Flash Back Friday: MATT’S CHATS Webinar | Scaling Smart: The 2026 Blueprint for High-Growth Operations
Welcome back to Third Person’s Flash Back Friday series, where we take a look back at previous episodes of our webinar series, MATT’S CHATS.
MATT’S CHATS is a webinar series bringing together supply chain experts, e-commerce brands, and tech professionals for a dynamic panel discussion on the latest news in logistics, fulfillment, and beyond. Moderated by Matt Hertz, the founder and CEO of Third Person, each panel features one leader from a 3PL, brand, and tech company.
In this FBF webinar, Matt was joined by Bryan Corbett (Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development at Barrett Distribution Centers), Dru Carpenter (Co-Founder of Yuzu), and Courtenay Schick (Head of US Operations at waterdrop®). They broke down the operational infrastructure required to scale successfully in 2026.
Dive into the transcript below, or watch the episode on YouTube @ThirdPersonCo.
Matt Hertz: Alright, so we got Brian, we got Drew, and Courtney is probably just a moment away, and then we'll get started here. Yeah, I think I can manually look at that manually move her. And we'll give people a minute or two to get logged in. Hey, Courtney. Oh, you might be on mute, but that's alright. Are you good? Can I hear you?
Courtenay Schick: Yep, can you hear me?
Matt Hertz: Yeah, perfect. Yeah, we're good. Well, let's get started, and you know, as people wrap up their prior meeting, they can hop on in, and this is being recorded, so we'll be able to circulate this after. Anyone who registered will get an email with the full session and then, yeah, our marketing team will kind of chop it up into shorts and stuff and post it on our YouTube. So, you'll be able to watch it after. But thanks, everyone, for joining today, thanks to the panelists, Brian, Courtney, and Drew. And thanks for joining, for all the attendees, all the guests, thanks for joining the first, Matt's Chats of the new year. Really excited for this. For those joining for the first time, just a quick sort of context on what we're trying to do here with Matt's Chats. It is a monthly webinar series where we bring together supply chain experts, e-commerce leaders, typically on the operations side of e-commerce, as well as tech professionals, for a discussion on the latest news in logistics and e-commerce. Really excited for today's chat. We've got, Brian Corbett, the VP of Sales, Marketing and BD over at Barrett Distribution. He's here to represent best-in-class 3PL capabilities. We have Courtney Schick, head of U.S. Operations at Waterdrop, showing us what aggressive U.S. expansion looks like operationally, and encouraging us to drink more water. You know, I've got my water, but I should… this is probably perceived as a competitor of WaterDrop, anything…
Bryan Corbett: By the way, for advertising? You're gonna do, like, live ad reads?
Matt Hertz: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bryan Corbett: More water, you know, oval team. Yeah, right?
Matt Hertz: I will be placing an order after… after this session, because I… I do consume a lot of water, so, you know, the product looks, right up our alley here. And finally, we have Drew Carpenter, the co-founder of Yuzu, which I only know as, like, a lemon, right? Isn't it lemon? Or, yeah, right? You're kind of nodding your head, so, very eager to kind of dive into what Yuzu does. But he's here to demonstrate how post-purchase experience drives retention and LTV. Before we get into things and allow the panelists to provide a quick intro on who they are and their companies and their role. I just wanted to quickly, thank Brian and the team at Baird Distribution for not only appearing as a guest, but also sponsoring this episode of Matt's Chats, and if anyone is interested in being a guest or sponsoring a future episode, just shoot me a note after this, and we can chat about that. So, with that said, let's get started with some introductions. You know, maybe we'll go Courtney, Drew, and Barrett, you know, just 30 seconds a minute on who you are, your companies, and your role. So, yeah.
Courtenay Schick: Cool. I knew I was gonna be first. So, again, I'm Courtney, the head of U.S. Operations at Waterdrop. We're a global company, with about over 200 employees now. Waterdrop wants, or is striving to be the world's leading hydration brand without actually selling water. We create dissolvable hydration cubes with vitamins and electrolytes in them, and my job is essentially to manage all of the U.S. growth. And the product, once it leaves many of… or any of our many suppliers to get to the US and to its end consumer. So my background's in a lot of CPG startups, and that's kind of how I ended up here doing… running the ops.
Matt Hertz: Awesome. Thanks, Courtney. Drew?
Dru Carpenter: Perfect. Yeah, I'm Drew, co-founder of Yuzu. Yuzu enables brands to turn personalized postcards inside orders before dispatch, so printed at their 3PL, launching things like gift messaging, targeted offers, loyalty nudges, all in kind of relation to what they're doing already via digital channels. We partner at the moment with about 75 3PLs, work with about 50 brands directly, so yeah, in a nutshell, connecting with customers when they're most receptive, which is when they're opening their order, and trying not to slow down fulfillment processes or, yeah, working with 3PLs directly in that process.
