16 part 2: The Impact of Global Logistics on the Subscriber Experience

Nick Agnetti and Jason Rowland continue their conversation with John Roman from BattlBox and John Haji from SubSummit dive deep into the unique logistics and customer experience challenges facing subscription box companies. From the importance of delivery timing and tracking visibility to how post-checkout anxiety impacts churn, the panel shares firsthand insights from years of experience in the subscription space. They explore how expectations differ between traditional eCommerce and subscription models, why synchronized delivery matters for mystery and discovery boxes, and the critical role of DDP (Delivered Duties Paid) in global shipping. Plus, they discuss the power of community in shaping brand loyalty and how transparency can turn shipping hiccups into opportunities for trust.

Whether you’re launching a subscription box or scaling one globally, this is a must-listen conversation on making the post-purchase experience a competitive advantage.

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John Haji | LinkedIn

John is a subscription guru and a serial entrepreneur with a decade's worth of experience in the subscription space. He co-founded SubSummit in 2016, the first and only conference devoted exclusively to those who work in or alongside the subscription commerce industry. SubSummit connects today's industry leaders, innovators, and partners who are driving the rapid evolution of how consumers discover, buy, and experience new products.

His background in think tanks paired with his entrepreneurial spirit has positioned him for success within the subscription industry. John has a passion for creative thinking, strategy, design, eCommerce, and more. Prior to starting SubSummit, he also co-founded and served as COO of Gentleman's Box, the first premier subscription service for men which was acquired by Rove Companies in 2020.

As a father of three, John balances his professional and personal life with grace and humor. He has been recognized by Crain's Detroit as one of the "40 Under 40" award recipients in 2019 for his outstanding achievements and contributions.

John Roman | LinkedIn

After leading several successful sales organizations in the telecommunications and software space for almost a decade, John began investing in companies predominately in the eCommerce arena. A college friend was launching BattlBox in early 2015 and John knew he had to be involved, so he invested in it, offering advisement in a limited capacity.

BattlBox started to see exponential growth and the demand for John’s time increased. In early 2016, John made the decision to step away from his then sales leadership role with a software company to join the BattlBox team in a full-time capacity. In July 2019, The BattlBox Group acquired Carnivore Club, an artisanal meat subscription box.

BattlBox continued to see exponential growth with the strategy of leading with content and community. This eventually lead to their Netflix original series ‘Southern Survival’ in July 2020.

In October of 2021, BattlBox and Carnivore Club were acquired by Emerge Brands for$18.95M. In April 2023, John lead a group that purchased back BattlBox from Emerge for $7.17M.

John currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for BattlBox.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You know, I subscribe to aprotein shake called Cachava. It
only lasts 30 days.
Show us the stuff, man. Showwhat you got going on. I'm just kidding.
Go ahead.
Yeah. That's for another day.That's for another time.
This is Outside the Box withAsendia USA, a podcast educating
US based brands, marketplacesand e tailers on international shipping

(00:22):
topics and how they can expandtheir global e commerce footprint.
Welcome back to part two ofour episode talking about the subscriber
experience from Outside thebox with Asendia USA podcast with
our special guests John Hodgiand John Roman.
So one of the things Nick andI were talking about in preparing
for to meet with you guystoday was on subscription boxes specifically.

(00:43):
So I, well, the way I thinkabout it, if I put an order in, I'm
working on my car in the, inthe, in the yard here and I need
to get a part for a car andI'm waiting on that part to come.
Delivery time matters to me.Delivery day matters to me. How that
that item sticks to that SLAmatters to me. Right. But when it
comes to a subscription boxmodel where I get a delivery once

(01:06):
a month of 30 things that aregoing to last me throughout the month,
or, or if it's more of abattle box method where it's, you
know, 10 or 15, 20 items thatare now going to add to my repertoire
of items for survival or forcamping or whatever it is, the delivery
date might not matter as muchthere. Right. Because it's saying

(01:28):
I'm just getting my monthlystipend, I'm getting my monthly subscription,
I'm adding it to myrepertoire. Things I have.
It 100% matters.
Yeah, it 100% matters. Itdoes. So do you see more of. I guess
the question is from thesubscriber space, what matters more
for you guys? Is it time? Isit delivery day? Is it visibility?

