How Amine Khechfé Solved Small Business Shipping Problems with Endicia

Jeremy Weisz, founder of Inspired Insider, recently interviewed Endicia’s general manager and co-founder Amine Khechfé as part of the Skubana mastery series for online businesses. Amine shared that Endicia’s raison d’être was to identify and resolve customer pain points — a key element the company holds dear to this day. Find out what has and hasn’t changed for Endicia in the past three decades since its inception.

’Simplexity’

During the interview, Amine brought up a novel, blended concept: simplexity — taking complex problems and solving them in ways that appear to be simple. Since Endicia knows the steps — or complexities — needed to ship in a variety of circumstances, the shipping process can be simplified for the buyer and seller. This is where Endicia’s innovation comes from, solving complicated issues for the buyer and seller so that they can focus less on shipping and more on their business and passions.

Discovering Customer Issues

In the very early days of Endicia, co-founders Harry Whitehouse and Amine would comb the eBay seller forums to find out what issues were plaguing online sellers and help them come up with solutions. Answering those questions built momentum for Endicia to become a trusted shipping expert.

Today, Endicia continues to have a close relationship with its customers to find out what is troubling ecommerce businesses. Endicia utilizes both a field sales team and an inside sales team that talk to customers every day to gather their feedback, comments and critiques. On Fridays, Amine spends a few hours reading through regional summaries from the sales teams, working with his team to brainstorm how they could solve recurring problems.

The Amazon Effect

Since Endicia has been around since 1982, Amine has seen firsthand how ecommerce marketplaces have shaped the shipping business. He shared with Jeremy that Amazon in particular has brought shipping into the limelight. The giant retailer has helped consumers think about the online shopping experience in a different way, setting the bar higher for all other businesses to provide that great customer experience.

Student Power

Amine met Harry Whitehouse in a Stanford University classroom when Amine was a student in need of a teaching assistant job. Harry realized that although Amine was enrolled in the same class that had the empty TA slot, Amine was the most qualified and determined candidate. Both Amine and Harry’s passion for fixing problems and thinking outside of the box manifested itself in Endicia.

Today, student-mentor relationships are still part of Endicia. The company sponsors student groups to come to the company to solve problems. Amine mentioned that he loves the fresh energy these young adults bring to the company and the extreme focus they can give tasks.

To hear Amine and Jeremey’s entire conversation, follow the link: “How Endicia Understood Shipping Pain Points and Thrived by Providing a Solution — With Amine Khechfé”.