$150K Saved in Two Weeks: How Faherty Used State-Level Carrier Data to Protect Every Holiday Delivery Promise

Faherty is an omnichannel apparel brand operating across ecommerce and 75-78 physical retail stores, served by a central warehouse in Ohio. As holiday order volumes scaled, carrier decisions began carrying six-figure cost implications and direct customer experience risk.

Before this engagement, carrier selections relied on aggregate performance averages. During peak surges, performance varied sharply by geography, meaning a blanket switch to premium shipping would have added substantial cost without improving outcomes in states where economy services were already reliable.

Saras Analytics built an operations dashboard with automated, twice-daily carrier data ingestion. The result: ~$150K in shipping cost savings, ~30K shipments kept on economy service, 28% faster peak-week delivery, and 30% fewer CX tickets.

Carrier decisions were made on aggregate averages, not geographic reality
A carrier performing at 95% nationally could be operating at 78% in specific states, creating SLA gaps that lead to missed gifting promises and CX escalation.

Seasonal performance degradation was invisible until too late
BFCM surges caused carrier performance shifts not visible in annual averages. In 2024, USPS deteriorated sharply during peak weeks while FedEx remained stable, but this was only detectable once tickets were already rising.

The only available response was a costly blanket carrier upgrade
Without state-level data, the only defensible option was to switch all shipments nationwide to premium service, adding substantial cost, most of it unnecessary.

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Twice-daily carrier data ingestion into Saras data foundation
Shipment and delivery data was ingested automatically from Faherty's carrier aggregator via RPA pipeline twice daily, giving the operations team near-real-time performance data.

State-level carrier performance visibility
Delivery times, SLA adherence rates, and service-level performance broken down by carrier and state, replacing national averages with the geographic specificity needed for real decisions.

95th-percentile delivery analysis
A conservative methodology comparing economy vs. premium carrier performance at the tail end of distributions, providing a defensible basis for deciding where premium service was genuinely needed.

Peak-period performance monitoring
Continuous tracking of carrier shifts during BFCM and holiday surges, enabling early warning before SLA breaches reached customers.

$150K saved in 2 weeks
~10 high-risk states switched to premium service; the remaining states stayed on economy, keeping ~30K shipments at the lower rate with zero delivery promises broken.

28% reduction in delivery time during peak weeks
Driven by the proactive 2024 carrier mix decision made before USPS deterioration became visible in ticket volume.

30% reduction in CX tickets related to delivery delays
Reduced escalation volume at the highest-traffic, most time-sensitive weeks of the retail calendar.

Zero compromise on the holiday gifting promise
Every order was delivered on time across all states and all carrier segments.

Reactive carrier management replaced by a proactive, data-driven framework
The team moved from responding to SLA breaches after they occurred to acting on early warning signals before they reached customers.