Mike O'Brien
Mike O’Brien has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for … well, quite a while. At Multichannel Merchant he focuses on the world of direct-to-customer operations and fulfillment, editing MCM’s weekly O+F Advisor newsletter, and programs the annual Ecommerce Operations Summit conference. Previously Mike was a senior account executive for Marx Communications, a boutique public relations firm working with marketing and advertising technology companies. Other past work includes stints as a media relations consultant for a concert promoter, a marketing communications specialist for a pharma software firm, a research analyst covering corporate e-learning and a daily newspaper reporter on every beat imaginable – except sports.
In 2020, every consumer who had been the beneficiary of a mysterious apparatus called the supply chain to magically whisk goods to their door suddenly became aware it existed. In 2022, supply chain doings still dominated headlines as shippers, carriers and suppliers continued to grapple with myriad issues.
Amazon is raising the fees it charges sellers for its Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF) program, saying the hike comes with enhancements like app integrations with BigCommerce, Adobe/Magento and Wix — not Shopify — but sellers are complaining, saying they’ll be priced out of the offering.
TikTok, the hugely popular short-form video site owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, had quite a year in 2022, surpassing 1 billion users globally and making itself a force to be reckoned with in advertising, ecommerce and fulfillment, becoming the latest competitor to Amazon’s dominance. But government bans are applying heat.
FedEx experienced another challenging quarter, with lower volumes impacting the top and bottom line, especially in the Express segment, and the company announced further moves to rein in costs and trim operations, including grounding more flights and dialing back capital spending.
The U.S. Postal Service today announced a major upgrade to its planned rollout of electric vehicles to replace its aging delivery fleet, saying the USPS will purchase only EVs after 2026, as the agency bows to significant pressure from Washington and the states to expand and speed up its changeover.
Demand for warehouse space will decrease in 2023, experts predicted, but companies will still be looking to fill in network gaps opportunistically, while continuing to move sourcing and inventory closer to domestic customers to hedge against supply chain shocks. Consolidation of the 3PL sector is expected to continue.
James Carville famously told Clinton campaign workers in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid,” and that mantra dominated again 30 years later, as high inflation and recession fears dogged the retail industry this year, leading to massive discounting to drive sales, often at the expense of profits.
Amazon is launching a TikTok-like feature called Inspire that lets users scroll through short-form videos and hopefully buy stuff from brands, but industry observers don’t seem too inspired by the company’s latest venture into social commerce, an area that hasn’t really exploded. It’s the latest in a decade of social commerce experiments.
The rate of returns from retail purchases is expected to remain relatively flat this year compared to 2021, at 16.5%, with store and ecommerce returns roughly equal as the latter figure has improved, according to a report from the National Retail Federation and Apriss Retail.
Domestic e-grocery sales continued to fall from pandemic-fueled highs, decreasing 10% in November to $7.7 billion, down slightly from $7.8 billion the two prior months, according to Brick Meets Click/Mercatus. Fewer households are buying groceries online, combined with lower order frequency and smaller basket sizes among regular shoppers.