Bryan Corbett: Drew, I love the idea of doing it on-site, by the way. 4… at the 3PM, anyway. I like… I like what they're doing. Yeah, Brian Corbett, I'm the VP of Sales and Marketing at Barrett, I… I might be the senior in the room right now, I've been in the industry for a long time, for… Courtney, you're laughing, but, I was a… I was a startup, I was a founder for about 15 years, ran my own company, sold it, sold my last company, and then entered in the supply chain about 10 years ago. So, worked at a couple different 3PLs. And, yeah, now I'm a Barrett, I head up our marketing and hybrid sales, and, love doing stuff like this, so thanks for the invite, Matt.
Matt Hertz: Yeah, no, thank you guys. Yeah, Brian, you and I have known each other for, I don't know, 5, 6, or 7 years. I know we bumped into each other at a conference a few years back, so… and, you know, we've been, you know, pen pals and friends, you know, ever since then. So, really glad that you're here, and, you know, Courtney, first time you and I met, and Drew, you know, I think we met probably about a year ago. Around the time that, you know, the business was, you know, launching. So, glad to have you here. So let's get into some things. We actually do have a chat, as well as a Q&A function, on the bottom. on the bottom of your Zoom screen, so feel free to post anything in the chat, any questions you have. Or put in the Q&A if you want to be a little bit more formal, but, we'll see the other one, and, you know, we'll try to kind of answer some of your questions in real time, and if we don't get to it, then we can sort of direct that at the right person, and, you know, you guys can follow up after the session. But, definitely want to, really get started with, you know, the elephant in the room here, which is. the difficulty around scaling, right? I know that sounds awfully cliche because we talk about it a lot, but it's the truth, and having come from the brand side, the operating side, before, getting more into the supplier side, if you will. you know, I've had a lot of experience and know firsthand that, it's really, really easy for a brand operator to hit a wall, you know, whether it's Operationally, financially, technically, or technologically, usually it's all of the above. So I'm really, eager to sort of go around the horn and understand what are some of the biggest obstacles that, you're seeing brands face, you know, whether, Courtney, it's, it's, you know, water drop, or. you know, with Brian and Drew, you know, brands in your ecosystem that you support, you know, what are some of the obstacles that you're seeing brands face as they, you know, grow, into 2026 and, and, and really accelerate their businesses. You know, maybe, maybe we'll start with Brian, and, you know, that's, that's too broad of a question, you know… No, it's fine, it's fine.
Bryan Corbett: I am curious what Courtney thinks, because I know she… they have such… You have such good… you have, like, two case studies. You have Europe, you have… I think you're in other continents, actually, not just Europe, but then you have the United States, and you have a brand perspective. But I can talk about from the 3PL side, in terms of… you know, I think there has been a major shift, really, since going back to when the Facebook ads were changed. I don't think it's truly changed since then. And Matt, you remember, you guys all might remember, you know, there was, like, a spigot, you could turn on Facebook ads and run them continuously. Apple changed their you know, their algorithm, and I think brands had to get more creative on how to grow. But we'll keep it in terms of operations, I guess, on my side, on the 3PL side. I consistently come back to the people. I mean, I was going through questions, and I just… so many of my answers were like, well, I think it's because of the people that you have… people you have at your 3PL, the people you have on your floor. I mean, obviously, I'm… biased towards Barrett, but, you know, I was at Kenco, I was at other 3PLs before this, and when I see where 3PLs struggle, and where brands tend to switch partners, is usually about the people running the floor, people running the solution. So, I think the… to be specific, I think… One of the big hurdles, people… the brands run into is, when they move into different channels. So, maybe they're direct-to-consumer, they're with the 3PL for a long time, they're doing direct-to-consumer every day, and then they're adding in retail stores, or retail compliance, or some other wrinkle into a new sales channel, and their current 3PL just simply doesn't have experience there. They tend to be a guinea pig, they tend to have… a little bit. No matter the software, no matter the tech that you're using, they tend to not have that experience on the floor, and then they break, and then they look for a new 3PL provider. You know, when I think about people, I think about… the right GM can go out on the floor and identify a badly… a poorly labeled pallet in, like, 3 seconds, because he's seen it for 10 years, right? That's hard for, for a GM that has never… has no experience in retail compliance. So, I'll just use that as one example. I'll pass it around the room, but I tend to see different growth into different channels is where the operations tends to break, if you're not with the right partner. Go ahead, Courtney.
