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Welcome to our special edition 🎉

As businesses navigate the challenges of rising shipping costs, effective strategies are more crucial than ever. With inflation and supply chain disruptions impacting expenses, companies must find innovative ways to maintain profitability while delivering exceptional service. This need for adaptation is particularly evident as we approach key retail events like Prime Big Deal Days, which, despite a lukewarm start, signal the beginning of the holiday rush. Let’s take a look at some effective strategies to manage rising shipping costs and stay ahead during the holiday shopping rush.

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- How to Handle Rising Shipping Costs in a Business?🚀

- The Role of AI in the Public Sector✨✨

- Google Revamps Strategies for the Holiday Shopping Season🎯

How to Handle Rising Shipping Costs in a Business?🚀

Increasing shipping costs have made it hard for merchants to maintain profits in today’s competitive market. One major reason for this is the growing number of surcharges imposed by carriers like UPS and FedEx. These surcharges can quickly drive up the cost of domestic and international shipping.

What Are Shipping Surcharges?

Shipping surcharges are extra fees added on top of standard shipping costs. These charges vary based on factors like fluctuating fuel prices, package size, delivery type, and even the day of delivery. Understanding these surcharges is essential for businesses to manage costs effectively.

Some common surcharges include:

1. Fuel Surcharges

   • Carriers add fuel fees to compensate for rising gas prices.

   • This fee changes weekly based on fuel price fluctuations and is added as a percentage of the base shipping rate.

2. Residential Delivery Fees

   • Packages delivered to home addresses (or home-based businesses) incur extra fees.

   • These charges are applied directly to the standard shipping cost.

3. Oversized Package Fees

   • If a package exceeds the carrier's weight or size limits, an oversized surcharge is added.

   • This can significantly increase shipping expenses.

4. Saturday Delivery Fees

   • Deliveries made on Saturdays (outside regular business days) come with additional costs.

   • During peak seasons, like the holidays, merchants often face these extra fees for faster delivery services.

Why Carriers Add Surcharges

Surcharges help carriers cover specific operational costs, such as:

• Signature or weekend deliveries

• Address corrections or deliveries to remote locations

• Seasonal demand increases (like holiday rush periods)

Private carriers, including UPS and FedEx, update their rates annually, and fuel surcharges may fluctuate weekly. Businesses need to stay on top of these changes to avoid unexpected shipping expenses.

Planning for Peak Seasons and Deadlines

With the holiday season approaching, merchants must pay close attention to shipping deadlines. USPS, UPS, and FedEx often set strict cutoff dates to ensure packages arrive on time. Additionally, with some services relying on Saturday delivery, merchants may face higher costs for express or last-minute shipping options.

USPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines

UPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines

FedEx Holiday Shipping Deadlines

Check out platforms like ShipStation for detailed holiday cutoff dates and tips to ensure smooth deliveries.

Takeaways for Small Businesses

• Monitor Shipping Fees: Keep track of surcharge updates to better plan shipping budgets.

• Communicate Clearly with Customers: Let customers know if higher fees apply to residential or weekend deliveries.

• Offer Free Shipping Wisely: During the holidays, factor in potential surcharges when creating free shipping offers.

By staying informed and proactive, small businesses can manage rising shipping costs and keep customers happy—even during the busiest seasons.

The Role of AI in the Public Sector✨

Governments and public organizations are facing many challenges, including macroeconomic issues, climate change, humanitarian crises, and the lasting effects of the pandemic. With limited resources and overworked employees, these institutions often struggle to meet growing citizen demands while working with outdated systems.

AI is helping public sector organizations overcome these challenges. Generative AI and AI-powered tools are making processes faster, cheaper, and more effective, transforming how governments engage with citizens and manage services.

How AI Improves Citizen Services

AI helps simplify public services by automating routine tasks and providing personalized support. Here are some ways it enhances citizen experience:

AI-powered customer service applications are transforming how governments engage with citizens by providing quick answers to common questions, reducing the need for direct human interaction. Citizens can use natural language to ask questions, making it easier for them to find the information they need without frustration. For more complex inquiries, AI seamlessly directs the issue to a human agent, allowing employees to focus on higher-value tasks that require personal attention.  

This blend of automation and human support ensures faster responses and more personalized service, improving overall citizen satisfaction. By handling routine queries, AI not only speeds up service delivery but also reduces the workload on public sector employees. With fewer repetitive tasks, staff can dedicate their time and energy to solving more critical issues, enhancing service quality.  

Real-Life Results from AI and Self-Service

AI chatbots and self-service tools are already helping public institutions improve service. For example, some utility providers use AI to reduce costs and boost efficiency by allowing customers to handle simple tasks on their own.

The result is faster answers, higher satisfaction, and reduced workloads for employees.

Key Considerations for Using AI in the Public Sector

Successfully implementing AI requires careful planning. Governments must manage both technological and cultural changes. Here are some important steps to consider:

• Start small by testing AI tools before a full rollout.

• Train employees to work effectively with AI tools.

• Protect citizen data and maintain transparency to build trust.

AI’s real value lies not in the technology itself but in the positive impact it creates for citizens and public employees. When used thoughtfully, AI can help governments provide better services and create stronger connections with the people they serve.

Google Revamps Strategies for the Holiday Shopping Season🎯

Google is making important changes to how Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns compete in ad auctions. This adjustment aims to give advertisers more control and flexibility, especially during the crucial holiday shopping season.

What’s Changing?

Performance Max campaigns will no longer automatically take priority over Standard Shopping campaigns. Instead, the highest Ad Rank will now determine which campaign's ad is displayed when both campaigns overlap. This shift aligns Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns with the auction behavior seen in other campaign types. By implementing this change, Google aims to create a more level playing field, allowing advertisers to compete based on the quality and relevance of their ads rather than relying on the automatic prioritization of Performance Max campaigns.

Why Does It Matter?

This update could impact campaign strategies and performance during the holiday sales period. While it offers more flexibility, advertisers need to adjust their budgets, targets, and strategies carefully to maximize results.

According to a TransUnion study, Performance Max campaigns drove 17% higher ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) than AI-powered social campaigns during the 2023 holiday season. Google expects the update to have a neutral or positive impact on performance at the account level.

What to Watch

• How advertisers shift their budgets and goals in response

• Changes in campaign management strategies

• Opportunities to optimize for better results during the holidays

Your Voice 🎤

Phew! That was a lot, right? But hey, knowledge is power🌟. We hope this edition gave you some insights and maybe even cleared up a few doubts.

Got questions or topics you'd like us to cover next? Holler at us! We’ll give you a shoutout in our next edition. If you have any questions, reply to this email and share your valuable feedback so we can aim to address them in our upcoming editions!

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