In this episode, host Josh interviews Corey Apirian, a seasoned supply chain leader, about innovative e-commerce supply chain strategies. Corey explains how Davinci enables brands to create virtual product bundles, optimize inventory, and improve profitability across channels like Walmart and direct-to-consumer platforms. They discuss the limitations of relying solely on Amazon’s fulfillment, the benefits of diversified fulfillment strategies, and the importance of data-driven merchandising. Corey also shares advice on global supply chain resilience, emphasizing hybrid inventory approaches and multi-sourcing. The episode concludes with actionable tips for brands to enhance agility and succeed in today’s evolving e-commerce landscape.
Chapters:
Introduction to Corey Apirian and His Expertise (00:00:00)
Josh introduces Corey Apirian, highlighting his 19+ years in supply chain, e-commerce, and channel merchandising.
Product Bundling Without Physical Kitting (00:00:49)
Discussion on creating product bundles and differentiated SKUs without pre-kitting, optimizing inventory and channel profitability.
Market Basket Analysis and Channel Merchandising (00:03:00)
Explains how market basket analysis informs merchandising, bundle creation, and channel-specific assortment strategies.
Optimizing Multi-Channel Fulfillment Beyond Amazon (00:06:42)
Debate on Amazon’s multi-channel fulfillment versus direct integrations, control, and agility for brands.
Limitations of Amazon’s Fulfillment Ecosystem (00:07:44)
Details the drawbacks of relying solely on Amazon FBA and multi-channel fulfillment, including cost, control, and data limitations.
Direct Integrations and Fulfillment Strategy Recommendations (00:09:50)
Advice for larger brands to use direct integrations and diversified fulfillment for better control and profitability.
Global Supply Chain Challenges and Recommendations (00:11:07)
Corey’s advice on hybrid inventory strategies, multi-sourcing, and supply chain agility in a changing global landscape.
Actionable Takeaways for E-commerce Brands (00:13:17)
Josh summarizes three key action items: hire a supply chain manager, diversify beyond Amazon, and leverage expert partners like DaVinci.
Closing Remarks and Contact Recommendation (00:15:43)
Josh encourages listeners to connect with Corey for tailored supply chain and merchandising insights.
Links and Mentions:
Tools and Services
“Davinci“: “00:06:22”
Key Concepts
“Market Basket Analysis”: “00:03:16”
Actionable Takeaways
“Hire a Supply Chain Manager”: “00:13:17”
“Diversify Beyond Amazon”: “00:14:29”
“Reach Out to Experts”: “00:15:43”
General Advice
“Just-in-Time vs. Just-in-Case Inventory”: “00:11:19”
Transcript:
Josh 00:00:00 Today I’m super excited to introduce you all to Corey Apirian, a seasoned supply chain and operations leader with over 19 years of experience. A key to his success was his ability to develop and execute strategies that drove significant growth, cost savings, and exceptional customer service. Specifically, he specializes in e-commerce and channel merchandising, aligning operational initiatives with corporate objectives and building and leading high performing teams through inclusion, collaboration and engagement. His experience includes product management, contract negotiations, continuous improvement, and implementing emerging technologies as well as cultivating key relationships. So with that, welcome to the podcast, Corey.
Corey 00:00:46 Thanks for having me, Josh. Excited to be here.
Josh 00:00:49 A seller could essentially come to you or a brand and say, hey, I’ve got here’s a bunch of different products. I think some of these could be bundled really well together. I don’t know which ones which, but obviously if you’re doing that on Amazon FBA. You have to kit them together first and send them in before you can collect data. In your example, you don’t actually have to have them kidded to actually create that skew and at least merchandise it on different sites.
Josh 00:01:15 Is that correct?