(01:51):
Is it tracking? So what isthe. If you had to make your perfect
scenario, what are the thingsthat you would be able to provide
to your customers for postpurchase experience?
Yeah, so, so, so time and timeand tracking. Visibility, right?
Yeah. So we, so yes, it's themembership that we do is a subscription

(02:13):
box. So it's, it's ends upabout seven to eight items. But it's
the, it's a drop model.Everyone is getting the same thing.
So time and delivery mattergreatly because it's the model of
discovery and mystery.Everybody needs to get their box

(02:34):
around the same time becauseif someone gets it wildly late, the
surprise is ruined. Part ofthat Experience of finding out what's
in the latest drop is lost. Soit matters greatly. So timing delivery
tracking. I think consumersare typically, if they have the information,

(02:56):
it's acceptable if somethinggoes awry. Right. If tracking is
taking an extra two days, butthey have the visibility on tracking
and what's going on. I thinkin today's day and age, they're not
going to blame the brandimmediately. Right. There's a little
bit of leniency if theinformation is at least being provided.

(03:18):
Heading to Sub Summit inDallas from May 28th to 30th, seize
the opportunity to superchargeyour global e Commerce expansion.
Book a one on one hostedmeeting session with Nick Agnetti,
Enterprise Sales Executive atAsendia USA, and uncover strategies
to seamlessly grow yourbusiness into Mexico, Canada and

(03:39):
beyond. Don't miss your chanceto break into new markets and grow
your sub box business to thenext level.
Yeah. What kind of impact doyou guys see that delivery experience
having on your subscriberChurn. Right. So there must be, you
know, people that drop in,drop out based on one bed experience,
maybe. So do you see thatpeople have a tolerance for it or

(04:01):
is it kind of, I gave it oneshot and now I'm out.
So, you know, we've had ebbsand flows through the 10 years we've
done this on what thatexperience looks like. It's a great
experience now. But I can, Ican say with certainty when the experience
was not great. It was adumpster fire. Right. Churn was bad,

(04:26):
no one was coming back,retention was not good. And it goes
down to, you know, John Hajiand I were chatting about it yesterday.
You kind of hinted on it. It'sthe visibility, the experience. I
remember there was, there wasa decent period of time where they
would get the initial scanwhen it hit Canada from the U.S.

(04:54):
and then they wouldn't getscans at all. And if we get a final
scan when it was basically onlast mile and out for delivery. So
you're talking, if you'retalking east coast to west coast
of Canada, you might betalking four days easy.
Oh my gosh.
At least.
Yes.
Yeah. You can only deal withthat for so much. Right. And then

(05:15):
you're like, well, why, whydoes Amazon get it to me so quickly
and give me visibility.
Yeah, you have to remembertoo, like when somebody checks out
on a product, like the wholepost checkout anxiety kicks in right
now they're in this likewaiting zone. They're like, okay,
I'm waiting for my package. Soit's Extremely important. And to

(05:40):
allude to like what John Romanwas saying. Like especially for the
boxes, the subscription boxesthat are discovering delight. Timing
is so important. I can, I,when I was running gentleman's box,
I can you know, count endlessamount of times or somebody to receive
a product and be wearing thatproduct. Right. And showcasing that

(06:00):
product on their social,social pages tagging gentleman's
box. And the consumer whohasn't received the box yet sees
the product and is like, likeI, I want that. That looks so good
or why hasn't mine arrivedkind of thing. Right. They don't
care and they don't understandthat maybe this person lives over
here. This person lives here.They just care that like how did
that person receive it? And Ihaven't received it just yet. Yeah.

(06:21):
So for discovering delay,it's, it's just, it's just so important
like delivery times. Even,even if you think about other products
outside of the subscriptionbox space, your health and beauty,
food and beverage. You know, Isubscribe to a protein shake called
Cachava. It's. It only lasts.

(06:42):
Show us the stuff, man. Showwhat you got going. No, I'm just
kidding. Go ahead.
Sorry. Yeah, that's foranother day. That's for another time.
Oh, oh, okay. Like it's theservings, right? It's 30, 30 day
servings. Right. So when I getto 30 days, like I'm expecting my,
I'm actually, I'm expectingbefore 30 days to hit for my Travis
Hole. All right, Right. Sodelivery is super important in the

(07:03):
subscription recurring space.
Yeah, that's great.
Oh, go ahead. Jason. Sorry.
No, I was just going to saythat one of the other things that
feeds into that customerexperience is from the company standpoint
is this DDU DDP conversation.Right. Of going back and forth. So
Nick, do you want to get intothat a little bit with the guys?

