Supply Chain Management with Forceget's Burak Yolga

Sometimes they implement things way too fast, before even the sellers understand that. And then that's kind of scary. And the revenues are lower compared to previous years because sales demand is lower, and then the profit. So it's not really sustainable. It's not consistent to run a business without profit. So understanding those fees are very hard right now.

Tell us what your name is and what you do in this crazy world of E-commerce.

Burak Yolga, I'm the founder of Forceget International Logistics and Shipping. And with the international logistics fulfillment returns, all sort of days, helping brands to expand globally, different marketplaces, different markets such as Canada, UK, Europe. We help them to set up the companies, help them with them, the compliances, basically free supply chain solution.

What do you think the biggest struggle Amazon sellers are going to have in the next 12 months?

Fees. We've been talking about the FPA fees, low level inventory fees. If you're talking about the US marketplace and then the lending costs. Amazon changing things and I was talking to a seller and he's like, "I send my shipments to AWD, in Amazon Warehouse Distribution, then Amazon distributes that to the other fulfillment centers" and he's like, "I don't even know my cost." I think that's one thing. We work with Amazon directly, I love Amazon, but I think sometimes they implement things way too fast before even the sellers understand that and then that's kind of scary. So that's why a lot of companies are looking for other options like how can I reduce my cost? Because the shipping costs, again, increased, sourcing cost increased. A lot of companies are now still afraid that the new import tax will, again, can come to the United States. So they're looking at other marketplaces.

Source India, this and that, but it's not that easy. Any most common market to source is China. So there are few complexity in my opinion is on the table. And one of the thing is that the understanding the cost of landing costs, most of the companies, they went bankrupt, like old aggregators, some big small sellers because they don't understand their cost landing and their revenues are lower compared to previous years because sales demand is lower and then the profit. So it's not really sustainable. It's not consistent to run a business without profit. So understanding those fees are very hard right now.

If you could go back to the time that you started your business, what would you tell yourself now that you wish you knew back then? The one piece of advice that you could go in a time machine and tell yourself.

Now we understand data is really important and software is very important. Carbon Six is an incredible company with bringing the best tools together for the sellers. And we just launched our own seller central connection in our software. We are the only international logistic company in the Amazon space that offering free tracking for brands to see their trusted times because every two to three months there's a new challenge in the world when it comes to the supply chain. And I think four or five years ago when I started my company back in China, when I lived there, no one really worried about how long it takes to deliver to Amazon, what is the checking times, everything was very smooth. Nobody really worried about it. Nobody really talked about it. Everybody was talking about how can I make more sales. Nobody really worried about too much the landing costs. I think now I'm actually happy that we were the first one me in digital freight. Now I think the important thing is the data. And if I knew it, this is going to be this important, I think I might have started that earlier.

If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing?

Oh, man. Does it have to be in the Amazon space or could you be outside of Amazon?

No. Say you never got into Amazon, what would you be doing right now?

I think 2018, I moved out of China. I was actually thinking to stay in Asia, which actually I'm happy that I didn't, COVID hit, so I was actually thinking to move to Bali and started a small business there. But then I decided to move to US. So probably I would do something still related to the trade, but my dream is actually to create a small farm like Organic Farm.

Wow.

With some animals and growing some, growing some interesting fruits and stuff.

So that's been one of the funnest questions I've asked people. I've gotten some strange answers.

What is the strangest one?

You'll have to watch and see, there are some good ones.

I'll subscribe to the podcast for sure.

Can you give a specific example of how community has impacted your business or your ability to serve E-commerce sellers?

If I'm going back to the question that you asked, what would I wish that I'd known before, I think being part of community. There're great clubs, there're great networks that, we were in the event two days ago, one of the events. I think it's really the key thing to understand in here because every day we face, I'm sure you and your team face so many [inaudible 00:05:15] that you're like, "How did this even happen in the Amazon space or E-commerce space?" And it's very hard to understand, solve this by yourself or it takes a lot of time, a lot of money. So if you're part of a community, if you have someone that you can ask or you ask to a group chat and you're like, "Oh, anyone has this or anyone has a solution provider partner for this?", and then you get an answer really fast. And I think that's what I like and that's why I like to stay in the Amazon community, that everybody really helps each other. And if you're a genuine and if you know what you're doing, people respect that.

