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Assessing Your Dock-to-Stock Efficiency

| Brian Barry

Dock-to-stock time is a KPI measuring the time from receipt on your dock to a pickable or bulk reserve location. The process involves aspects of purchase order writing, inbound transportation, receiving, staging, inspection and put away. Here’s eight steps to help you assess your processes, identify problems and lay out an action plan.

Ecommerce 3PLs: Sorting Posers from Pros

| Kamran Iqbal

With peak season upon us, vetting prospective ecommerce 3PLs should focus on their ability to execute under peak conditions. While some may be good at a few aspects of ecommerce operations, the ability to scale up is crucial, and doing so end to end is a rare quality indeed. Here’s how to separate the 3PL posers from the pros.

The outsourcers who can truly do it all according to each brand’s requirements are the real pros. 3PLs that can’t do it all – at scale – are just posers.

5 Reasons Why Checks and Cash Are Slowing You Down

| Mikkel Hyldebrandt

For the logistics industry, historically heavily reliant on a checks and cash economic system, converting to consumer-like electronic payments similar to Venmo or Paypal was fast-tracked for many out of a necessity to limit exposure to the coronavirus. It also proved to be a revelation of unrealized, long-lasting advantages.

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Ecommerce Operations Summit 2021: It’s Here!

| Mike O'Brien

Hard to believe it, but it’s here! Ecommerce Operations Summit 2021 is kicking off this Tuesday, Aug. 17 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, and we have lots of great things on tap for you as we regather in person as a community of ecommerce/DTC operations and fulfillment professionals.

3PL UPS eFulfillment

As 3PL Demand Grows, Partner Selection is Critical

| Mike O'Brien

Consumers focus on curbside pickup, fast delivery, trouble-free returns and seamless experiences, but retailers face heightened fulfillment challenges, leading more of them to embrace 3PLs. And getting it right is essential. This special report dives into the trends, outlining key decision factors when considering a 3PL partnership.

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Cart.com Adds $98 Million in New Round

| Mike O'Brien

Cart.com, a startup founded during the pandemic aiming to be a one-stop shop for brands scaling up their ecommerce business, has raised $98 million in a Series B round to fuel further expansion, platform buildout and yet more acquisitions.

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A 3PL-to-Insourcing Switch: 10 Considerations

| Brian Barry

Merchants that utilize third-party fulfillment (3PL) services sometimes consider transitioning back to internal fulfillment operations. Sometimes it’s to control costs, while others have had a bad experience with 3PLs and now only trust themselves with their operations. Here are 10 factors to consider if you’re looking to insource.

MCM CommerceChat podcast

Prepping for Peak Season at Burton

| Mike O'Brien

Israel Maynard, Senior Director of International Logistics and Fulfillment for outdoor gear and apparel retailer Burton, has been busy working with vendors overseas and partners here to get everything stocked and set for his peak season. We discuss all this in our latest MCM CommerceChat podcast.

3PL Ruby Has Launches DTC Consortium

| Mike O'Brien

Ruby Has, a top 3PL, has launched an industry consortium aimed at helping both direct-to-consumer merchants and those providing support services to share expertise, resources and best practices aimed at benefiting all. Among the 100-plus charter members are DTC jewelry brand Ana Luisa and ecommerce platform firm Linnworks.

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Geodis Acquires Freight Brokerage Firm Velocity

| Mike O'Brien

3PL Geodis has acquired Plano, TX-based freight forwarding company Velocity Transport from Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary McLane Company, to add to its forwarding capabilities across a range of modalities, including refrigerated and temperature-controlled freight, flatbed and LTL, intermodal, van and specialty options.