A new report from the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and McKinsey & Co. highlights how sticky the digital shift has become over the past year, and how important personalization, supply chain optimization, omnichannel and sustainability have become to ensure survival in the new landscape.
With historically low unemployment, the competition for reliable hourly workers has never been so stiff. Traditional employers are further hampered by gig companies luring workers with promises of flexible schedules. Here are some hiring and workforce trends to watch out for in 2020 that can impact your business.
UPS will not add a residential delivery surcharge this holiday peak season, unlike the past two years, but will add surcharges for larger packages and those requiring additional handling. The company expects to exceed record volume of 800 million packages set last year, with 75% of it handled by automated sortation systems.
With ecommerce expanding and consumers expecting greater speed and convenience, retailers need cost-effective ways to meet these demands. Here is a look at how automated lockers are key to the overall buy online pickup in-store experience.
Starting in January, FedEx will make deliveries seven days a week to meet increasing demand from ecommerce shippers, while diverting about 2 million packages per year from the U.S. Postal Service’s last-mile service to build necessary density and shave costs.
AI and chatbots are changing the way retailers connect with customers, becoming even more integral to the online journey from beginning to end. Here are three ways they’re transforming retail in 2019.
The holiday season is officially here and contact center managers around the world are prepared for the busiest time in retail. Traditionally, much of this preparation has focused around staffing up to manage peak volume, strategizing to hit KPIs, hardening websites and IT infrastructure and optimizing inventory and fulfillment. Here is how several technologies like AI can be leveraged in social customer and engagement strategy to create efficiencies that make your agents and operations more productive by increasing response rates and response times.
Ensuring your global fulfillment operation remains up to date and is utilizing the best and most automated systems available should be a priority for all businesses. Here’s how successful ecommerce businesses of the future are looking towards or already achieving personalized customer experiences, multichannel fulfillment and real time visibility of all physical operations.
Hudson’s Bay Co. is introducing new robotic technology to its Ontario distribution center for internet fulfillment that CEO Gerald Storch says will put the merchant at the “absolute forefront of Internet distribution technology.”
What will retail look like in 2014? Contributing writer Jonathan Levitt sees two major emerging trends occurring in the New Year: the rise of the ubiquitous shopper and wide-scale retail automation.