Corey 00:01:15 Yeah, it’s exactly right. And like the cooler part about it is that all the excess inventory was then utilized on your merchant field, on your Walmart Marketplace and so on and so forth, so that you can create two packs, four packs, six packs of all the different core components. And really, you have no more waste, right? So you’re utilizing now you can’t force bundles onto consumers. I think we all know that. But by creating a different skew set a washcloth that’s sold in a, in a in a traditional merchant store, you know, it might be $2 or $4, right? But when you when you bundle that as a four pack of washcloths, you know, I have two, two young boys, I don’t just buy one washcloth like we buy a bunch of them at once. Right. And, you know, by able to have that differentiated assortment that’s core to that demographic Online. You know, it really gives a fresh look at assortment and profitability and channel management.
Corey 00:02:09 And those are really important things. And then, you know, the efficiency of manufacturing those sets now in ships and in containers, reducing waste, creating efficiencies at the warehouse level also and profitability on freight and top line. I mean, those are all amazing things and all great success stories. And yeah, our tech allows that infinite permutation in a very targeted way, but also looking at the market baskets and suggesting what should be sold in a very targeted way. And that’s the piece that I think people are really missing out there is combining the FDM, that front end merchandising with this concept of network optimization and inventory control, and how do you place goods and merchandise them on differentiated channel sets so that they’re available for same day one day fulfillment, 1 to 2 day fulfillment, you know, through a physical location network. And again, that’s exactly the problem that DaVinci is solving together.
Josh 00:03:00 That’s amazing. Tell me a little bit more about that market basket analysis, right. That DaVinci is is doing some of the I, you know, to determine how you’re going to merchandise different products or how to come up with the correct type of bundles.
Corey 00:03:16 Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of core principles of channel management and merchandising. You know, when you look at your club channels and having larger pack sizes, your mass channels having smaller, lower price point channels that interoperate also with what’s in store? You know, a beauty manufacturer might have a 6.9oz bottle of shampoo. That’s a proven bottle of shampoo and price point and cubic foot that has sat on a Walmart and Target shelf for the past 30 years and might have new updated packaging, new formula, ingredients. You know, that’s the merchandising side of it. But like that, cubic foot turns and creates X number of dollars with the amount of profitability and cash flow turns that that has on shelf all the time. But when you when you ship that to target, they’re going to merchandise that online and target in Walmart. You can have a buy in line pick up and store optionality to that. And they may offer it to ship to the end consumer in a myriad of different ways. But that same consumer might be adding two of those to their shopping cart.
Corey 00:04:14 They might be adding a 33 point ounce of the shampoo. Or at least, you know, five different bottles of that shampoo. That adds up to a 33.8oz and a 16.9 of conditioner, right? Maybe their ratios are different. So if you’re a brand that’s operating in that space, you now have the ability to directly merchandise something online at your brick and mortar partners websites. That completely drives your brick and mortar sale in a differentiated way, but keeps driving people online and creates that halo effect online using that appropriate data set when you can see repeat purchases. Market basket analysis what people are buying with what that caters to those demographics, specifically of those given channels and price points, and be able to differentiate it in a way where you don’t have to have the Amazon algorithm or the Walmart buy box being matching everything across the board. And you could do it where you and you should do it where you price out your per ounce or your per unit. You know, in a, in a, in a way where everything’s an even playing field, but you’re differentiating based on the channel that you’re speaking to and utilizing that strategy to continue to drive, really your flywheel, your turns, your your halo effect, your customer experiences.
Corey 00:05:27 And when you can do that and you can integrate with those channels and that direct to consumer direct to store, direct to FC mentality, A is a brand. There’s no merchant or marketplace you can’t walk to and kind of control your own destiny. Right? You have to do it the right way. But any any buyer out there on the other side of the desk is going to take a smart look at any brand’s assortment that is going to deliver in 1 to 2 days, whether it’s marketplace or dropship. And if it’s your own DTC channel, you certainly can go merchandise and test and learn and talk to your consumer and do a lot of really fun things as a, as a brand and manufacturers. So if you have that physical location network that can deliver same day, one day, two to day and you can optimize the integration. Optimize the carrier set between local and parcel carriers where appropriate for cost for sustainability. You can create the order accuracy needed to create the customer experience and the right packaging opportunities.