Courtenay Schick: Yeah, I mean, I think for us, it comes down to, like, the most simplest answer, which is having the right product at the right time in the right places. Like, you know, we have a really diverse ecosystem of supply chain, where we own most of the pieces. And it's… it's like, yes, are the people as invested in making sure that this is gonna happen, and can we get the product and deliver it if, you know, ads start performing? You know, you see, like, okay, we sold out of something, and now we can't bring this ad back to start re-performing. So it's… for us, it's just been, how can we be as nimble as possible, especially in the U.S, to, you know, like, what are we willing to sacrifice in order to have the product on hand? And, like, with the 3PL partners, like, when I started, we had a different 3PL partner. Like, prior to me joining Waterdrop, it was, do we fulfill from our warehouse in the check, or do we find a partner in the U.S? Ultimately it was, let's find someone in the US who kind of just got us through the first couple years, and then it was like, how do you become efficient with it? Because if you want a good customer experience, it's one thing, but if you want to make money, it's another, right?
Matt Hertz: You were, you were, you were fulfilling, Courtney, into the U.S. from the Czech Republic, is that right?
Courtenay Schick: it was a really strong consideration, because it would have been cheaper when we didn't have the volumes. So it would've… we were like, okay, this… we could do this easily, we could air freight these parcels in, but then it really highly goes against our sustainability mission. So we thought, okay, we'll eat the cost initially, the first, like, 2-3 years. to have a partner in the U.S, you know, in the middle of the U.S. to make it, like, a little more sustainable to ship it out, rather than sending and having this huge carbon footprint of air freight parcels.
Matt Hertz: Totally. Drew, I, I, you know, I'm curious, since, you know, you live mostly on the, on the post-purchase side, I might be very wrong in saying what I'm about to say, but I feel like… brands are often, and honestly not just feel like, I know I've experienced that brands often, sort of deprioritize, the post-purchase experience when they're so focused on kind of day-to-day growth, you know, as as, you know, Courtney was sort of suggesting, and Brian as well, like, just, you know, getting out today's orders, you know, today, and doing it accurately and in a cost-effective means. So, I'm eager for you to, you know, make the case for us, like, why brands do, in fact, care a lot about that post-purchase experience, and why it's not sort of decoupled In fact, very much related to the ability for brands to continue to scale.
Dru Carpenter: Yeah, well, I think Brian raised a really good point there in terms of, some of those easy acquisition levers, turning off or changing over time with headwinds around iOS and Facebook. Look, if you're in hypergrowth and ads are just printing money, sure, ignore retention, ignore post-purchase for a period of time. But that window's short, and generally, retention is the backbone of any business. It's how… many of your customers can you keep, and how many of your existing customers go on to make a repeat purchase? It's a lot easier to sell an existing customer on a new product than it is to sell to someone that's never even heard of your brand. So, when we think about post-purchase, I think a lot of the channels that we look at are mostly growth and marketing focused, and then an ops lead or team member gets looped in as an additional stakeholder. Obviously, you've got your online channels, email, SMS, every brand is utilizing those and adapting those over time. But then you've got things like inserts, where, you know, the average brand might order 50,000, 100,000 generic inserts, put that into each order as a program for 3 to 6 months, analyze it after 6 months and realize they can't track or attribute anything, and go, maybe that worked for the customer experience, but this isn't making us money, so let's turn it off. Where we come in, really, is… attributing, to each individual customer, so tracking individual QR code scans, putting unique discount codes on inserts. So, from a growth and marketing perspective, the value is there and can be clearly attributed. And then the challenge for us, really, is looking at ops and 3PL teams and going, this is going to work within your workflow at peak periods, and this is going to be nice and automated with your WMS system and integrations, which potentially we can delve into on a later question, but But yeah, look, I think retention is the backbone, and we're on a mission to make it trackable from an offline and… insert perspective.
Bryan Corbett: Drew, I'll give you a plug right now, regardless, because I think this is a theme for what you're selling, is I'm amazed how many brands that I see, Who don't take advantage of either custom packaging, or inserts, or… or just some of the easy, low-hanging fruit. I guess there might not seem like there's a value there anymore, but if you, for premium brands, and for, for, when you're not selling on price. I don't know. It's probably not for me. Like, I, but I'm not gonna lie, like, I kinda like when I get the colored bag, and the insert, and the card, and I get a feeling when I… you know, Amazon… because it's like, Amazon is so, you know, blah, and brown, and sad. Right? I mean, we've all opened up an… it's a sad experience, in a way. It's like…
Courtenay Schick: It creates, like, that custom experience where you feel like the brand's actually connecting with you.
Bryan Corbett: 100%. Courtney, like, Waterdrop has some of the best packaging I've ever seen, like, for actual product. Makes you want to, like, it's a pro… it's a packaging that makes you want to eat it, you know what I mean? Have you ever seen, like, the candy or the drinks, and you're like, you just want to taste it? Yeah, I don't know, I just… I'm surprised, I'm surprised more brands and companies don't take advantage of the 10 or 10 cents, or whatever it might be, to… To throw an insert in a box, yeah.
