With postage rates increasing again, many businesses feel immediate pressure to find new ways to save. One of the first ideas usually dismissed is slower shipping speeds. Today, let’s do a reality check on shipping speed. Are you truly stuck paying for high-speed shipping, or can you—as my son would say— slow your roll ? ✅  Speed Does NOT Equal Reliability Packages get lost—overnight packages, 2-day packages, ground packages…all of them. After 20 years of responding to lost p

As we ring in the New Year, the USPS is once again rolling out a postage increase. And they’re not alone—DHL, UPS, and FedEx have all announced 5.9% rate increases for early 2026. USPS, however, is raising its postage rates a little more aggressively than its private-carrier competitors. Here’s a quick breakdown of the changes taking effect January 18, 2026: Priority Mail Express: +5.1% Priority Mail: +6.6% USPS Ground Advantage: +7.8% Parcel Select: +6% While these increases

Black Friday is almost here — and whether you’re a growing brand or a fully established eCommerce business, the last few days before the rush can feel chaotic. The good news? You don’t need a perfect months-long plan to succeed. A focused last-minute checklist  can make all the difference. Here’s a streamlined checklist to help you finish strong and avoid the most common Black Friday pitfalls. Double-check your inventory and reorder any fast movers. Even if you checked inven

Another year has come and gone and it is once again time for our annual e-commerce holiday shipping deadlines blog! To ensure your...

For small eCommerce businesses, tariffs in 2025 are more than just headline news—they are daily operational challenges. It isn’t all bad...

This is a blog post I have avoided for a while. It’s also probably the most common question we get…which shipping carrier should my 3PL fulfillment provider use for my small business order fulfillment? So today I am finally going to tackle it, but the fact is that I don’t have a revolutionary answer for you. I don’t have a favorite and over the years, my answer has changed, changed and then changed again. USPS Let’s start with the Post Office . In most cases, this is the chea

Lost packages are a headache for EVERYONE ! There is the recipient who feels like they should get what they paid for. And then there is...

When eCommerce has been around long enough to have an age-old question, I predict it will have to do with supply chain management. And...

With tariffs, prices, and worries going up, we wondered if we could dig even deeper and come up with even more ideas to save on eCommerce postage costs. We devised 10 ways to save with new details and updated information. Here they are: Get the address right the first time! As soon as you are rerouting or returning a package, your costs are going up exponentially. While most shipping programs flag inaccurate US addresses, they can often be ignored. Don’t override them! And w

Happy Spring! And Happy Earth Month! I love this time of year. When the world comes back to life for those of us in a temperate climate!...

Isn’t small business ownership a roller coaster? And these last few weeks we all seem to have jumped on a tariff roller coaster. I must...

This new year has brought several new customers to Key Fulfillment, several of whom came to us after bad experiences with big box fulfillment providers. They left the old place feeling as if no one cared about their business….orders were not shipping, their requests were being ignored, and they were being asked to jump through one hoop after another. One customer even reported that they weren’t allowed to have a phone conversation with the customer service person assigned to

Where has all the good customer service gone? It’s hard to come by these days. We’ve all been stuck in a loop of bad customer service or...

The USPS is ringing in the New Year with a postage rate increase. However, even though postage rates technically go up on January 19th,...

Recently, I was trying to teach my 6-year-old the difference between a meaningful apology and hollow words. I’m not sure she got it but...

Each year my family and I make this giant paper turkey on our wall and we write things that we are thankful for on each feather. These...

It’s that time of the year when we are all depending on the shipping carriers to deliver!   As you know, most eCommerce packages are...

eCommerce customer service can feel monotonous sometimes. After all, so many of the questions have the exact same answer. At Key, we...

It’s that time of year again when we all start ramping up for Black Friday Sales and last-minute Holiday shipments.   Now is the time to...

Did you know that even small eCommerce businesses like you can outsource their customer service at a reasonable price? You can! But,...