Latest / Outside the Box with Asendia USA: The International e-Commerce Podcast / 37: Selling Globally, Shipping Smarter: e-Commerce Insights from Zonos

Transcript

37: Selling Globally, Shipping Smarter: e-Commerce Insights from Zonos · Outside the Box with Asendia USA: The International e-Commerce Podcast

• 0:00
  Yeah, so we're plugged in.
• 0:01
  As you can imagine, we help customers from anywhere to anywhere.
• 0:05
  So coming to the US is a hot item right now.
• 0:07
  Going out of the us, dealing with the trade wars, going into Canada, eu, all over the place.
• 0:13
  So yeah, we have a team of experts that keyed into all of those changes.
• 0:16
  Step into the future with shipping smart.
• 0:19
  Outside the box is where the journey starts.
• 0:21
  From borders to buyers, we break it down fast.
• 0:23
  Nick and Jason deliver knowledge that lasts.
• 0:26
  Insight, innovation.
• 0:27
  Wherever your brand goes, we'll guide your growth so your global reach flows.
• 0:31
  Tune in leaning let's unlock the way.
• 0:33
  Go outside the box with Asendia USA.
• 0:36
  Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast.
• 0:41
  We are coming to you live from parcel form 2026 in Orlando, Florida.
• 0:45
  I am Nick Agnetti, one of the co hosts of this show with my other co host Jason Rowland.
• 0:49
  Hey everyone.
• 0:50
  We've got a very special guest today.
• 0:52
  We've got Taylor Smith who's in charge of strategic partnerships from Zonos.
• 0:56
  Taylor, thanks for being here.
• 0:58
  Absolutely.
• 0:58
  Pleasure to be here.
• 0:59
  Excited to be part of the conversation today.
• 1:01
  Love it.
• 1:01
  Hey Taylor, could you give just the and listeners a quick background on Zonos where you got, you know, position in the industry, who you help, all that stuff.
• 1:09
  Absolutely, yeah.
• 1:10
  So Zonos has been around you know, 15 plus years and we've really focused our bread and butter in the past has all been helping people ship cross border on the technology side.
• 1:21
  And I think that's most important piece is that we're not involved in the transportation, we're not a carrier.
• 1:26
  We are just providing a technology solution to be able to capture duties, taxes and compliance when shipping cross border.
• 1:34
  Okay.
• 1:34
  So that, that's been our main thing and just like I feel like everybody we've adapted a little bit.
• 1:39
  We're starting to rely on AI heavy into compliance.
• 1:43
  I think we'll talk a lot about today.
• 1:45
  There's going to be, there's a lot of changes and regulations that have been happening that are happening that, that Zonos has really been involved in.
• 1:52
  Yeah.
• 1:52
  And it seems like one of the, the best things for you guys to get involved in is because you are an all in one kind of compliance technology.
• 2:02
  So you don't have to go out to one technology vendor for denied party screening and another one for VAD and another one for you know, tax calculator and all.
• 2:12
  That.
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  Stuff.
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  It's great to have all of that in kind of one place.
• 2:14
  But as, as the EU kind of goes through this evolution of its import export regulations of compliance.
• 2:24
  What are you guys seeing in terms of the new IOSS requirements along with really ICS2 overall as those two regulatory paradigms kind of move towards a 2028, you know, merge.
• 2:38
  Yep.
• 2:38
  Yeah.
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  I think it's interesting as you kind of look back and see, I mean ICS2 has been around for a while and so has iOS.
• 2:44
  So I think that the biggest thing that we're seeing is that it has to be good data.
• 2:49
  I think just around the world as you're shipping anywhere domestically, internationally, it's all about good data and just understanding what is being sent.
• 2:58
  You know, governments, entities, they want to know what's coming to their country.
• 3:03
  And so ICS2 really was aimed to.
• 3:05
  To figure that out of send us all the information that's in your parcel.
• 3:09
  We need to understand that.
• 3:11
  And then, you know, iOS was really the side of.
• 3:13
  All right now how do we work with a money collection?
• 3:16
  So you're kind of trying to figure out how does the data flow and then how does the money flow.
• 3:20
  And I think those two systems specifically talking about going into Europe have tried to accomplish that.