Courtenay Schick: Anything like that?
Matt Hertz: I mean, I think.
Bryan Corbett: Go ahead, Courtney. Oh, yeah.
Courtenay Schick: Oh, sorry, I was gonna say, like, I think for us, like, it becomes… we want a consistent experience throughout every single water drop, so if you go into one of our stores, you get the same experience in France that you do in Minnesota, but because we use so many different tech stacks, it becomes… it can become a barrier to bringing on new tools, because it maybe can't be rolled out globally.
Matt Hertz: Yeah, no, absolutely, and, thanks, Jennifer, for, plugging, our unboxing series here at Third Person, which I will be able to unbox Waterdrop, hopefully… well, if I place an order today, Brian, is my order gonna ship today, right?
Bryan Corbett: It'll be there tonight.
Courtenay Schick: moreover.
Matt Hertz: Yeah, yeah, exactly, right? Although, you know, by the time I get around to it, it'll be after noon central, so I'll give you a little bit of grace, but I'll see it early next week. I'll be out of town Friday, so when I come back, I'll have to do an unboxing, and To help exemplify that, that, that experience. But yeah, look, I mean, you're, you're, you're absolutely right, Brian, that, you know, it is, it is sort of shocking how, so few brands take advantage of it, and I think that, part of the challenge I think I've seen, and Drew, I mean, I, you know, this is part of the mission of Yuzu, is to do… is to almost be the antithesis of that kind of boring and blah that you often get, with orders, is that, like, it's… It's just collateral that I toss out because it's meaningless, right? It doesn't speak to me individually as a person, right? It's not… it's not handwritten, it's not… it's not customized. And that's where the opportunity is, right? Like, even, you know, this sweater that I'm wearing here, which is one of my favorite brands, Robeck, you know, they have quite a bit of marketing collateral in their boxes, but one of the pieces, and this is gonna sound kind of silly to say, but one of the pieces that actually, you know, when you open it. And it talks about, kind of, you know, their brand and everything, their mission. There's actually what appears to be, like, a hand… excuse me, a handwritten thank you, in, like, a blue marker. And, you know, it's probably something that, you know, when there's some downtime in the warehouse, some associate just writes thank you over and over and over again, you know, tens of thousands of times, but, like, even that small little touch was like, you know, me as an operator, I'm like, oh, that actually took someone time to do, right? It adds a little bit more personalization, or, you know, when you order something…
Bryan Corbett: The hoodies are also awesome. What's that? I said the hoodies are awesome, too.
Matt Hertz: Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, I buy for the clothing, certainly.
Bryan Corbett: No, I know, you're right. I agree with you.
Matt Hertz: Yeah, so, so really, really, really neat what you're… what you're building there, Drew, and, you know, all brands and, and 3PL should be, exploring, Yuzu. You know, Brian, maybe back to you. I'm curious on, like. you know, given that, you know, you've, you've, you know, you're an entrepreneur yourself, and certainly, on the 3PL side, you work with a lot of brands, you know, Courtney's brand, as well as, you know, dozens and dozens of other brands. I'm curious, like, where do you typically see that operational breaking point? Is it, like… is it a function of revenue? Like, when you hit 10 million in sales, is it 100 million? Is it… do you think of it more on an order volume basis? Is it when you're going from kind of single-channel, you know, nowadays Shopify, to…
Bryan Corbett: Yeah.
Matt Hertz: Amazon, Target, Walmart, like, what, you know, what are some of those early, sort of, milestones for challenges?
Bryan Corbett: And real quick, I think Marissa was asking about the 50K, 100K. Marissa, did you mean, like, spent money to spend on inserts activity? Before we get off that subject, because I… volume, Still not… Matt, are you… I'm still not following the question, no.
Matt Hertz: Yeah, sure.
Bryan Corbett: verification.
Matt Hertz: Companies just starting out that can't afford large-scale I'm… I'm guessing, Marissa, the question is… is probably directed at Drew. like, I mean, maybe we'll try answering it this way, and Marissa, let us know if you meant it elsewhere, but, like, are there, like, minimums, Drew, with Yuzu? Like, do I need to print, like, 100,000 to get started? Can I do a run of 10? Maybe, maybe share a little bit there, and Marissa, if we've hit the mark, feel free to add a little bit more context.