Corey 00:06:22 Like that’s when you start to fire on all cylinders, and you get to really experience the benefit of an e-commerce ecosystem and have a partner like DaVinci. Selfishly, I can say this as a growth engine that Inter operates again, these three core factors of the business that are directly connected, and I’ve seen it for the past 19 years.
Josh 00:06:42 That’s amazing. Corey, I want to play devil’s advocate real quick. For many of the experienced e-commerce sellers that have been on Amazon, and Amazon has always had multi-channel fulfillment that they offer through their FBA centers. They have also just come out with buy with Prime now. It’s definitely not the cheapest option, but we see Amazon trying to expand their footprint into all of e-commerce. They don’t want to just be in Amazon. You know, sales of e-commerce, they want to be involved with Shopify sales, right? From the DTC standpoint. And even as it relates to Walmart sales in a roundabout way. So, Corey, why should somebody consider not just saying, hey, you know what, I’m just going to put everything at Amazon FBA warehouses and Amazon and warehouses, and I’m going to let Amazon be my entire ecosystem.
Josh 00:07:40 As Amazon continues to roll out multi-channel fulfillment.
Corey 00:07:44 Yeah. It’s great. I mean, I practically see most brands that we deal with walking away from Amazon multi-channel fulfillment and not going towards it. On paper, it’s an easy button. There’s a cost to it. There is a lack of control and visibility. There’s a data play to it, right? There’s a lack of agility as a brand, and where Amazon is supporting the Shopify and the BigCommerce and other DTC stores. And maybe in a roundabout way. Walmart. There’s this whole other ecosystem of channels that it doesn’t service. So if you’re a brand and you need to be on dropship, DTC and marketplaces, which I tend to believe that most brands either will want or do operate on that trio of channels available. Those are the only three channels available. Right. And there’s not a whole lot of people out there that are truly agnostic in that space and can manage that in the appropriate way. Checking off all the boxes, I believe DaVinci was built from the ground up to be able to service those things very much because of the experience of myself and my team and seeing those landmines and pain points, but yet opportunities out there.
Corey 00:08:52 And what was missing from the marketplace as a as a growth engine and fulfillment operation to get closer to consumers, to hit those business rules and SLAs, to give brands control over real time data and agility and a chance at profitability in certain categories. If you’re a beverage supplier, as I alluded to earlier, you need some sort of micro fulfillment presence if you want any chance at profitability and safety of delivery. If you’re an item that’s a high value, low wait item, conversely, that’s a low that’s a low value, high rate item of average, a high value low wage item, an external hard drive, a laptop computer. Amazon FBA is probably going to be your cheapest game in town, but you can’t manage the entire ecosystem that way. And you do lose control over your product. And, you know, we talked about it before, right? Like the amount of punitive metrics of inventory control put onto Amazon’s system and network is somewhat rigid now. And you have to be really careful about how you do that.
Corey 00:09:50 And I do think buy with Prime is expensive. And I do think it’s in its infancy. I think it’s a great thing for SMEs. Truthfully, I think Amazon multi-channel fulfillment is a great thing for SMEs. I think the folks who listen to this podcast and enterprise sized clients who are a little bit larger than that type of GMV, in my opinion, probably need something more at this point. And that’s direct integrations per channel with control and the right infrastructure to manage all the components of the domestic logistics system that exists out there today and for tomorrow. I don’t think Amazon multichannel fulfillment solves that problem today.
Josh 00:10:27 Yeah, yeah, no great, great input and great insight. I mean, you’ve been around the block. You started with Amazon back in in 2004. So you know, everything that Amazon’s been doing and what they’re up to. So as we start to wrap things up here, Corey, my last question would be as it relates to the global supply chain overall, what’s your advice and recommendation to existing e-commerce business owners? as it relates to, you know, supply chain, sourcing their products overseas, getting it into the US, we’ve gone through a period of years with kind of a lot of struggles as as it relates to supply chain.
