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.
This week, Walmart claimed a first by announcing it had been doing driverless runs between a dark store and one of its retail outlets in its hometown of Bentonville, AR, since August, courtesy of technology partner Gatik. Walmart said the trucks are running multiple times per day, seven days per week on public roads.
Transportation Insight Holdings, a provider of logistics and freight brokerage solutions, has acquired Platinum Circle Group, a parcel transportation technology and managed services company, for an undisclosed sum, adding transportation management and ecommerce technology to the mix.
A week after a name change to Meta, reflecting its aspirations for the so-called metaverse virtual world, the company formerly known as Facebook is looking to open physical stores to sell gadgets associated with its new vision, according to a report in the New York Times.
Narvar, provider of post-purchase experience solutions, is now pulling in real-time shipping data from UPS into a new dashboard product called Monitor to give shippers greater visibility into packages in transit across the supply chain, anticipating and proactively addressing issues.
Breaking the mold, grocery leader Kroger and home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond have struck an unusual partnership, with Kroger planning to carry an assortment of home and baby products from Bed Bath & Beyond on its ecommerce channel as well as in select stores starting in early 2022.
Abercrombie & Fitch has expanded same-day delivery across all 540 Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, Hollister and Gilly Hicks stores, through partnerships with Uber, Shipt, Postmates, Roadie and software provider Delivery Solutions, within a limited range from its locations based on the provider.
Beans.ai, a routing optimization provider that enables FedEx Ground and others to direct drivers to exact locations like apartment units, and provides other details like parking locations and delivery rules, has come out of stealth mode with a $17 million investment.
In an effort to make ordering and receiving goods easier for the holidays, Walmart and Target have both announced upgrades to their omnichannel strategies as supply chain woes continue to impact inventory stock levels and consumers worry that products won’t be available.
Fabric, maker of automated systems for on-demand micro fulfillment in urban settings, has raised a fresh $200 million, bringing its valuation above the vaunted $1 billion mark as it looks to expand to new markets beyond its current operations in Washington, DC, New York and its launch site of Tel Aviv.
Given massive, lingering supply chain roadblocks, carrier capacity limits and labor shortages, inventory management has gotten trickier for retailers, especially as the critical Q4 approaches. This special report from Multichannel Merchant looks at ways retailers are rethinking their inventory approach to buffer against shocks.