If you are familiar with Reveel, use our platform, or have relied on our experts to decrease your shipping costs over the past two decades, you know we have very strong beliefs when it comes to parcel spend and the fact that it remains the least understood line item on many businesses’ budgets.
Shippers have always appreciated the singular impact that shipping costs have on the bottom line, especially for organizations engaged in e-commerce or that depend on supplies that need to be moved quickly and reliably. But recently, we’re seeing far greater interest from finance departments and CFOs than ever before. These leaders increasingly see parcel spend management as the key to getting logistics costs under control.
The findings of our recent double-blind survey of 150 supply chain leaders put this in focus. Respondents reported that logistics commands a significant portion of their operational costs, 22% on average, with 78% reporting that it comprises between 10% and 30%. Within their overall logistics budgets, 37% allocate between $2 million and $10 million; 42% allocate between $10 million and $50 million; and 21% allocate more than $50 million on parcel shipping.
Those are big percentages of a significant chunk of operational budgets by any measure, a point made all the more salient by the fact that our customers on average see their parcel shipping expenses decrease by 22% once they begin using our Parcel Spend Management (PSM) 2.0 technology. And many achieve dramatically more. For CFOs and financial leaders accustomed to working hard to secure even incremental savings, these kinds of gains are unheard of – a treasure trove of added revenue and savings that immediately grow the bottom line.
That is undoubtedly one of the reasons parcel spend is generating more interest among leaders in finance. But of course savings are just the beginning. For financial leaders, PSM 2.0 does more than lower shipping costs. It also empowers finance departments with powerful analytics that enable new approaches to financial governance, from real-time accruals data to SKU-level insights into profitability and costs.
Reveel’s platform also streamlines finance operations by automating key accounting processes related to parcel spend. It automatically generates accurate GL coding based on carrier invoices and shipment metadata, eliminating manual entry errors and saving valuable time during month-end close. For accruals management, Reveel provides real-time estimates of unbilled shipping costs, ensuring finance teams can maintain accurate books even when invoices lag.
Additionally, the platform simplifies carrier rebate tracking by monitoring contractual thresholds and rebate eligibility across multiple carriers, helping companies capture every dollar they’ve earned without manual reconciliation. This level of automation reduces administrative burden and enhances financial accuracy across the shipping operation.
Notably, we’ve found in our work with prospective customers, around 75% fail to file for claims they are owned because carriers failed to meet their own service level guarantees, often because packages were delivered late. This is literally money left on the table.
In short, shipping intelligence enables financial leaders not only to gain real visibility over parcel spend—usually for the first time–but also to take steps to proactively control it and utilize the strategic insights within it to do business in new, better ways.
Notably, such results often extend enterprise-wide. Integrated with ERP and other systems of record, parcel spend intelligence is also invaluable in efforts to strengthen customer relationships and make any number of operational decisions, from the location of new stores to the creation of more resilient supply chains. Together, these developments represent a sea change in how shippers, CFO, and finance teams work together.
To learn more about the parcel shipping landscape, what’s driving costs, and steps businesses are taking to address them, read our full survey, or sign up for a free demo of our Parcel Spend Management 2.0.
