Yona Avoids Surcharges and Cuts Shipping Costs by 35% with Operating Crew’s Parcel Optimization
“As a growing furniture brand, shipping can make or break your margins. Operating Crew gave us clarity, strategy, and execution — all while making sure our new product launches were future-proofed for shipping costs.”
Yaniv | Founder at Yona
Company Overview
Yona is a direct-to-consumer furniture brand rethinking how people live and move. Founded to solve the hassle of bulky, wasteful furniture, Yona designs modern essentials—like their modular bed frames—that are easy to assemble, easy to move, and built to last. With a focus on sustainability and simplicity, Yona helps customers avoid the cycle of disposable furniture while making everyday living more seamless.
"Operating Crew gave us clarity, strategy, and execution — all while making sure our new product launches were future-proofed for shipping costs. "
— Yaniv, Founder and CEO
Challenges Faced
Furniture shipping is unforgiving, and for Yona the challenges were clear. UPS had adjusted its cubic inch surcharge threshold, which meant higher shipping costs on many orders. At the same time, larger boxes needed for new products created exposure to dimensional weight billing and Additional Handling Surcharges (AHS).
Relying on a single carrier also created added pressure, from higher costs to limited flexibility, setting up three core challenges:
Escalating costs: UPS policy changes increased shipping spend by 20–30%.
Dimensional risk: Larger boxes triggered AHS and dimensional weight billing.
Carrier inflexibility: Dependence on one carrier limited leverage and options.
How We Helped
Operating Crew went beyond rate benchmarking — we rebuilt Yona’s shipping strategy from the ground up, combining data analysis, cost modeling, and operational changes to make shipping a competitive edge. This work came together across four areas:
Data-Driven Analysis: We reviewed shipment profiles (41" × 27" × 5", 41" × 27" × 7"), audited UPS/FedEx invoices for all-in costs (fuel, residential, DAS, peak), and tracked new carrier policies like UPS’s 8,640 cu in AHS threshold and FedEx’s dimension rounding rules.
Cost Modeling & Scenario Planning: We validated box sizes remained under surcharge triggers, tested sensitivity to holiday/fuel surcharges, and ran simulations across hundreds of zip codes to give Yona full visibility on per-zone, per-box costs.
Packaging & Product Advisory: We partnered with Yona’s product team to adjust box sizes and bundling, ensuring new product designs were “shipping-optimized” before launch.
Multi-Carrier Setup: We enabled UPS and FedEx side by side for flexibility, added DHL for international, and built workflows for claims, returns, and daily rate monitoring.
The Transition
Execution mattered as much as strategy. Modeling savings on paper was one thing — proving them in the real world was another. To make the setup stick, we focused on four key steps:
Carrier Setup: Configured new accounts and payment integrations so the team could pivot between carriers without friction.
Live Testing: Shipped trial orders across zones to validate that modeled savings showed up on actual invoices.
Invoice Accuracy: Resolved discrepancies in ADH discounts and fuel surcharges, fine-tuning until costs lined up exactly with expectations.
Team Training: Equipped Yona’s ops team with training on labels, pickups, and claims, ensuring daily operations could run smoothly under the new framework.
The result was a transition managed end-to-end, with zero customer disruption. By the time the first wave of orders shipped, Yona had confidence not only in their rates but in the systems, processes, and people behind them.
Results Achieved
With Operating Crew’s support, Yona:
Cut shipping costs by ~35% on its larger box formats.
Protected margins by staying under cubic thresholds and modeling surcharge scenarios.
Built resilience with a multi-carrier setup, avoiding over-reliance on any one provider.
Launched new products confidently, knowing packaging decisions were grounded in shipping cost analysis.
Gained operational clarity through tested spreadsheets and zone-based cost modeling.
Key Takeaways
Proactive Monitoring: Keep a close eye on carrier announcements before they hit margins.
Scenario Modeling: Use real invoice data to test sensitivity to surcharges and rules.
Carrier Flexibility: Multiple carrier accounts = negotiating leverage and operational resilience.
Product-Centric Logistics: Involve shipping strategy in product design to avoid surprises at launch.
Hands-On Execution: Success isn’t just about rates — it’s about getting the daily operations right.