Josh 00:11:07 But what do you see happening in the future and what action items do you. Would you recommend, e-commerce business owners be making today to make sure their supply chain is set up for success?
Corey 00:11:19 Yeah, I think there’s a hybrid of like a just in time and just in case inventory balance. I mean obviously multi sourcing capabilities of how you get products. There’s obviously a lot of geopolitical issues out there. you know you’ve seen a lot of brands try to diversify their sourcing from just in China and diversifying that into other areas of the world, whether it’s Central America, you know, Canada, Mexico, Europe. I mean, it really depends on the product. Us domestically. Europe, you know, throughout Asia, Southeast Asia as well, outside of China. I particularly think that if you have the right tools and visibility, you can tend to lean to more of a just in time inventory strategy. I think having your eggs just in an Amazon basket and having that strategy is a little bit of a dangerous thing to do.
Corey 00:12:11 But if you can have multi-channel fulfillment operations and you’re in brick and mortar and you can grow your ecosystem the right way. I think you can learn to do that. I would also say that, you know, continuously understanding that supply chain is a living, breathing thing. And there are always going to be unforeseen challenges and opportunities. they’re just impossible to plan for. But you have to plan in your projections and the way that you align your infrastructure in the channels and countries that you’re selling in to be agile. Right. And you need to get closer to consumers from data, and you need to physically get closer to consumers. And that’s a really good way to create agility, because the further downstream you get, the better data you can share with upstream. And you can plan a lot with that type of data set.
Josh 00:12:59 Yeah, awesome. Awesome insight and great advice. I love to leave the audience with three actionable takeaways from each episode. Number one, we didn’t necessarily talk about this in the podcast today, but I think it’s become evident because supply chain can be very complex.
Josh 00:13:17 My number one takeaway would be if you do not have a existing supply chain manager on your team, you should do that today. And the reason why is because I think in the Amazon community especially, many people just hire, you know, a virtual assistant and they say, hey, make sure you use this software and make sure that you, you know, just click the reorder button when it comes time and what you’re going to be missing out by not having a supply chain specialist or expert on your team is with the ever evolving needs of Amazon in the changing game of logistics on Amazon, you are going to be, you know, at a disadvantage compared to other e-commerce business owners that are utilizing services such as DaVinci, or they’re finding out a way that they’re going to utilize and and how it goes to CD into FBA so that all the eggs are not just sitting in Amazon’s basket. So that’s action item number one. Action item number two is consider you know moving moving away from having all of your eggs into Amazon’s basket.
Josh 00:14:29 So just as Corie talked about you’re going to be less agile and less nimble. We sure. He shared a great case study of how by utilizing his service, you know, a brand is going to be able to create an infinite number of SKUs, hypothetically, with existing products, by creating bundles and allowing the data to first come in to determine if you should actually have the manufacturer get those items to begin with. and just the ability to test new SKUs, you can’t do those things on Amazon. And so being able to incorporate other peoples into your network, or people just like, you know, DaVinci here, you are going to be able to set yourself up for success. And my last and final takeaway is an existing brand that wants to continue to grow their omnichannel presence and be more nimble. I would encourage you to go reach out to Corey here at DaVinci. What they have is something that, you know, many of the Amazon seller community. We don’t have a lot of experience in. And what they have put together is, is exceptional.
Josh 00:15:43 So I think Corey comes with not only supply chain background and experience, but Corey has an experience of of the merchandising aspect of that supply chain, which I think is very, very unique in this market. And so he didn’t necessarily pay me to do this. this is not a sponsored message, but I highly recommend that you guys actually reach out to him and get his insight to your specific business and your needs, because every single one of our businesses is going to be a little bit unique. Well, Corey, thanks for coming on the podcast today and we look forward to chatting with you again soon.
Corey 00:16:19 That was a pleasure. Josh, thanks for having me.
