Articles
E-commerce
When Worlds Collide
In retail there are two worlds or approaches: online and traditional. It appears the online retailers have been winning in the market with all types of consumers, even in manufacturing and industrial products. But don’t count the traditional retail world out yet. Good supply chain management practices, along with blended approaches to serving the customer, […]
Read MoreA New Argument for Pool Distribution as More Specialty E-Retailers Set Up Shop
As consumer demand intensifies and changing shopping behaviors put pressure on the industry to adapt, retailers have continued to redesign their networks to keep up. When distributing high-volume retail goods, determining the right model is key. So what’s the quickest and most cost-effective way to keep fast-turning retail products moving from DC to store shelf? […]
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Today’s Technology, Tomorrow’s Demand
The late actress Carrie Fisher said, “instant gratification takes too long.” Her prescience is spot-on. Consumers don’t just want convenient, personalized products and services—they want them immediately. Speed and flexibility are the most significant aspects of meeting this heightened sense of “must have it now.” Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are in a fierce race […]
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Automated EDI Brings Benefits as Far as Eyebobs Can See
A direct, automated EDI connection between its ERP system and retail partners gives eyebobs 20/20 visibility to its omnichannel orders.
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Maximizing Global E-Commerce Profits
With 7 billion prospective customers out there, how can e-commerce companies not grow wealthy by expanding internationally? But, as with most things in business, international e-commerce is not as simple as it sounds. It takes work, planning, and investment, but the profit potential is very real. When branching out internationally, you’ll be able to get […]
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Disrupting the Future of Grocery Retailing
The concept of an online grocery auction is simple but the implications to the retail industry are enormous.
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The Game Has Changed—Time for a New Playbook – Transportation Insight, LLC
Evolving e-commerce service expectations force traditional retailers, manufacturers and distributors to rethink their strategies for serving clients. A two-day delivery normal—at little or no cost to the end consumer—pressures every supply chain stage, from raw material components to the finished product traveling the last yard to the customer’s hands. Retailers competing to deliver on service […]
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Solving the Three Toughest Challenges in E-commerce Fulfillment – DHL Supply Chain North America
E-commerce is continuing to create opportunity for a range of businesses, but supply chain challenges can limit growth and compromise customer relationships.
Read MoreWhen Logistics Worlds Collide: Fashion History Predicts Future of Pharma Fulfillment
Before you say anything, I’ve already heard all the jokes. You see, my experience in the pharmaceutical logistics sector began during the 1980s in the high-end fashion business. I know. There are drugs in both. Even planets millions of miles from each other may intersect their orbits at two points. And such is the relationship […]
Read MoreHow the E-commerce Warehouse Is Adapting to Life in the Big City
The goalposts in e-commerce fulfillment continue to move. Where once five-day delivery times were considered standard, now consumers routinely expect two-day or even next-day delivery. Same-day delivery is on the horizon. These shifting expectations have forced e-commerce and omni-channel retailers to expand their distribution networks. It can be difficult—and expensive—to meet even the two-day requirement […]
Read MoreAutomation Is a Game Changer for E-tailers
E-commerce is on the rise and only gaining momentum. According to a report by eMarketer Retail, in 2017, retail e-commerce sales worldwide reached $2.3 trillion, a 25% increase over the previous year. Besides discounts on products and the availability of tools for comparing product features and prices, what has really helped boost e-commerce, is the […]
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Not So Fast: Rethinking Multi-Item Orders
In the name of speed and satisfaction, many retailers think they’re doing the right thing by delivering products to customers as quickly as possible, shipping partial orders, but that isn’t always the case. High on the list of shopper frustrations is placing a multi-item order online only to have it arrive in multiple shipments over […]
Read MoreWhat Will Retailers Find Under The Tree?
A common theme connects several strategies retailers are using to prepare for the holiday season: Enhanced capabilities to seamlessly cater to shoppers in stores, online, and on mobile devices. CBRE’s annual Holiday Retail Trends Guide outlines four trends shaping this season as it unfolds: 1. The optimistic shopper. In a strong economic environment, retailers who […]
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Click & Collect Not Clicking Yet
Fewer than half of retailers responding to an OrderDynamics survey provide shoppers with access to basic inventory visibility. Of the 2,000+ worldwide retailers participating in Omni-2000 Research: Global, only a surprising 38.1 percent show basic inventory visibility on product pages. A strict like-for-like, year-over-year comparison finds a 30.7-percent decrease in active online inventory visibility. This […]
Read MoreWalgreens Launches Home Delivery Program for Prescriptions
Drug store chain Walgreens will now expand home deliveries for prescriptions nationwide. The company plans to partner with FedEx to deliver prescriptions as soon as the next day for a $4.99 fee, and it also is providing same-day deliveries in several cities including New York, Chicago and Dallas. The Deerfield, Ill., company started offering deliveries […]
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Things are Looking Up for Multistory Warehouses
Multistory warehouses used to distribute e-commerce orders are popping up in densely populated U.S. metro areas, but conditions for developing the structures aren’t as ideal in the United States as in Asia and Europe, finds a CBRE report. The commercial real estate services firm’s analysis finds that New York City, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Los […]
Read MoreHoliday Shipping Guidance for 2018: Analyzing FedEx 2017 Holiday Ship-By Dates
To better understand when shippers should send their packages during the holiday season, GrandCanals, a provider of analytics-driven fulfillment, launched an AI-powered website, where companies can view holiday ship-by predictions for 2018, updated nightly. These predictions are determined by artificial intelligence and consider both historical and current shipping trends across the GrandCanals Delivery Performance tracking […]
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Post Office Dings E-Commerce?
Two recent and important developments will impact domestic and international e-commerce shipments. The first one concerns the U.S. Postal Service’s relationship with Amazon. Let me set the stage. The Postal Service lost $2.7 billion in 2017. U.S. taxpayers guarantee the perennially stressed postal worker retirement fund. And first-class mail receipts are off by $1.8 billion […]
Read MoreHow Shippers Can Relieve Consumers’ Delivery Anxiety
Delivery anxiety is the anxiety consumers feel when they don’t know when they are going to receive their order or when shipping costs push the total order cost too high. It ultimately causes the consumer to abandon the shopping cart, and possibly order the product they so desperately desire elsewhere. Removing delivery anxiety, your single […]
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Growth in the Line of Beauty
To serve its rapidly growing customer base in mainland China, Feelunique—Europe’s leading online beauty retailer with more than 32,000 products and 500 brands across makeup, skincare, haircare, and fragrances—is set to open a distribution hub in Hong Kong in partnership with SEKO Logistics, a third-party logistics provider based in Itasca, Illinois. The cross-border online retailer […]
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