• 3:25
  Of we're going to make the seller basically do all the work and just remit to us the vat.
• 3:30
  So it kind of solves the money related and then the data side, same thing.
• 3:34
  We're going to push this back to we want everybody to provide good data and that's going to come from the seller and kind of put the onus back on them.
• 3:43
  Yeah.
• 3:43
  What we've seen, I think how that played out is ICS 2 came out with a bunch of don't use these terms.
• 3:51
  Right.
• 3:51
  They're too generic.
• 3:52
  It's too, you know, gift and merchandise and personal effects and all that kind of stuff.
• 3:57
  And from our customer base we have.
• 4:01
  We saw a great amount of pushback and hesitation and data quality issues that really led to some delays of things going into the Euro.
• 4:11
  So I guess how does what about Zonos makes that process easier for sellers?
• 4:16
  Yeah.
• 4:17
  Specifically on the data side, what we've tried to do is we recognize that we work with a lot of SMB shippers that may not have the resources to go, you know, harmonize their catalog, be able to get all
• 4:28
  these data requirements figured out.
• 4:30
  So we're just basically saying come to us with your best and we're going to help enhance it and clean that up.
• 4:36
  Nice.
• 4:36
  And it really starts with the description.
• 4:38
  I feel like description in our industry is really key because if you don't have a good description to start.
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  It's going to be garbage in, garbage out.
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  Right.
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  So we enhance the descriptions, try to make sure that that's good to go, which then, then bleeds into an accurate HS code which then leads to good calculations of duty tax.
• 4:56
  So we try to attack the foundation of.
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  Let's start with the simplest thing we can or the description and enhance and approve from there.
• 5:04
  Yeah, that's really the, from what we've seen, the most effective way of doing it because as, as shippers start to go through their catalog and figure it out there.
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  And a lot of times they're marketplaces where they not might, they may not touch the product.
• 5:17
  They're not going to necessarily know what's in the box or what, what HS code to use.
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  So they rely on people who, to be honest, aren't in the shipping industry when they're moving these things.
• 5:27
  They don't know.
• 5:28
  Yeah, I mean, I have, I have a couple, you know, funny I can call them funny now, client stories.
• 5:35
  Right.
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  One of them sent a book.
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  The book's title is Grandfather Clocks and.
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  And so.
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  But all they put was Grandfather clocks and.
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  And you know, it's this little package and they got stuck in customs and it's like, you know, this whole thing.
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  Right.
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  Or another book about the history of knives.
• 5:54
  Right.
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  And the thing is, nobody said book.
• 5:57
  And so, you know, you've got stuff that gets hung up and you know, you have to understand some of the ins and outs.
• 6:04
  So it's good to know that you guys are doing that.
• 6:05
  Yep.
• 6:06
  Yep.
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  Absolutely.
• 6:07
  Yeah.
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  As, as ICS2 continues to move that burden over to the seller, instead of being on the recipient, it's all those kinds of issues going to continue to pop up.
• 6:19
  Yeah.
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  And I think like the, the sellers for sure kind of what your story is.
• 6:23
  We see this almost every single day of.
• 6:26
  They don't understand that there's a marketing description of what you list on, you know, your ebay or Etsy or wherever.
• 6:31
  And then there's a customs description because we see all the time it's a rum colored T shirt, but you leave out the T shirt.
• 6:37
  Yeah.
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  And all of a sudden we're dealing with alcohol.
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  Right.
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  First, like.
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  This is going to cause a lot.
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  Hard stops.
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  Hard stop.
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  Or they'll put whatever, you know, brand they've, they've, whatever name they've given that item.
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  Oh, this is the Allison shirt.
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  They say this is Allison.
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  That it's, you know, they don't, they don't realize that what they're doing is Actually making their own life harder.
• 6:57
  So that data quality is vital for ICS2 and iOSs and it's.
• 7:02
  As the EU continues to go through this evolution of regulatory change, all that kind of stuff is going to continue to come up, you know, every day for a lot of people.
• 7:10
  Yeah.
• 7:11
  So Taylor, could you just, if we could peel it back just a couple steps just to give viewers and listeners maybe a short overview of the changes that took place on July 1st.
• 7:20
  Yeah.
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  Would that be okay?
• 7:21
  Absolutely.
