2022 Recap

Welcome to E-Comm Unboxed, our Soapbox newsletter!

In today’s special edition, we’re taking a look back on the year 2022 at Soapbox.

Let’s kick things off by diving into our top 2022 announcements.

Top Announcements

We announced some exciting developments in 2022, including:

• Soapbox is now available on the Shopify App Store! With this, you can easily access our platform and manage your orders, inventory, shipping, warehousing, and returns from the Shopify 3rd-party app section. Head to the Shopify App Store to learn more.
• Soapbox is officially a DHL eCommerce Solutions Technology Partner! We provide access to DHL’s streamlined delivery process with expansive reach in all domestic and internal markets. To learn more about how this partnership benefits Soapbox customers, head to our partner page.
• Soapbox was accepted into the UPS Ready Program! As a certified vendor, we easily plug into small, medium, enterprise, and e-commerce businesses to streamline all processes. Head to our partner page to learn more.

Top 10 Blog Posts

On our blog, we released a number of articles focused on educating e-commerce sellers in logistics, marketing, product development, and more:

• From Concept to Market: How to Develop Your Product Idea
• Black Friday Checklist: 5 Ways E-Commerce Sellers Can Prepare Now
• 2022 Holiday Surcharges: How to Get Ready Now
• Pick, Pack, & Label: A Deep Dive
• Best Practices for Custom Orders
• Listing & Syncing Products Across Multiple Storefronts & Marketplaces
• Product Sourcing: A Beginner’s Guide
• 4 Strategies to Boost Summer Sales
• Cash Flow Management Strategies
• How Inventory Factoring Can Benefit your Business

New Software Updates

The Soapbox fulfillment software is constantly evolving. Our development team works diligently to ensure that bugs are fixed and features are enhanced for optimal usage.

In 2022, our development team added numerous features to our Soapbox software. Here are some of our top software updates from 2022:

• WMS + Mobile Warehouse App: Users can configure in-warehouse locations and generate product and location barcodes. Barcode scanning can be used for SKU count audits, location transfers, and shipments received via a mobile warehouse app.
• Bundles: Users can create bundles, track bundled inventory, and fulfill bundled SKUs.
• Freight Shipment Management: Users can create, track, & receive large shipments to their warehouse(s).
• Shipment Delays: Users can now look to their dashboard to see shipments that have exceeded their delivery SLA.
• International DDP/DDU Support: With this update, users can shop rates for shipments going outside of the US.
• EDI Support: EDI Support is now available via SPS Commerce.

Curious about how our software can help your business? You can create a free account or attend our Platform Demo Webinars every Monday from 10-10:30 AM PST.

Click here to add our webinar to your calendar.

E-Comm Elevated Podcast Release

In June of 2022, we launched E-Comm Elevated, our Soapbox-produced podcast. We created this show to provide a platform for thought leadership and to share exciting, transformational ideas in the digital commerce space.

Throughout our first season, we had the opportunity to interview many great entrepreneurs, picking their brains on their career journeys, business strategies, and tips for up-and-coming business owners.

In October of 2022, we wrapped our first season of E-Comm Elevated. Keep an eye out for our next season, but in the meantime, there’s always Season 1 to binge-watch on YouTube. (Or binge-listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.)

Below are all of our E-Comm Elevated Episodes from 2022:

1. How to Build 4 E-Commerce Brands by the Age of 30
2. Should I Outsource Logistics?
3. How You Can Get Started on Analytics Today
4. Fun Gal’s Trip to Entrepreneurship
5. How David Turned His Wine Passion Into a Source of Income
6. Dealing with Self-Doubt as a Young Entrepreneur
7. Don’t Skip These Steps in Product Development
8. How to Start Your Business Right Now
9. Digital Marketing Explained

Customer & Partner Spotlights

We love showcasing the great customers and partners that are working with Soapbox. Throughout 2022, we featured many of these businesses in our E-Comm Unboxed monthly newsletter releases.

As the year comes to a close, we’d like to shout out these businesses one more time:

• Chimera Backcountry Snowboards: This small business is revolutionizing split boarding.
• Conservation Candy: This small business is making an impact one gummy bear at a time.
• EcomBalance: This Soapbox partner is here to simplify your bookkeeping.
• EcommerceTech: This Soapbox partner provides a curated list of quality Shopify apps and ecosystem partners that sellers can trust.
• FlavorCloud: This Soapbox partner makes global shipping easy, affordable, and friction-free. They do this by providing the largest cross-border shipping carrier network along with managed services and customs expertise.
• KickFurther: This Soapbox partner is the first online inventory funding platform helping businesses in need of funding.
• Pallas Snowboards: A sister company of Chimera, Pallas seeks to make snow sports more accessible to women and other underrepresented groups.
• Podium: This Soapbox partner is a comprehensive marketing and communication platform for businesses across various industries, including retail, home services, healthcare, and more.
• SensorPush: This small business is your new go-to for remotely tracking climate conditions.
• Tolstoy: This Soapbox partner is an end-to-end video commerce platform that e-commerce brands use to add shoppable & interactive videos to their storefront, PDP, and email/SMS campaigns.

A Look Ahead at 2023

2022 was a challenging year for people and businesses alike. Everyone was either directly impacted or knew someone personally that was affected by the pandemic or the economic downturn. The first half of the year saw businesses struggle with supply-side issues and record costs, while the second half of the year saw the impact of oversteering on those issues. This resulted in significant disruptions in inventory planning. However, the end of the year did provide some optimism for the economy.

Despite lackluster Black Friday and Cyber Monday performances, 2022 holiday online sales experienced their best season ever. Rather than having spikes in sales aligned with promotional sales events, the entire holiday season provided a consistent and strong economic boom to e-commerce sellers. Many of our customers and partners experienced record sales well into Christmas and after as well.

Our goal for 2023 at Soapbox is to continue to strengthen your e-commerce fulfillment strategy. We will continue to improve our robust software with new tools and features to make your fulfillment and supply chain easier to manage while also creating more reliability and transparency. Our strategic partnerships will expand our warehousing footprint to over 50 locations in 2023, offering even greater flexibility for distribution and lowered shipping costs. In addition, we hope to make an impact on our surrounding community with e-commerce education initiatives.

Thank you for trusting Soapbox to help simplify your fulfillment. Happy New Year!