The Collapse of Convoy

"Everything's dopamine-centric" and today we explore how the industry of logistics and eCommerce are no different. PLUS: Kris Gösser join us to discuss the rise and fall of Convoy. Listen now!

We Need More Daring

• {00:17:03} - “Everything's very dopamine-centric. And it is, it is preying on your like, "I'm going to gamble a little bit. I'm going to spend a little money and see if this is worth it." And sometimes the thing that is worth having spent the time is the dopamine and not the product that you got at the end.” - Phillip
• {00:28:34} - “I think Shein is the most multiplayer brand because they only produce the things that customers tell them they want. Their just in time manufacturing, their operating model is specifically designed in the same way that software engineering created an operating model around scrum and sprints where you have an agile process that allows you to only make a certain set of features at a time and only focus on those and then move on to the next thing. This is a new operating model for a certain type of a retail business that is fundamentally multiplayer.” - Phillip
• {00:30:55} - “Overcorrection in design breeds a lot of innovation and copycats come along and then that becomes the trend. And that is, I think, what we're seeing, and what we hope to see actually in a lot of design, especially in website design.” - Phillip
• {00:44:20} - “Tech-enabled logistics was a fun party while the party was happening. But really this is a story of the fed. And when rates were increased and you saw every industry from banking to telecoms to consumer electronics to whatever, whatever, whatever, that impact is so foundational and central that it shook through every system out there.” - Kris
• {00:47:37} - “The capital costs just didn't have enough time to pay off. Basically you have all this heavy investment in tech and then when the market's cratered and the market wasn't there anymore, they had all these high costs.” - Brian
• {00:54:23} - “What's going to happen is you're going to see this kind of knock on effect of the innovations Convoy had, the innovations Flexport has had, the innovations 3PLs are doing, whether it's Shipium or other companies that are software-centric are now going to be able to help improve the industry with a lot of their ideas, a lot of their concepts and just in general help achieve maybe over the next five years, the impact on the industry that a lot of the tech-enabled logistics companies are trying to do.” - Kris
• {01:03:53} - If someone's not looking at the business holistically, or at least with a modern lens of how technology is actually going to affect the business at every touch point, then it's going to get really hard to focus on the things that will make a meaningful difference.” - Brian

Associated Links:

• Live stream video mayhem mentioned at 24:24
• FC Insiders #113: Brinkmanship
• Grab your copy of The Multiplayer Brand for just $20 with free shipping in the U.S.
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!