News & Insights

Why go cross border in 2026 Part 6: Clearance and duty position

Ahmed El-Alfy — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:18:57 GMT

DDP vs DDU is not pricing. It is an operating model decision. If you do not choose your duty position deliberately, you will inherit it through disputes.

Your Parcel P&L is already 45 days old – Here’s why that’s costing you

Ahmed El-Alfy — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:15:52 GMT

In cross-border logistics, complexity doesn’t creep in it arrives fast. Volumes shift by lane and season, supplier costs vary by weight and routing, and small blind spots can quietly erode margin before anyone notices.

Why go cross border in 2026 Part 5: Productising cross-border

Ahmed El-Alfy — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:21:56 GMT

Two tiers beat ten promises: turning cross-border into something you can sell without creating a mess later. Cross-border launches often fail in the gap between what sales sells and what ops can run.

AR vs AP: Where Parcel Billing Falls Apart (and What to Automate First)

Ahmed El-Alfy — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:26:11 GMT

Once upon a time, finance teams were the unsung heroes of logistics. Fighting spreadsheets, chasing invoices and trying to make sense of the numbers after the fact. But every good horror story evolves. And this one now comes with automation.

The Hybrid Fulfilment Gap: Why Logistics Needs to Lead the Conversation

Ahmed El-Alfy — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:24:08 GMT

If you’re a retailer reading this, let’s start with a question: are you really doing hybrid e-commerce fulfilment or just talking about it? And if you’re a fulfilment logistics leader, this is the moment to ask yourself a different question: are your retail customers ready to make hybrid work and what role will you play in helping them get there?

7 Places your Parcel P&L is bleeding money (and how to stop it)

Ahmed El-Alfy — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:18:04 GMT

Every logistics CFO has faced the same moment with their parcel P&L. The books show profit, but the bank balance tells a different story. Somewhere between shipment, invoice, and reconciliation, profit disappears. It doesn’t vanish in dramatic losses but leaks quietly, parcel by parcel, through a series of small, almost invisible errors. The issue isn’t on the surface of your balance sheet. It lives in the operational fog, where missed surcharges, mismatched rate cards, and manual mistakes slowly drain margin. By the time Finance discovers the problem, the damage has already reached the bottom line.

Dark Stores: The Revenue Model Hidden in Plain Sight

Harriet Ruby — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:48:25 GMT

Once Every Letter Carried a Heartbeat

For centuries, the post office wasn’t just an address, it was the nation’s nervous system. It carried meaning as much as mail; pay slips, pensions, love letters, the first cheque from a small business. In every community, we knew our posties name, a reminder that connection was personal. That same national presence is now what positions postal operators to lead the shift toward dark stores and hyper-local fulfilment.

2025 Made Margin a Same-Day Decision in Logistics

Harriet Ruby — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:46:56 GMT

2025 did not overwhelm e-commerce logistics with growth. It overwhelmed it with financial decisions that could no longer wait for month-end.

Peak Volume Is Temporary. Parcel P&L Damage Lingers

Ahmed El-Alfy — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:44:19 GMT

December is about throughput. January is about truth.

Peak trading does not suddenly create finance problems. It exposes the ones that were already there. When parcel volumes surge through Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, weak processes lose their tolerance for error. By early January, finance teams are left reconciling what really happened.

The Surcharge Economy: Where Margin Really Breaks in E-commerce Logistics

Ahmed El-Alfy — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:27:23 GMT

Parcel pricing hasn’t just become more expensive. It’s become harder to control.