • 32 min

For this episode of the eCom Logistics Podcast, we welcome Steve Bozicevic, Sr. Director of New Product Development and GM of Flow Direct, Flexport. Cross-border shipping has evolved in the years since COVID began. From prioritizing speed and reliability, ecommerce brands now focus instead on managing costs and cashflow.

Steven discusses how they serve the SMB market and help them grow by keeping customers happy. He also digs into managing inflation during times of uncertainty and what the future holds for the logistics industry, and in Toronto in particular where Ninaad and Steve are currently based.

ABOUT STEVE

Steve Bozicevic has been in the cross-border ecommerce and logistics technology industry since 2000. Mr. Bozicevic started his career at Borderfree.com as a software developer, then moved on to product management until 2010 when he joined Pitney Bowes and formed the Global Ecommerce division, where as Vice President of Product Management, he developed products and technology that launched and powered Ebay's Global Shipping Program.

In 2016, Steve joined Amazon as the first member of the Amazon Global Logistics organization where he spent nearly six years building global trade-related technology, products and operations to facilitate B2C exports and B2B imports for Retail and FBA. In 2021, Mr. Bozicevic joined Flexport as Sr. Director of New Product Development. In this role, Steve is also General Manager of Flexport Flow Direct, an ocean freight shipping product for ecommerce SMBs; and is responsible for ecommerce platform and marketplace integrations, including the partnership with Shopify.

HIGHLIGHTS

03:20 Steve's journey in cross-border shipping and building technologies
08:50 Flow Direct offers speed and reliability in international shipping for SMBs
14:48 Tips to manage cash flow and costs in Q4
25:23 A growing talent pool for supply chain in Toronto

QUOTES

12:24 COVID transformed business' priorities to speed and reliability - Steve: "Speed was important, but reliability was more important. Knowing when it's going to get there allows the customer to plan ahead on their supply chain and say, If I know it's going to be 20 days or 40 days or 60 days, it's reliable, I can manage my POs, I can manage my cash flow according to reliability."

15:51 Manage cash flow with just-in-time fulfillment - Steven: "Cash is important and how do you best manage your cash flow? In my opinion, similarly to how manufacturing supply chains moved to just-in-time production, I think just-in-time fulfillment is a similar kind of approach. Ordering smaller quantities more frequently, being more reactive to demand trends, making sure that you always got something in transit."

Find out more about Steve in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbozicevic/
Website: https://www.flexport.com/

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ABOUT STEVE

HIGHLIGHTS

03:20 Steve's journey in cross-border shipping and building technologies
08:50 Flow Direct offers speed and reliability in international shipping for SMBs
14:48 Tips to manage cash flow and costs in Q4
25:23 A growing talent pool for supply chain in Toronto

QUOTES

Find out more about Steve in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbozicevic/
Website: https://www.flexport.com/

Subscribe and Keep Learning!

If you’re a logistics leader looking to scale sustainably, don’t miss out! Subscribe for more expert strategies on tackling modern supply chain challenges.

Be sure to follow and tag the eCom Logistics Podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube

Previous Episode

How to Keep Supply Chain Agile and Sustainable with Edward Hertzman

For this episode of the eCom Logistics Podcast, we welcome Edward Hertzman, Executive Vice President of Fairchild Media and Founder and President of Sourcing Journal. Edward shares the trends in supply chain he is observing today post-COVID and beyond.

From the way Amazon changed logistics forever and its effects in consumer expectations as a result, to the importance of remaining agile and how to do it, Edward takes a deep dive into how global supply chains will look like in the near future and how to maintain inventory to scale.

ABOUT EDWARD

Edward Hertzman received a degree in economics from NYU and spent more than a decade working as a top executive for major sourcing companies all over the world, including Synergies Worldwide and Pearl Global. Hertzman sits on the Board for Delivering Good, a charitable organization that channels the resources of the fashion industry to those in need.

In 2009, in response to a need in the industry, he founded Sourcing Journal Online. With more than 75,000 subscribers, Sourcing Journal Online is the largest trade journal devoted to the sourcing apparel and textile industry supply chain in the world.

