A Complex Network Without a Clear View
This billion-dollar apparel company operates at massive scale, shipping millions of parcels annually through six different carriers. But with multiple business units and siloed data systems, they lacked a unified view of their shipping performance and costs.
Operational inefficiencies were hiding in plain sight:
- Accessorial fees
- Misapplied surcharges
- Carrier invoice discrepancies
They were difficult to detect, let alone resolve. Peak season surcharges were especially painful, with no reliable way to predict or mitigate their impact. And without centralized data, decisions about service mix, carrier allocation, and customer-facing shipping charges were largely reactive.
The retailer turned to Sifted to help make sense of the chaos. What they found was not only clarity—but opportunities for lasting savings and ongoing optimization.
Action: Centralized Data, Smarter Decisions
Using the Sifted platform, the major apparel retailer consolidated data from all six of its parcel carriers into one unified system. This enabled a clear view of cost trends, service-level performance, and fee patterns—across all carriers and shipment types.
From there, the optimization began.
Contract Modeling
The retailer utilized Sifted’s Contract Modeling to evaluate its carrier proposals and compare their cost impact. Leveraging the modeling tool, the retailer engineered two optimized carrier agreements and three small addendums to agreements.
Demand Surcharge Analysis
The Sifted platform modeled the retailer’s impact of Peak Season/Demand Surcharges from each carrier, informing who would offer the most cost-effective shipping during the holiday.
With this knowledge, the retailer was able to secure a complete waiver of Demand Surcharges from a few carriers, and shifted significant volume to them.
Operational Fixes
The Sifted platform also helped the retailer identify and resolve several other hidden issues, including:
- Recurring repeat address correction fees
- Misclassified shipments that missed applicable discounts
- Fraudulent shipping activity from unauthorized origins
- Chargebacks that had previously gone unnoticed
Outcome: Over $5 Million in Realized Savings
Over the course of two years, this major apparel retailer saved more than $5 million leveraging the Sifted platform, including:
- $2.7M saved from modeling optimal carrier proposals
- $1.5M saved from correcting service classification errors & reclaiming lost discounts
- $766K saved in peak season surcharge avoidance by shifting volume
- $50K recovered from past address correction charges
- $82K recovered from fraudulent shipments flagged by Sifted
- $60K saved by addressing unnecessary chargebacks
More than just a software implementation, Sifted has reshaped how the retailer manages its parcel shipping. With increased visibility, predictive analytics, and ongoing monitoring, they now make proactive, cost-effective shipping decisions at scale.