Dru Carpenter: Yeah, sure. So I… for us, there's no… there's no minimums. To get started, you need the $99 software subscription with us, and then a $300 printer. We actually typically see things at both ends of the spectrum, so you've got founders that are fulfilling their own orders, and handwriting a note in every order, and they want to maintain a personal touch when they move to a 3PL, or when they try and create more efficiency right at the start of their journey. And then we've got, larger brands that have kind of saturated existing channels. They've perfected their emails, their SMS, they're doing direct mail. And they want to add another touchpoint or activity channel, to those existing retention efforts. So… Look, a minimum software plan, but we've got, brands just starting, we've got very large brands, there's a real range.
Matt Hertz: Okay, that's great.
Bryan Corbett: Matt, so your question was around, breaking points on the, on, on, maybe on the 3PL side, or were you asking, what do I see? Are there plans?
Matt Hertz: Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, more so on the brand side. Right.
Bryan Corbett: It's hard to say… It's a good question, I think there's… if I can relate it to, like, D2C levels, like, in terms of how many orders per day, I think so many people are used to thinking about how big their D2C business is based on orders per day, so let's do it that way. So, I think there's levels, there seems to be level-ups at 200 orders a day, 500 orders a day, 1,000 orders a day. And then, those seem to be kind of, like, the three kind of levels that I see brands go through, where you get to a consistent 200 orders a day, and then it's 500, And then you can be anywhere from in that 500, 600, 400 for, like, a year, and then all… you know, then your customer cycle repeats every year, your retention cycle, whatever that is, and now you're at 1,000 orders a day. These tend to be points that break, maybe break… not just break the… they don't really break the 3PL, they might break the 3PL side, or the brand side, rather. And then I think that the level up for the brand is always, again, adding the channel or the ERP. You know, once you get to that thousand, you're like, okay, we need NetSuite, we need an ARP, we need to change our tech stack. Courtney, does this resonate with you? Does you feel that way? I'd love to hear what you think. Is that… Is that kind of the… the flow?
Courtenay Schick: Yeah, I mean, I think for, like, from the… my point of view, it's more so, like, the adding of channels and the complexity of the channels. Like, as, you know, D2C is growing, then Amazon is blowing up because they kind of correlate together, so then you're not only trying to fulfill these orders, you're trying to replenish, and just, like, from the ops side, it just… kind of starts to, go at those same levels as well, I would say.
Matt Hertz: Great. Courtney, I want to stay with you. I did have a question, but I see that Nick… asked a question here in the Q&A, I think you'd be well-positioned to respond to Nick. He asks, for multi-channel fulfillment, is it better to find a 3PL partner that does all channels, or find a separate partner that specializes in each channel? You know, e-com, brick and mortar, wholesale? What are your thoughts?
Courtenay Schick: Yeah, my personal preference is to have one provider that can do all of those things for you.
Bryan Corbett: I was gonna say, Corey Haha, like, if…
Courtenay Schick: Amazing.
Bryan Corbett: anything else, you're crazy. Imagine dealing with 10 of us, right?
Courtenay Schick: Right. Because you then go from managing inventory at one location to managing inventory at six locations. All of those have different requirements. If you're talking food product, you have Best Buy dates, you have packaging, etc. So you can really be more nimble with your inventory and flex to what each channel needs by having everything in one place. And Then, with that as well, you get volume, which means you get better pricing for all channels, rather than having them… It's not…
Bryan Corbett: It shouldn't be that complicated, where you need 10 different partners. The trend right now is contracting. It's contraction. It's not 10 nodes and 3 partners. If you're doing that, it's… I mean, there's few examples where a business supports that, Matt, like, and you probably know the brands off your top of your head, but if you have your… if you control your entire supply chain, if you create your products in the U.S, if you have 5 SKUs. you could think of the brands that I'm thinking of. Like, yes, maybe you could have multiple partners in different nodes, but, you know, the costs behind that are extraordinary, and, so it just doesn't… it just doesn't… it's… it never works out. It just doesn't. And it sounds, it's… I don't even know if it sounds good anymore, Courtney. You know what I mean?
Courtenay Schick: I mean, like, you think there's just more management as well, right?
Bryan Corbett: Right.
Courtenay Schick: you know, I own the relationship between Barrett and all of our daily operations. If I have 5 partners that I'm then working with, that's almost impossible for me to be managing the relationship with 5 different 3PLs that all have separate needs each day.