(07:25):
I can, yeah. I also want tothank you guys for. Well, I want
to, I want to go back. So oneof the things that I just. Because
being so closely involved withthe, in the subscription, you know,
box or subscription space forso long is the impact of community
on, on those post purchaseexperiences. Right. You guys touched
on it. John. I rememberintimately working on some of the

(07:46):
gentleman's box stuff and justhow like you're right if like one
guy, if, if a couple of theseinfluencers posted, you know, some
stuff and, and there wereissues in certain parts of, you know,
whether it was the country inthe US or foreign where they weren't
getting it, you know, as yourlogistics partner at the time. And
we're years, you know, removedat this point. But, you know, we

(08:06):
would hear about it or yourother partners would hear about it.
Right. And so I guess howimportant is, you know, and I know
that things have changed overthe years, but in that community
involvement, how important isthat still today? Or is it still
as important as it was previously?
I mean, community is whatbuilds the brand. Yeah. Right. So

(08:27):
it's, it's very important. Ithink, I think Roman, you had put
out a post on LinkedIn mostrecently speaking to the community
and like your, the consumersthat subscribe to you and how that
helps tremendously build thebrand. Right. And I think it's extremely
important in order to havelongevity as a brand, you need to

(08:50):
focus on building a strong community.
100%.
Okay. So Jason, you hadbrought up DDU versus DDP. It's like
the time old talk, althoughthankfully we are at the point now
in 2025 where most peoplerecognize the importance of DDP.
And so just for clarificationfor viewers and listeners, DDU, DDP

(09:14):
delivered duties unpaid,delivered duties paid, or we'll use
prepaid. You can use itinterchangeably. Right. And so we
talk and ultimately it's goingcome down to customer experience.
Now with that. There's alittle bit of a unique thing going
on with subscription boxesbecause they hold multiple products,
you know, for the most part,you know, on, on a. Whatever the

(09:37):
cadence is monthly, quarterly,twice a year, whatever it is. Can
you guys talk about whether,you know, talk about your. And I
know, John Roman, you've got aunique experience today where you're
actually doing in countryfulfillment or John Haji, talk about
some of your stuff from thepast perhaps, or even people that
maybe you've consulted withon, you know, the DDU versus DD DDP

(09:58):
aspect. If you don't mind kindof riffing on that for a little bit,
that would be, that would be helpful.
Yeah, let me kick it off.
Yeah, please.
Yeah. So I mean, I'll go aheadand put my gentleman's box hat on
first and talk about when wewere initially shipping internationally
and we learned very quicklythat we needed to have DDP versus

(10:20):
DDU. Right. Imaginesubscribing to a box that was $25
a month and then being toldyou owe $20. Right.
Yes.
To actually pick up that box.Right. So. And not to mention the
delays that it causes. Andsometimes the consumer doesn't even
get notification properly fromcustoms to let them know that their,

(10:43):
their package is waiting. Andif they did, maybe they miss it and
so there's a lot that goesinto, by the way, the first delivery
especially is the firstimpression you want the peace of
mind and predictability thatit's going to arrive after the purchase.
And so DDU is very, veryimportant. Ddp, I'm sorry, is very,

(11:07):
very important for brands tohave. Like, it reduces the customer
service load because again,customer, because customers aren't
writing in as often askingwhere their boxes are. So that helps
with the company as a whole tokind of focus on other things and
not have to be overloaded witha bunch of questions on where's my
box, where's my box? Orwhere's my package? Brands that offer

(11:31):
ddp, they have the competitiveedge, plain and simple.
Yeah, I mean, so speaking fromexperience and I feel like John and
I probably had some back andforth on this, you know, many, many
years ago as we were, we wereboth like, you know, going down the
international route for thefirst time. You know, there were,

