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.
To help ecommerce sellers better understand the landscape a year-plus after the Wayfair decision, Multichannel Merchant spoke with Mark Sieczkowski, senior product manager at Vertex, in an MCM CommerceChat podcast. Sieczkowski addresses registration, reporting and filing requirements and manual vs. automated processes.
Small merchants can transform their shipping and mailing operations into an asset rather than a nuisance and cost center. A focus on quick wins that add up over time can fatten your profit margins while delivering increasingly better customer experiences. Learn how refining your strategy can lead to business improvement.
Amazon and Home Depot will become tenants of a new state-of-the-art, three-story warehouse and fulfillment center in Seattle from logistics giant Prologis, part of the huge push to fulfill ecommerce within a day in major urban markets, according to the Wall Street Journal. Three other such buildings are going up in New York City.
With a showdown looming over international postal rates at a Sept. 24 congress of the Universal Postal Union, uncertainty reigns in terms of the United States’ continued participation in the organization, leaving merchants wondering about parcel shipping rates heading into peak season. Consolidators are making contingency plans.
Amazon and Walmart will continue to slug it out atop the world of global e-grocery food sales, with the ecommerce giant projected to pass the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer by 2024 with revenues of $15 billion, compared to $14 billion, according to a new report from research firm Edge by Ascential. The projected CAGR through 2024 is 13%.
Walmart is offering three-hour delivery for certain home goods and technology products in Mexico, as it battles Amazon in the major Latin American market, according to Reuters. The new service covers 12,000 items including laptops, cell phones, televisions and clothing irons and is supported by two new ecommerce fulfillment centers.
More than 6% of 508,000 FedEx and UPS parcels shipped by 100 small-to-medium-sized retailers between January and March 2019 were delayed, nearly 72% of them by a full day, according to a report from LateShipment.com. The numbers were worse for 3PLs: 7.6% of their UPS and FedEx parcel shipments arrived late.
Target has now expanded its Drive Up curbside pickup service to about 1,750 stores in all 50 states, a first in retail, two years after its launch as an insourced offering when a pilot failed with an outside provider. Just weeks ago,Target announced an expansion of the service to 1,500 stores in time for the busy back-to-school season.
Residents of a North Carolina town will be able to get meals delivered by drone as part of a limited test program sanctioned by the Federal Aviation Administration, as it takes baby steps toward broader approval of drone operations. Israeli drone service firm Flytrex is hoping the test program will expand to all kinds of deliveries, even to backyards.
Follow in the footsteps of other digitally native brands that have gone click to brick like Bonobos, Warby Parker, Framebridge and Tuft & Needle, Wayfair this week opened its first physical store in the Natick Mall in Natick, MA, outside its Boston headquarters. This trend shows that brands starting online acknowledge the power of the store.