Bryan Corbett: We've actually turned things away. When companies came to us with opportunities that were pieces of their business, even. unselfishly, you know what I mean? Matt, like, unselfishly, like, said, like, you know what, like, we know this isn't a good idea for you, and we don't want our brand associated with it necessarily going poorly. Because if you're using another 3PL for this, and you want us to just do the omni-channel or the B2B side, like, yeah, we can do it, but it's not ideal, and now we have data sets, and two different 3PLs, and we have to talk to each other, and we don't… we don't communi… you know, there's a bunch of things that… that go on there that we… I get nervous about, It's a really good question, and it's something that I'm just noticing that brands are consolidating right now. They're consolidating nodes, they're consolidating partnerships, rightly so, they found out. They messed around and found out how costly it can be. To do a split shipments, to manage inventory, to double up their inventory, to do all these things, all to save, you know, 80 cents on a parcel shipment, and get a 3-day delivery instead of a 4-day delivery. You know, they're finding out that maybe people don't care. You know, if it's not Amazon, have it show up within the week, you know, I don't know, there's a lot of things are changing. I mean, are you guys seeing that, the same things with your client base and the customers that you work with? Is that…
Matt Hertz: Yeah, yeah, and no, totally, and I completely agree, Brian and Courtney, that, you know, anytime you go from 1 to 2, the… or, you know, 1 to 3, it sort of… it scales linearly in the sense that, like, your… like, the difficulty scales linearly, right? Like, managing 3 partners is 3 times as hard as managing 1 partner. And, you know, I think the theme that, you know, both of you are sharing is that you're not getting three times the benefit. Right? You know, you're getting kind of, you know, unless you're the Amazons of the world, or, you know, the major, major, major retailers where, you know, they're talking in basis points terms, right?
Bryan Corbett: be getting 7 times the benefit, not three, right?
Matt Hertz: Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Right? And, you know, I think a lot of this kind of originates from… you know, gosh, like, even 10 years ago, you know, in e-commerce, or really commerce, but if you think of commerce as, you know, online and offline, just 10 years ago, it was different, right? Like, this kind of notion of, you know, having a 3PL that managed my… B2B business, you know, my retail business or wholesale business, and having a 3PL managing my direct-to-consumer, you know, well, 10 years ago, maybe it wasn't Shopify, maybe it was Magento or one of the others, but you get the point. Like, that made a little bit more sense to me. Frankly, a lot more sense. But today, when technology has made it You know, so much easier to integrate with… the Shopifies of the world, certainly, but also, you know, when there's a lot of, you know, middleware companies and EDI connectors where, you know, a 3PL that maybe didn't have the chops to work with. the big box retailers, it's a lot easier today. You can have all this, you know, under one roof.
Bryan Corbett: And Matt, that's still people, though, because it's like, you know, with SPS and RetailReady, I mean, the software drives everything, so really when a 3PL can't handle omni-channel fulfillment, it's that they just don't have… they usually don't have tenured people who have been in the industry that long. They just don't.
Bryan Corbett: Because you can still get the shipments to the retailers, but are you going to have no chargebacks? Are you gonna have… are you gonna have an OM on the floor that knows how to label properly and knows what he's doing? So, again, it's just… there's thousands of 3PLs, there's only so many people to go around.
Matt Hertz: Yeah.
Bryan Corbett: So, that's the old… that's the old Brian in me, that I've started to see this the last couple years, and I realized, yeah, you know, we're not perfect, we don't do everything right all the time, Courtney knows that, but generally, we have, you know, we have the right people that will figure things out, know what they're doing, not… not rack up chargebacks and get stuff out the door when you need to. I don't know what that's worth, probably.
Courtenay Schick: I mean, Brian can attest to this. I went on the 3PL search for a full year. Like, we didn't… I think we started speaking in March, and we didn't sign until, like, next August.
Bryan Corbett: It was a long sales cycle.
Courtenay Schick: A very long time. Just to ensure that, like, we're going with the right partner at the right time, and that the cost savings would really outweigh the benefit of moving and all of the one-time expenses that we're gonna incur.
Matt Hertz: Yeah. Well, I wish you would have known me back then. I would have saved you a lot of… a lot of headache, but, here we are. Drew, I wanna… I wanna ask you a question regarding, you know, technology and, you know, whether it's post-purchase tech, or… just kind of, you know, up and down a brand's tech stack. You know, there's millions of solutions out there, right? You know, there's really an endless number. In your opinion, how should brands think about their tech stack? Like, what's worth investing in versus… you know, what are some of these nice-to-have solutions? Like, how do you… how do you sort of think through that, decision? I know there's a lot of, you know, brand operators, you know, on this… on this set… on this session, so I know they're kind of curious of how to, like, think about, you know, prioritization and, you know, what we should be focusing on.