In August 2020, he was promoted to executive vice president of Fairchild Media, tasked with growing the businesses of all Fairchild Media titles in his new position, while continuing to lead the day-to-day operations at Sourcing Journal. He will also oversee the growth of Fairchild Media’s strategic content studio, bolstering the creation of engaging, interactive content to help industry partners stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.

HIGHLIGHTS

07:07 DTC is dying and mergers are set to happen
13:08 Surviving devaluation and managing inventory for what's to come
20:23 Keeping sourcing lean and agile in fashion
25:23 Nearshoring and diversifying manufacturing and sourcing capabilities
30:22 Regulations and sharing the responsibility of sustainability in supply chain management

QUOTES

14:27 On pushing back on the growth-at-all-costs mindset, Edward says, "Just don't acquire customers saying, Oh, the lifetime value is X and never really realize that. Don't buy inventory without testing the product. Find retail partners that are gonna support you, not just be transactional."

31:09 As regulations will push for tangible sustainability measures from retail, Edward says, "I think there's only two ways to incentivize people or two ways to get people to change. One is through incentive and one is through repercussions. And what I mean by that is either you're gonna pay me more to do something or you're gonna punish me for not doing it."

39:48 To survive the recession, Edward suggests, "I think that if people don't think short term, the same way I say don't buy a million T-shirts when you really only need five. Don't just start laying off to make the quarter. It's very hard to find talent in this space. Don't stop investing in technology to make the quarter because you're gonna need that technology."

Find out more about Edward and Sourcing Journal in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-hertzman-2401b38/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdwardHertzman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwardhertzman/
Website: https://sourcingjournal.com/

Subscribe and Keep Learning!

If you’re a logistics leader looking to scale sustainably, don’t miss out! Subscribe for more expert strategies on tackling modern supply chain challenges.

Be sure to follow and tag the eCom Logistics Podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube

Next Episode

How to Manage the Complexities of Global Market Logistics with Brian Glick

For this episode of the eCom Logistics Podcast, we welcome Brian Glick, Founder and CEO of Chain.io. He digs into the complexity of global B2B market logistics and how it can be difficult for new players to enter due to EDI and compliance issues.

Brian also dives into the differences between fulfilling an order in the US and fulfilling orders in Southeast Asia where more than 100 parties are involved—and these parties change with every transaction.

He gives advice on how midmarket brands are best matched with midmarket service providers, as well as how to peel apart the different services to optimize payment terms or routing, an uncomfortable yet necessary process as the company grows.

ABOUT BRIAN

As founder and CEO of Chain.io, Brian Glick has made a career of simplifying complex supply chain and trade compliance IT challenges. Whether analyzing complex coding issues or rationalizing the compliance impacts of a vendor direct drop ship program, Brian brings a rare combination of executive perspective and deep technical knowledge to today’s supply chain challenges.

From the early days of web-based visibility platforms and into today’s connected ecosystem, Brian has been an active leader in each phase of the connected supply chain evolution. With a focus on retail and apparel supply chains, Brian has brought his expertise to bear as an IT leader both within logistics service providers and through independent software companies.

HIGHLIGHTS

06:08 The complexity of global B2B logistics and tiers of fulfillment
11:19 Defining First Mile, Middle Mile, Last Mile Logistics
13:36 The challenge of setting standards and pushing for innovation in 3PLs
24:34 Choose the right investors for your supply chain tech company

QUOTES

10:21 Midmarket companies are best served by midmarket service providers - Brian: "The companies that are more midmarket that you have to do some research and find often will give you an account manager. You'll be a big enough account to them that they will treat you well and help you, when all of this chaos is going on, help you understand, take the time with you that the biggest guys can't."

25:58 Supply chain companies must establish trust with brands - Brian: "Supply chain is a very trust-based industry, whether if you're a service provider or software that supports a service provider, people are putting their brand in your hands. It's not a consumer app that if you screw up... If you screw up Twitter tomorrow, just stop using Twitter. If you screw up the thing that delivers my product to Macy's, I got a problem. So you need investors who understand that."

Find out more about Brian in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briansglick/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bglick
Website: https://chain.io/

Subscribe and Keep Learning!

If you’re a logistics leader looking to scale sustainably, don’t miss out! Subscribe for more expert strategies on tackling modern supply chain challenges.

Be sure to follow and tag the eCom Logistics Podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube