About this episode

Leo Rodriguez discusses hidden shipping costs and strategies to save money on ecommerce parcels.

Leo Rodriguez has spent years watching ecommerce brands quietly overpay on shipping, sometimes billed for 18 pounds on a parcel that actually weighs two. In this episode of the eCommerce Podcast, Matt Edmundson sits down with the VP of a Los Angeles 3PL to pull apart the unglamorous moves that protect your margin, one parcel at a time. Summary Leo Rodriguez, VP of River Plate, Inc., joins Matt to talk through the hidden costs sitting inside every order you ship. It starts with dimensional weight, where a small product in an oversized box gets rated as a far heavier shipment, so you end up paying for air. Leo explains how "cartonization" and carrier rate-shopping can claw that money back, saving $2 to $3 per parcel for brands doing hundreds of orders a day. From there the conversation widens out to the messier stuff. Leo breaks down why smaller brands got hit hardest by the new tariffs while bigger brands used their buying power to get manufacturers to absorb the freight. He and Matt compare notes on international shipping gray zones, customs nitpicking, fuel surcharges becoming the new normal, and Amazon's ever-growing pile of fees. 00:00 Welcome and meet Leo 03:58 The inventory…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Edmundson

Guest: Leo Rodriguez

Topics covered

• shipping costs
• ecommerce
• dimensional weight
• tariffs
• parcel management
• international shipping

Keywords

• shipping
• dimensional weight
• cartonization
• tariffs
• fuel surcharges
• ecommerce brands
• international shipping

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: River Plate, Inc.

Places: Los Angeles, Brexit, Amazon

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