Dru Carpenter: For sure, yeah, and… I know that the average Shopify brand has dozens of Shopify apps, so there's lots of decisions to be made. I think the way I roughly think about it is… those apps that are more transactional, or kind of table stakes, so if you're looking at things like returns processing, order tracking, shipping updates, customer service, help desk. Those are all things that you need, and you find the best vendor for you in those markets. And then you've got the marketing and engagement piece, where you've got a series of online, which are typically the tools that you're making choices on. So whether that's a loyalty app, referral app. email, SMS, they're all digital channels, and they're all optimizing things online. There's not a lot, really, that comes into marketing from an offline format. I mean, you've got a few direct mail providers, and then you've got a solution like Yuzu. For us, really, the personalization that we offer is only valuable, based on the amount of data that we have on a customer, product, and order. So really, we're just an integration connector to a certain extent, integrating with the wide variety of apps, the wide variety of sales channels, as well as the wide variety of WMS systems. So we're kind of involved and in front of all of them, and it's just… ultimately getting the right integration for the brand and 3PL that we're working with. So we probably… I think we've got something like… 60 integrations at the moment, 20 WMS integrations, a series of marketing app integrations. The list goes on, really. But, yeah, transactional… Get the right provider for you for those returns, order tracking, etc. Marketing and engagement, again, you've got your table stakes, but do look at those new initiatives and channels, like Yuzu, Direct Mail, other systems where offline is making a comeback.
Matt Hertz: I got two quick questions for you, Drew. First one, how long does it take to integrate with Yuzu, generally? And the second one is… you know, besides that lemon that I mentioned earlier in the call that I think of when I think of Yuzu, now thinking more of your brand, but, where did the name come from? Like, what is… what does it mean to you?
Dru Carpenter: Yeah, so in terms of integrations, if you want to get up and running with something we've already got, it's just clicking a couple of buttons, and you're integrated. For any new WMS or marketing app integrations, our teammates turn them around in 72 hours. That's really been the unlock for our growth. in just integrating with any system that's out there, knowing that we're gonna meet future customers and prospects and 3PLs that are using those systems. the name… one of my co-founders is quite into citrus fruit, and has a tendency to buy domains when he's had a bit too much to drink. Yusu was one of those, and it was… It was just quite a quick…
Bryan Corbett: Fantastic, by the way. I was not expecting that.
Matt Hertz: Drunk GoDaddying is not something I had come across before, but I like that.
Dru Carpenter: So yeah, it's a citrus fruit. We may kind of build a demo store and CPG brand behind it at some point. It's getting introduced a lot more as a flavor, so that's about it, really. There's no deep meaning.
Matt Hertz: Fair enough, I like that. Sometimes kind of silly things like that are the ones that stick. I know we only have a few minutes left, and, you know, there's already been a few good questions, but if anyone does have a question, feel free to pop it in the chat or in the Q&A, and… You know, we'll get to that. I guess, you know, for sort of the formal part of the session, I just have a couple more questions, maybe kind of looking ahead and sort of predictions, you know, for the new year. maybe we can kind of do this in, like, you know, rapid fire, but I'm curious if, you know, each of you can provide, a prediction for the year, or, you know, maybe even, like, what is… what is… what is one thing that brands should start doing, in 2026, or start doing more of, and… maybe, you know, the flip side of that, what's, what's something that brands, should stop doing, in 2026? So, I don't know if, yeah, who wants to, who wants to give that a start, but, yeah, feel free to hop in.
Bryan Corbett: I'll go. Sku retirement programs. SKU retirement programs, I'll repeat. Skew retirement.
Matt Hertz: They should start doing more of that, I imagine is what you're.
Bryan Corbett: Yeah.
Matt Hertz: That's true.
Bryan Corbett: Action, consolidation, and it's retail, right? So, I've been in retail. Too much inventory is bad. It's always been the death sentence for retail. It will continue to be the death sentence. So, I would say continue to clean up SKUs that don't sell, SKUs that don't move. Focus on your core strengths. These are basic things, but they're very difficult. They really are. They're very difficult. I've been on the other side, and… Even if you're not, you know, a know-it-all about your business, they're just very… it's very difficult to put things to bed or to kill something, right? Or to throw something away. But it costs money over time. Courtney, I'll pass it to you, because you'll see you shaking your head, but that's my advice, even on the 3PL side.
Courtenay Schick: Yeah, I agree. I think we just went through a huge phase of that, ski retirement last year. I think for us, it's… Treating operations as a growth engine, not a cost center. And, like, in order to be truly omnichannel, we all have to be working together and taking into account these overstocks and slower-selling products to get rid of them, to become more efficient as a brand. And… I don't know, awesome, Nick. What else should we stop doing? I think that we… oh, that's a tough one. This was not on my…
Bryan Corbett: How do you feel about sales and discounting in general? In this space.
Courtenay Schick: I mean, it's a gray area, right? Like, sales creates more revenue.
Bryan Corbett: Right.
Courtenay Schick: but diminishes margins. I think, you know, the hot topic is this last year was the tariffs for importing, and as we import everything, it's been huge. I think it's a.
