{"id":109558,"date":"2026-10-29T09:18:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shipstation.com\/?p=109558"},"modified":"2026-10-29T09:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:18:49","slug":"stability-isnt-growth-why-the-next-gains-in-shipping-are-hiding-in-freight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shipstation.com\/en-gb\/blog\/stability-isnt-growth-why-the-next-gains-in-shipping-are-hiding-in-freight\/","title":{"rendered":"Stability Isn\u2019t Growth: Why the Next Gains in Shipping are Hiding in Freight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About half of merchants say their business is doing well, but only 15% say they\u2019re doing significantly better than a year ago. If things feel fine but nothing is improving, what\u2019s holding merchants in place?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many merchants, the answer sits in the half of the shipping operation they\u2019ve never optimized: Freight.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The insights in this article come from our latest Merchant Insights<\/em> webinar, where experts discussed the biggest<\/em> challenges<\/em> merchants are facing today and how shippers can connect their parcel and freight workflows to streamline fulfillment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the full conversation on demand<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Stability looks a lot like health <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Holding steady feels good right now. Costs are up, consumer spending is uncertain, and the headlines haven\u2019t been kind. Staying level can feel like a win.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it isn\u2019t growth. ShipStation’s new Merchant Insights Report<\/a> suggests merchants know where the pressure comes from. Some 62% say high shipping and freight rates limit their growth, well ahead of warehouse space, the next most common challenge at 34%. Three-quarters say their shipping costs rose over the past year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When shipping sets the ceiling, fixing it evolves from a back-office project to a growth strategy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See parcel and LTL quoting, booking, and tracking in one dashboard. <\/h2>\n \n
New to ShipStation? Book a 30-minute setup call with our team and get a $25 Visa gift card after the meeting.<\/div>\n \n
\n Book a Meeting<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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The second shipping operation  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many merchants have already worked on parcel. They compare carriers, automate labels, and connect their sales channels. That effort pays off.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freight, meanwhile, got whatever attention was left. According to the report, 78% of merchants ship freight, and 58% of those use a provider that isn\u2019t integrated with their parcel platform. It\u2019s the only part of logistics where more merchants hand the work to an outside provider (45%) than handle it in-house (33%).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t

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<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t
of merchants say high shipping and freight rates limit their growth<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t
ShipStation's 2026 Merchant Insights Report<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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of merchants who ship freight use a provider that is disconnected from their parcel platform.<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t
ShipStation's 2026 Merchant Insights Report<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

The result is two shipping operations living under one roof. One is automated and measured. The other runs on phone calls, separate quotes, separate tracking, and invoices that arrive from two directions.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the freight market is telling you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The macro picture matters here because it shows why you can\u2019t afford to leave freight unmanaged.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freight has been in a three-year downturn, and the speakers agreed it\u2019s starting to ease. Anthony Harris, SVP of Sales at XPO, explained why less-than-truckload (LTL) tends to feel the shift first.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTruckload is five times the size of LTL. So when you see a little bit of tightening in the market on the truckload side, the ripple into LTL is a much bigger impact,\u201d said Harris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the downturn, cheap truckload capacity pulled in freight that might otherwise have moved LTL. Pat Martin, Founder of Venture 53 (formerly Estes Express Lines) sees more demand building behind it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money that\u2019s been committed to the United States of America to drive domestic production of lots of different goods, lots of different industries. We\u2019re seeing data centers being built like crazy. And the flow of freight from an LTL perspective is unbelievable in that space,\u201d said Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That build-out is a slow one. Both guests put nearshoring at roughly three years to fully take shape. In the meantime, Mike Grayson, CRO and EVP of LTL at ShipStation Global, pointed to the pressures that could hold demand back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got $6 a gallon diesel out there. You\u2019ve got interest rates that are high,\u201d said Grayson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the open question is the first quarter of 2027. Nobody on the panel predicted a boom. They described a market that keeps shifting, which rewards the merchants who can compare options and adjust quickly over those locked into one answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Execution is the barrier <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Martin has watched carrier and broker communication move from paper to application programming interfaces (APIs), and the technology gap has closed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTechnology is not the barrier anymore. That\u2019s not the issue. The issue will probably always be execution,\u201d said Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That should change how you look at your own operation. If connected freight is available, the question isn\u2019t whether the technology exists. It\u2019s whether freight runs as a managed workflow or stays an afterthought. And visibility is what makes it manageable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the report, 80% of merchants say technology with real-time visibility is important or very important, and 74% call a single provider for parcel, freight, and warehousing important or very important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t

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of merchants say technology with real-time visibility is important or very important.<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t
ShipStation's 2026 Merchant Insights Report<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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of merchants call a single provider for parcel, freight, and warehousing important or very important.<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t
ShipStation's 2026 Merchant Insights Report<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Harris explained why shared data matters on the carrier side, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cData is king, right? Our ability to share that data in such a robust fashion today does enable both of us to make better, more intelligent decisions and react faster in the marketplace,\u201d said Harris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See parcel and LTL quoting, booking, and tracking in one dashboard. <\/h2>\n \n
New to ShipStation? Book a 30-minute setup call with our team and get a $25 Visa gift card after the meeting.<\/div>\n \n
\n Book a Meeting<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n \"\"\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Where the growth shows up <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the opportunity that gets missed. Freight isn\u2019t only a cost to manage. It\u2019s a way to grow. Anthony described the point where parcel stops making sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just means more and more parcel boxes. And at some point, it would make sense for you to say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m better off to put those boxes onto a pallet and ship that in a less-than-truckload environment,\u2019\u201d said Harris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin put a range on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big thing to know is that the 150-pound range, up to 10,000 to 15,000 pounds, is the sweet spot for LTL,\u201d said Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One pallet gets one label instead of a label on every box, which means less handling for you and a simpler delivery for the person receiving it. And the upside goes beyond savings. If you\u2019ve sold parcel for years, there\u2019s likely LTL business sitting with your customers that someone else is shipping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin sees an even bigger payoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe even more important than that is using LTL to get in the door to get that parcel business. So they\u2019ve got two things they can do that they\u2019ve never had before,\u201d said Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take your freight strategy to the next level <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read the takeaways here, but a recap can\u2019t capture how people with decades in freight talk about what\u2019s coming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we sit here ten years from now and talk about what we saw the last ten years, I think all of us would be surprised at what comes and what doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the full, on-demand webinar<\/a>, you’ll hear: <\/p>\n\n\n\n