E378: Start Preparing for the Holiday Season NOW

Shipping and logistics has become a nightmare (If it wasn't already). Between sea freight rates soaring 300%, massive delays in getting your shipments from China into Amazon warehouses, and Amazon making sellers bear the brunt of its inventory limits, a lot of ecommerce sellers are struggling to foot the bill.   In this episode, Dave and I break down this nightmarish sea freight situation and how it's affecting us personally in terms of margins and inventory management.    We also talk about some useful tactics and strategies we are putting in place to stay ahead of the curve and keep our businesses afloat (pun intended). Finally, we share our predictions on where this whole thing is going and why you should definitely be placing your entire holiday order right now.   Timestamps:  Breaking down the current mess that is shipping and logistics - 00:57 How much freight transit times and costs have soared - 05:02 It's actually impact to our margins - 8:11 Managing your inventory and taking advantage when your competitor runs out of stock - 13:26 How Amazon's capacity issues is putting the screws to ecommerce sellers - 16:30 Our predictions moving forward - 27:09   It's always a blast having Dave come on the podcast. Be sure to check out the EcomCrew Blog to read up about things like sea freight, why costs have basically tripled in the past year, and other burning ecommerce topics.   Also, in case you missed it, we're giving away 3 autographed copies of Gino Wickman's new book, Entrepreneurial Leap, which answers all the questions you're ever going to ask yourself before taking the leap into entrepreneurship.   For a chance to win 1 of these 3 copies, simply leave us a review on iTunes and email us a screenshot of your review with the Subject Line: Entrepreneurial Leap. If you've already given us a review in the past, you can take a screenshot of it and send that over.   Entries will be accepted until April 30, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter here on the podcast. Good luck!   Until the next one, happy selling!