Where are You Losing on Shipping and Handling?

| Curt Barry

In order to get a better handle on the impact of your shipping and handling costs, you need to first understand the details and then determine the best policy from a financial, marketing and customer service perspective. See some real-world examples and tips on how to stay on top of your S&H costs.

An Innovation Checklist for Direct to Customer Operations

| Jasmine Brown

The recent Executive Operations Forum at Operations Summit 2017 generated many ideas and cost-savings tips. What improvements, best practices and innovations have you implemented in your contact center, fulfillment and inventory management? Here are 27 innovations that six direct to customer companies attending the forum have implemented.

Get to a Single Version of the Truth in Your DTC Operations Analytics

| Curt Barry

There often isn’t a “single version of the truth,” one official set of figures for sales, inventory, plan and history in DTC operations. For management to have confidence in the integrity of the data they’re using, the time has come to advocate and budget for projects that resolve these problems.

OMS, order management system, omnichannel retail, ecommerce fulfillment, warehouse management system, WMS, omnichannel fulfillment

6 Ways Benchmarking Data Can Improve Your DTC Operations

| Curt Barry

Having the opportunity to benchmark your DTC operations against your peers will help you determine where you need to focus your effort and investments to reach and exceed customer expectations. For an in-depth discussion on a joint benchmarking study between Multichannel Merchant and F. Curtis Barry & Co., join us at Operations Summit 2017, March 27-29 in Pittsburgh.

Helping Workers Understand Your Business Benefits All Parties

| Curt Barry

Do your employees know what makes your company tick, and better yet what helps move the needle? Merchants need to do a better job of educating them on sales drivers and profitability, and the business benefits of investments and process improvements. The more they know, the more invested they’ll be in your success.

Warehouse/Distribution Center, order management system, ERP, operations and fulfillment, system integration, VAR

8 Things to Do Now to Ensure Success Next Peak Season

| Curt Barry

While we’re not through peak season yet, there are 8 quick steps you can take now that will help with post-season assessment of your fulfillment operations and planning for 2017. They will prove invaluable in January and February as you look for ways to implement improvements during the next peak.

Save the Date: Operations Summit 2017

| Mike O'Brien

The Multichannel Merchant team is getting geared up and excited about the sixth annual Operations Summit 2017, which will be held in Pittsburgh, PA March 27-29 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Put it in your calendar now to make sure you and your team don’t miss the only event exclusively about direct-to-customer and omnichannel operations.

key performance indicators, KPIs, operations and fulfillment, warehouse/distribution Center, distribution center, direct-to-consumer, direct-to-consumer operations, performance metrics, employee productivity, employee coaching, manager training

Boot Barn Exec Shares Best Practices for DC Metrics

| Mike O'Brien

Metrics to track and manage distribution center performance need to be meaningful, actionable and objective in order to impact performance and the business, attendees were told at Parcel Forum 2016. See what the head of direct-to-customer operations at Boot Barn had to say about how DC metrics support overall business goals.

Wayfair, Wayfair.com, ecommerce, Joss & Main, Birch Lane, AllModern, DwellStudio

Wayfair Names Head of Operations Product Innovation Team

| MCM Staff

Doran Robinson, a former operations executive with athenahealth and Capital One, has joined Wayfair as Vice President of Operations Product Innovation. He will oversee expansion of Wayfair’s fulfilment and service systems and lead efforts to improve its post-order experience.