Bryan Corbett: You're a premium brand, too, though. It's like, it's… you're not… it's not the cheapest thing in the world, it's not super expensive, but, like, I see different strategies getting thrown out in the world right now with, you know, spend $100 to get free shipping, or buy one… buy five, get one, you know. I'm just curious what brands are thinking. Are we rethinking those things in 2026?
Courtenay Schick: Yeah, I mean, we're going through a whole kind of, COGS analysis right now to determine, like, will we meet the mark with our current strategy because of all these additional tariffs? So I think it's just really being very cognitively aware of it when planning.
Matt Hertz: our sales, specifically with D2C, and then, again, it's just…
Courtenay Schick: Working together, being fully omnichannel, making sure that the assumptions that are being made are accurate, and not Just an assumption.
Matt Hertz: Drew, I'm curious, anything that comes to mind that Brian should… Do more of this year, or do less of? Or both?
Dru Carpenter: Yeah, I think a big focus, or something that we're thinking about a lot, and maybe that's just because we've come out of the Christmas period, but is brands enabling gifting as a channel. We kind of see it as analogous to subscriptions. So, 5-10 years ago, you'd be a subscription company. And you'd sell subscriptions, but tech has enabled any brand to set up a subscription as part of their business offering. For gifting, so making it super easy for someone to come on site, select a giftable product, choose a card design that says Merry Christmas, write a gift message, and get that included as a great experience in the box, is something that we think we're helping unlock, and is something that we think a lot more brands are going to tune into coming into the new year. not only is it a great customer experience, but every gift order has two customers, in a sense. You've got the person that purchased the product, and the person that's receiving it, so it's also a really great opportunity for acquisition and educating that person that's receiving the product, so… That's what we're focused on, and obviously slightly skewed by, by the business that we're in.
Matt Hertz: Sure, and, yeah, Jennifer, just, put in a comment that And I, you know, I love this, I love this strategy. Promos that increase AOV, you know, average order value. have been our strategy since tariffs came into play. Profitability has been a higher focus than growth. So, yeah, I mean, you know, you often go on a website of a brand, and the first thing you see is that, like, you know, spin wheel, or, you know, some other pop-up, you know, 20% off your first order, and all that does is… I mean, sure, it's a tactic to get you to convert, I mean, I'll take 20% off, but… it doesn't necessarily increase AOV, but, you know, there's a number of strategies that, you know, whether it's free shipping is kind of like, you know, the old trick in the book to kind of increase AOV to get to a certain threshold. But, yeah, I know Jennifer and her team at BK Beauty are, you know, have some other tactics there. Maybe, maybe one, one, maybe two final questions, and again, if anyone has a question, feel free to pop it in, the chat here. But, you know, somewhat related to, you know, the last question on kind of start and stopping, but where… where should brands be spending money in their operations, you know, this year? You know, is there a certain area, and probably more on their, you know, kind of supply chain than, you know, on the e-commerce side? But, yeah, is there… is there anything that comes to mind where, you know, brands should be spending more money You know, maybe it's inventory management. You know, planning, you know, finding a great, you know, warehouse provider, anything that sort of comes to mind there?
Courtenay Schick: I mean, for us this year, it's a lot around master data and ensuring that that's accurate, because that really… you know, impacts all of our reporting, that impacts our inventory, especially, like, having so many subsidiaries globally, we need to be consistent and concise with our reporting, so that's, like, one of our big initiatives this year from the ops side, is to ensure that all of that is Cleaned up, and we've, you know, brought in some support to make that happen.
Matt Hertz: Brian or Drew, anything, anything to add there?
Bryan Corbett: No, I think it was beautifully said, because I think we could have a whole, conversation on clean data. Right? That's a, that's a, skew retirement and bad data. These are basic things, though, right, Court? I mean, they're not… I don't have, like, some secret answer to stuff. It's clean up your data, you know, clean up your SKUs, so many of those things are… I think we all know intuitively how important they are, but they're kind of like… you know, cleaning the bathroom a little bit. It's like, nobody really wants to do it, nobody wants to sit down and stare at a spreadsheet and go line by line, and then re-import something back into a database, right? But that's invaluable. I don't know. Amen to that, yeah.
Matt Hertz: Yeah, indeed. Well, we are right at time here. I just popped everyone's LinkedIn profiles in the chat here, so feel free to connect with them. I know they would love to chat with anyone offline. And yeah, thanks everyone for joining. Thanks, you know, Brian and the team at Barrett, Drew and Courtney. Great to meet the two of you. Thanks for all the attendees for joining. Again, this will be emailed around, you know, you're here because you're registered, so you'll get an email shortly with, you know, the full recap, and it'll be on our socials within the next day or two. So, thanks everyone for joining this month. Have a great rest of the day, and we'll be in touch soon.
Courtenay Schick: Thanks, Matt. Thanks, everyone.
