Articles
E-commerce
E-Commerce: Cultivating a New Logistics Landscape
E-commerce continues to mow down traditional business practices. To adapt, companies serving manufacturing, industrial, and retail customers are seeding their portfolios with new services, and not letting any grass grow under their feet.
Read MoreH&M Tries on Supply Chain Improvements
The world’s second-largest fashion company, Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), says it will increase supply chain investments and continue cost control measures to address slow growth in 2017, and keep pace with e-commerce rivals. After a supply chain reorganization in 2016, H&M’s new focus includes investing in data analytics and intelligence to enhance retail assortment […]
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Inventory Strategies That Satisfy and Retain Customers
The Amazon Effect continues to weigh heavily on the supply chain. Consumers expect to receive packages within a few days—or within one day—of placing an order. The demand for lightning-quick fulfillment, coupled with myriad small-order additions, has led to a complex operating environment. Shipping is the second-most widely reported reason for consumer dissatisfaction when shopping […]
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Supply Chain Impatience: No Time To Wait
Supply chains are adapting to serve today’s “hurry up” world of impatient consumers. Meet delivery expectations or customers go elsewhere—faster than a mouse click.
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Truckload Carriers and E-commerce: Serving the Middle Mile
E-commerce is redrawing the landscape for freight transportation. Do truckload carriers have a place in this new world of high-velocity supply chains, especially as shipments get smaller and delivery windows shrink?
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Realigning Logistics
FedEx Corp. will realign its specialty logistics and e-commerce solutions in a new structure under FedEx Trade Networks, Inc. (FTN), beginning March 1, 2018. The goal is to create an organization focused on serving the unique needs of this important growth driver. "In order to improve our ability to leverage the unique capabilities of our […]
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Shopper Expectations Outpace Retail Investments
Overall shopper satisfaction has significantly improved over the past decade, although shoppers are still not thrilled with retail staff availability and customer service. While four in 10 shoppers surveyed in Zebra Technologies Corporation’s 2017 Global Shopper Study cite being better connected to consumer information than store associates, more than half believe store associates armed with […]
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Acquiring Shipt Will Bring Target Shoppers Same-Day Delivery
Target recently acquired Shipt to leverage the same-day delivery company’s proprietary technology platform and community of shoppers, and quickly and efficiently bring same-day delivery to customers across the country. What does this $550-million deal mean for Target and other retailers? "We are now at a point where same-day delivery service is becoming the rule for […]
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E-Commerce Warehouses: SuperSize Me
Thanks to e-commerce, the average footprint of warehouses built in the United States since the early 2000s has more than doubled. The largest expansions are in metro areas with the big populations that online sellers covet and the ample land that developers need, according to a new CBRE report. The real estate firm analyzed the […]
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Accelerate Breakthrough by Helping Human Experts – Transportation Insight
While machine learning and predictive intelligence will shape this era, creative companies which value collaboration, human expertise and servant leadership can change the game.
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5 Ways Your 3PL Can Help Meet E-commerce Challenges
With unlimited e-commerce potential on the horizon, it is worth exploring if an experienced third-party logistics (3PL) provider can help you accommodate growth and ensure an optimal customer experience. If you’ve just launched your e-commerce channel or are striving to make that channel more seamless, scalable, and cost-effective, an experienced 3PL can be a valuable […]
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LTL Carriers: E-Commerce Powerhouse
Less-than-truckload carriers are developing new strategies to serve retailers and manufacturers who create the goods that impatient e-commerce consumers expect will be delivered fast and free.
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Status Quo? No.
The coming year is destined to be one of some major and minor changes in business operations. Given your role in logistics, you will face a perfect storm of new. Here are some events and trends that will drive change and the need to think flexibly and laterally, and adapt operations accordingly. Domestic trucking capacity […]
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Online Purveyor of Artisanal Goods Finds Uncommon Solution
Online retailer UncommonGoods needed a way to provide extraordinarily fast shipping times to sell and transport goods to the other side of the country.
Read MoreSupply Chain Commentary: Satisfying Customer Demand in a 365 E-Commerce Market
Today’s connected world has created catalysts of change from consumer shopping habits all the way to the last mile. Omnichannel retailing, combined with Amazon’s domination of the e-commerce world impacts shippers’ decision-making, driving change throughout the supply chain. This change has been so monumental that the term, Amazon Effect – relating to customer expectations of […]
Read MoreSimplifying Trade Complexity
Global trade professionals experienced a great deal of disruption during 2017, with trade agreements being canceled and renegotiated, regulatory enforcement on the rise, the timeline for Brexit approaching, political instability a growing concern, and more. Networks that had been relatively stable for years are now in flux. To respond to these global market forces, companies […]
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CX in the Era of Supply Chain Impatience
Whether your customer is the end consumer or B2B buyer, supply chain and customer service performance expectations are converging. Providing an excellent customer experience (CX) requires super-expedited and sometimes free delivery. E-commerce customers increasingly choose to pay for same-day delivery, according to a DHL survey. Here at Inbound Logistics, we call that supply chain impatience […]
Read MoreDo Buy, Says Dubai
E-commerce is booming and everyone wants a piece of the pie, including Dubai . The country recently announced its first free trade zone dedicated to e-commerce in the MENA region: Dubai CommerCity, a multi-million-dollar, 2.1-million-square-foot complex that is a joint venture between Dafza and Wasl Asset Management Group. The project is designed to promote Dubai’s […]
Read MoreLeveraging Supply Chain Automation to Meet This Year’s Holiday Shopping Demands
Businesses face an increase in order volumes as shoppers stock up for the holidays. According to Deloitte’s annual retail holiday sales forecast, sales are expected to rise 4 to 4.5 percent from 2016. At the same time, online sales are predicted to reach $111 to $114 billion as more customers move away from brick-and-mortar shops […]
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U.S.-Cuba Trade: Where Do Sanctions, Sourcing, and Compliance Meet?
Between the changing diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba, and expectations that the Trump administration will redraw U.S. policy toward Cuba, sanctions with the island nation are unclear. The country is still embargoed and for nearly all products, normalized trade has to overcome many hurdles. Shippers are watching Cuba closely, and analyzing market […]
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