(11:52):
there was a small period oftime where we did ddu. We quickly,
quickly, quickly found outthat was not, that was not the right
path. Right. I mean, I thinkJohn illustrated it perfect where
you know, they spent $25 andthey, they think that they're all
in. They think they're done,they're waiting on their package,
they're excited. They, theyfinally made the decision to pull

(12:14):
the trigger on this brand andnow they're going to get the product
and they are told they need topay another 20 bucks. Like, it's
just, it's, it's, that's ahorrible, horrible experience. Right.
And it's, it's definitelytough when you're, and some of the,
the ratios are sometimes likethat. Right. So it's, it's really
tough. Even though it mightnot be the brand's fault per se,

(12:38):
the lines are definitelyblurry there. Right. Like, because
especially if, if they boughtfrom someone else and not had that
experience, I mean, it's quickintuition. Well, it must be the brand's
decision on how they sent it.Right. I don't think you can recover
from it. And from, from a, youknow, are they going to repurchase?

(12:59):
It's, it's highly unlikely.It's probably, you know, single digit
repurchase rates. Once thathappens, obviously DDP is, is, is
the way to go. Just setsproper expectations and it sets,
sets the customer up for, forhopefully a good experience.
I couldn't agree more. And youknow, and for everybody listening

(13:21):
out there or watching, I, Iwould say it's probably even, it's
not probably it is 100% evenmore important today based on the
current environment than itwas let's say back in 2018, 2019.
You know and, and I can evenstory build on this a little bit.

(13:41):
You know I, I've been withAsendia a dozen years now. It's,
it's about 12 years now whenback let's say the first half of
my 10 years so far, everybodywanted DDU and, and really people
weren't really doing a wholelot with ddp. Right. And in general
I would just say but quicklyit was. We continue to evolve as

(14:01):
an industry and I say wemeaning E commerce merchants all
the way to service providersand everything else realizing that
customer experience is sovitally important for continued growth
and recurring revenue andeverything else that having that
all in landed cost deliveryoption, delivery duties pay. So there's
no surprises at the door. Usas Americans are a little spoiled

(14:23):
that we typically don't gettax. We don't get the A card that
says hey, I'm so glad youordered from Company A but in order
for me to give you Company A'sbox, you actually have to pay us
another like 10 or 20 USdollars. We'd be like what are you
talking about? Yeah, like wellwe're, we're certainly not getting
Company A's box anymorebecause that, that's not going to

(14:44):
happen. You know.
So I post about it online.Didn't complaining.
Oh you, you. Oh yeah, youwould, you probably would.
Like if that was theexperience, right?
I mean it would be on Queso,it'd be on LinkedIn and you'd have
an AI generated image. We'dsee the whole thing, we'd see it
all, we'd see it all over theplace. So. And I guess what I'm trying
to speak to is that you know,when you look at if you're first

(15:06):
starting and even if you'relet's say in that small, medium sized
range, right, and you're stilldoing DDU if you're selling maybe
a pair of socks. Okay, we cantalk about ddu but if you're on a
recurring basis, right. But ifyou're doing anything where you're
truly invested in building oncustomer experience, DDP is 100%
the way to go. Things haveadvanced greatly when it comes to,

(15:29):
you know, the networks thatare available for you to use these
days as well compared to whatit was, let's say 10 years ago. So
there's many optionsavailable. And Jason, I'm glad you
brought it up I think it's. Itis very, very important, even on
the. And I'd say even maybemore so on the subscription box space
than some others. Right. Sogoing back to talking about, you

(15:50):
know, working on your car andthe Amazon mentality, right, Sometimes,
you know, people are soexcited to receive the products that
they order, especially if it'ssomething that, you know, they're
just. And maybe it's not a carpart that they need, but something
that they're really excited toput on their car. Right. It's that
experience. And then you don'twant it to be a poor experience just
actually receiving the product.

(16:11):
So.
All right, we're going topivot. Jason, are you ready for this?
Yeah. You sure?
I'm ready for everything. Everything.
Thanks, everybody, for tuningin to part two of our episode titled
Impact of Global Logistics onthe subscriber experience from outside
the box with the Sendia USApodcast. Stay tuned for part three.
Share, subscribe and downloadour podcast to learn more about today's

(16:34):
topic or for a freeconsultation, email us@ecommerce
usacendia.com Come back formore insightful discussions on ecommerce
shipping to Canada, Mexico and worldwide.