• 7:21
  Okay.
• 7:22
  Yeah.
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  So happened in July 1st.
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  What happened is they basically got rid of their de minimis.
• 7:26
  Yep.
• 7:27
  So the 150 year own below before was just VAD only, so that was removed and now there's basically a simplified duty that is applied to all shipments going forward.
• 7:38
  So that was a big change.
• 7:39
  I mean we've seen that in markets all over the world and everyone's kind of leading that direction now for.
• 7:45
  Sure.
• 7:45
  And this is how the EU decided to do, you know, their change.
• 7:50
  What about.
• 7:50
  I was just thinking about Zonos and are you guys able to help when it comes to.
• 7:55
  We've had Canadian surtax on, Canadian surtax off.
• 7:58
  Can you guys help with that?
• 7:59
  And what happened September 8th with the, the new surtax that went live?
• 8:04
  Do you guys do stuff with that?
• 8:05
  We do, yeah.
• 8:06
  So we're plugged in, as you can imagine, we help customers from anywhere to anywhere.
• 8:11
  So coming to the US Is a hot item right now.
• 8:13
  Going out of the US Dealing with the trade wars, going into Canada, EU all over the place.
• 8:19
  So yeah, we have a team of experts that keyed into all of those changes, retaliatory tariffs, all of that.
• 8:25
  And the good thing of using our calculator is that our team's doing that heavy lift so that you're using the calculator and all of those changes are plugged in.
• 8:33
  And that's happening real time.
• 8:34
  So before any changes, obviously you know that we had quote, unquote, liberation Day.
• 8:40
  And then obviously We've got the September 8th changes and we had last year, I believe we had counter tariffs last year as well.
• 8:49
  So you guys in real time have a team of people that are going back and you're managing all those based on HS code or however you're doing it.
• 8:56
  And so that way when somebody, when it does go live, so, you know, 12:01am Somebody goes to shop on that site and it's active and compliant and all the things,.
• 9:07
  Yep, new tariffs are loaded.
• 9:09
  And that's a tricky thing on our side, which we've figured out somewhat of a formula is that basically anytime it goes live, that 1201, 72 hours before we're going to start calculating it with the assumption that packages are
• 9:20
  going to be moving so that we can kind of hedge of packages are going to be crossing the border before this technically goes live.
• 9:28
  So that's been difficult for us to figure out with all these new days and requirements.
• 9:33
  But that being said, yes, for the shipper, they can ship.
• 9:36
  They have our technology.
• 9:37
  Those new calculations are going to be there.
• 9:39
  Okay.
• 9:39
  Yeah, it's fantastic.
• 9:41
  So upcoming, right.
• 9:43
  UK is starting this new product identifier scheme and it's really causing a lot of uncertainty because people aren't sure.
• 9:51
  They're saying there's three numbers, two of them are mandatory, one of them is optional.
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  So it's causing a lot of uncertainty, really, who am I giving it to?
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  What format does it have to take?
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  And there really is no set standard for a lot of those numbers.
• 10:06
  They're leaving it up to the seller to say, you tell me what number you call this item and it's going to be an internal number for you and it's only going to.
• 10:14
  It's going to close the universe and it only matters for you.
• 10:17
  So how are you dealing with something that's so broad like that to kind of standardize it and get it into something that's managers?
• 10:24
  Yeah, it can be a difficult thing because a lot of these new regulations, you know, we wait for some sort of implementation guideline coming from the EU or the uk but a lot of times they don't have.
• 10:36
  They've been slow to come out with some of these actual regulations of how we onboard.
• 10:40
  So we have to do something.
• 10:41
  So we do as much as we can.
• 10:43
  So like in this example, we try to get, you know, SKU or product identifiers.
• 10:47
  I know some are calling it like a marketplace identifier.
• 10:50
  There's different terms out there.
• 10:52
  So we try to get integrated as much as we can into the catalogs of our shippers so that we're able to see this automatically of wherever they're selling and that we already have some of that data and we
• 11:04
  can pass that where needed.
• 11:06
  So we try to do as much legwork as we can and then hopefully, as additional guidance comes out, we can go, okay, yep, we already got your SKU numbers.
• 11:13
  We have the information needed.
• 11:14
  We'll pass this along to where it needs to go.