So let's imagine you're standing on a stage and every Amazon seller is listening to you right now. You can give one piece of advice, one tip, one tactic to help them this year. What would that piece of advice be?

That people should be very careful about their cash flows. We have seen some challenges 2022, 2023, but I think this year is going to be even more important. And I would tell them that they should track their shipments online. They should understand where the delays are happening. They should understand the form of Amazon fulfillment centers working, what's the checking time, what is the inventory, source stock is one of the greatest tools on the market. And I think one thing that is competing is to understand the production time, there are so many delay. The shipping times, fulfillment times, and then the full cycle of this cashflow. Two years ago maybe it was like 90 to a 100 dates on from the time you manufacture product. You ship it, you sell it, you get your money back. Now it's almost up to 150, 180 days in some points. So I think that's one thing that I would tell people to be careful with their inventory management, track their shipments online and understanding their cost.

You ship a lot of products. What is the most ridiculous, ludicrous, embarrassing, or dumbest product you've ever shipped?

One time we had an inspection in US custom and they sent me a couple of pictures and I'm checking my emails and I've seen some weird really sex toys that I've never seen it, actually in the past. And they're like, "Oh, this product description is not really matching with the product. What is this exactly?" And I'm like, "I'm not the right person to me. I'm not using it. The product doesn't belong to me. We are only shipping it." When the products with battery that they just start. So we had that issue that the custom did a physical inspection because turns out most of them get activated during the transportation time. So that's why when they did an x-ray, so they see that there's so many electronics working in the container, so they opened it. So that's like we got the information and luckily we were not the import of record so that we contacted the customer and then like, "Hey, they want to know what it is." They're like, "Okay, we're going to explain." So I don't know the rest of the story.

What's the most exciting moment for you in your entrepreneurial journey?

I've failed so many times and especially living in China. I think if I started the YouTube channel back then, 2012, 2013, it was so normal for me to live in China, traveling in China, eating in China. Now I see 2024, people are starting YouTube channels and then they're like saying, "Oh, Nǐ hǎo", like, hi in Chinese, and then they have a 1 million subscribers. I'm like, "Oh my God, I wish I've started earlier." So it's a challenge, but I kind of go back to China to maybe stay a little bit longer to use my experience. Knowing this part of the world, the west part and east and something very interesting happening now, most of the big brands from China, they moved to US. Especially we are talking about Shein, [inaudible 00:09:11], 1688. Most of these marketplaces, they're becoming very popular in here. So I'm very curious what's going to happen.

On TikTok, we see that in the Prosper. They have a booth first time and a couple of other marketplaces first time we see it, I'm curious how it's going to affect the sellers, whether they think that that's a short term, non-conversion channel or they're like, "Hey, we want to invest and we want to convert in those channels."

Agreed. Most important question, is a hot dog a sandwich?

It depends what angle you're looking for. I would say yes.

Say Can you defend that?

Yeah, I would. I was in Chicago and I was like, "Hey, what is the local food? What should we try?" And they're like, "Hey, you have to try." And then I was like, I really liked it.

But did they call it a sandwich?

What do you call it? I think they call it hot dog. I'm from Europe, so it could be a different one. What do you call it?

I've never given my opinion.

All right, I have a question back. Do you think pineapple on a pizza acceptable or not acceptable?

Completely acceptable, as long as there's ham with it. It can't be pineapple and pepperoni. It's pineapple and ham.

Yeah, for sure.

All right, good. All right. Where can people find you online?

They can find us on forceget.com and they should sign up for our new digital platform where they can connect their seller central to see all the fulfillment center movements, the checking times, a lot of data that we will start focusing on. It's going to be very crucial to make the decision.

Great. All right. Appreciate it.

No problem. Thanks for having me.