With nations worldwide entering a period of economic reawakening following the easing of lockdowns everywhere, it is time to come to terms with the drastically changing economy. Barrett Shepherd, born on 21st December 1995 in Dallas, TX and American citizen, shares his insights into how COVID-19 is impacting the e-commerce industry and what his company, Simpl Fulfillment, is doing to counter things.
It has so far become very clear that the effects of the COVID-19 virus will affect the global economy for the foreseeable future. Barrett explains that “With slowly recovering economies, local businesses are suffering from a lack of supply, and online businesses or e-commerce platforms are suffering from mismanagement of supplies.” A fluctuating global economy and the erratic nature of things in 2020 has made it statistically improbable to understand, or figure out, what the global economy would look like once the industry opens completely.
Brands that focused on spending more money on marketing during the pandemic are finding themselves recovering in the sales department after taking a huge dip during the lockdown months. Barrett states, “While companies and retailers, by and large, are underperforming, those companies that invested in consumer-focused initiatives have been able to hold out longer.” Because the flow of commerce had slowed down to a standstill during the lockdown, some e-commerce companies are finding it difficult to find their balance in the post-lockdown world that is still being threatened by the virus.
Barrett shares that this is where his company, Simpl Fulfillment, comes into play. The e-commerce fulfillment company takes care of outsourcing the shipping for brands and helps them to automate their operations.
The 24-year-old Texas-born Shepherd started the company because he loved the e-commerce sector. “I wanted to work in the eCommerce space and saw a huge issue with brands trying to get their orders to their customers and thought I could figure out a way to solve it. I love working with people. So, I started Simpl Fulfillment.”
Simpl Fulfillment uses shared packaging materials and daily pickups. This ensures that whenever and whatever a company wants to distribute to the customer, there is a right-sized box at Simpl Fulfillment waiting to collect on that order. This removes the issue of delays because there is always a box on backorder for brands to use, and since the shipments are made daily and in bulk, it even lowers the price of individual shipments to almost one/third of the usual per package cost.
It is undecided how bad things are going to be or might be already. According to Shepherd, the impact will not affect us in the long run if we support businesses from time to time, work strategically, and optimize workforce and resources.