• 11:17
  You guys are taken care of.
• 11:18
  And then it just fills that in.
• 11:19
  Anytime it sees that description again in the future, it just fills in that.
• 11:22
  Exactly.
• 11:23
  So that's the ideal state we want to get to is Sure.
• 11:25
  I think with anything there's so much change and.
• 11:28
  And we're getting used to it, either fortunately or unfortunately.
• 11:32
  Yeah.
• 11:33
  But we just want to make that easy for all of our shippers is just you guys focus on selling your items and we'll do as much as we can to take over the burden of just the international complexity
• 11:41
  of all these tariffs and changes.
• 11:43
  Okay.
• 11:44
  Yeah.
• 11:44
  Because otherwise they're left kind of in this limbo where changes happen.
• 11:48
  A lot of times there's not, you know, sometimes for the big ones there's a lot of lead time, but sometimes there's lot.
• 11:53
  Sometimes they get a weak or a day like in the tariff ones, they get hours to get their life together.
• 11:59
  So having a solution like that where they're kind of looking out for your having your back, making sure that you're compliant and that you can just continue sending material.
• 12:06
  You don't have to stop your operation in order to figure out these tires.
• 12:09
  To figure out all the regulatory responsibilities I think is vital for shippers who are moving things across border.
• 12:16
  Yeah.
• 12:17
  I couldn't imagine being an SMB shipper and trying to figure this thing out on myself.
• 12:21
  Right.
• 12:21
  Of just like.
• 12:22
  No way.
• 12:23
  I make, you know, a small niche item.
• 12:25
  Right.
• 12:26
  And now I'm trying to do all these things like it.
• 12:28
  It's crazy.
• 12:29
  Yeah.
• 12:30
  You know, and so Ascendia and Zonos have.
• 12:33
  Are in partnership now, which is fantastic.
• 12:36
  That's been a huge plus, especially on the.
• 12:37
  On the EU side to help us with the IOSS requirements for ddp.
• 12:44
  Now as it is a requirement.
• 12:46
  What do you see coming up or how do you think things are going to be handled with Germany in November?
• 12:53
  Yeah, we've had some conversations around it.
• 12:55
  I think they're always kind of the poster child.
• 12:57
  Right.
• 12:57
  Of what's going to happen is because they're usually the most strict.
• 13:02
  So some of the conversation we've had it's yeah, they need all this additional information and if not, you know, they're not going to be able to make some entries which again, we don't want to halt volume.
• 13:12
  So we try to do everything we can to make sure the necessary data is there so that volume keeps flowing.
• 13:19
  But yeah, I think like typical German.
• 13:22
  I think they.
• 13:23
  They are going to follow the letter of the law and that's their stance.
• 13:27
  So we just kind of have to figure out what that looks like and make it happen.
• 13:30
  Yes.
• 13:31
  No offense to any Germans.
• 13:32
  Listen.
• 13:32
  100.
• 13:33
  Yeah, none whatsoever.
• 13:35
  No, I'm just kidding.
• 13:36
  So, Jason, do you have anything else you want to add?
• 13:39
  No.
• 13:39
  I think, you know, the new relationship that Ascendi and Zonos have is great.
• 13:44
  It's really a product that we've seen the value of with IOSS and the categorization going forward, and I think I'm excited to see how that relationship continues to grow and all the different benefits that we can have out
• 13:56
  there.
• 13:56
  Yeah.
• 13:57
  Taylor, anything you want to add before we kind of cap it off?
• 13:59
  No.
• 14:00
  Yeah, I think we're excited about the same.
• 14:01
  I know Sendia is a great partner and so we're excited to be able to come in and help out and excited for the future as well.
• 14:07
  Yeah.
• 14:08
  Awesome.
• 14:08
  Thanks so much for being on so much and appreciate you being here.
• 14:11
  Thanks everybody for listening to Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast.
• 14:16
  We just recorded with Taylor Smith in charge of strategic partnerships at Zonos and coming to you live From Parcel Forum 2026.
• 14:23
  Share subscribe and download our podcast to learn more about today's topic or for a free consultation, email us at ecommerce.usa@asendia.com.
• 14:35
  Com back for more insightful discussions on E commerce, shipping to Canada, Mexico and worldwide.