Urban fulfillment Gently EV feature

Urban Fulfillment Disruption is Gently’s Goal

| Mike O'Brien

Gently hopes to become a disrupter of urban fulfillment and major retailers with multi-billion-dollar networks, offering a same-day, nano fulfillment model using small nodes located around a city, tapping a predictive analytics engine to stock and position inventory in anticipation of demand.

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What Retailers and CPG Companies Can Learn from Each Other

| Lindsey Peters

Retailers and CPG companies have had a symbiotic relationship for decades, teaming up to offer customers more choice in convenient in-person and ecommerce storefronts. As both take on each other’s challenges, they must learn from the other’s processes and best practices to sustain new revenue streams in the long term based on evolving consumer behaviors, preferences and spending habits. 

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Real-Time Shipping Visibility, Thanks to Predictive Analytics

| Christina Ryan

It’s difficult to fully approximate the time a package will take to arrive when shipping is subject to a multitude of factors outside our control. These variables can include extreme weather, driver shortages, holidays and even customs discrepancies. What if you could know beforehand based on previous patterns, and implement this into the shipping estimate given to the customer? Read on to find out how.

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Call Center Security Equals Customer Satisfaction

| Mishel Mejibovski

Effective customer data management is par for the course in the call center, so data protection is critical. Unfortunately, traditional browsers often lack necessary security controls, leaving data significantly vulnerable to cyber threats. You need a solution that not only provides necessary security controls but also enhances the UX while streamlining processes to increase productivity and efficiency.

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Automating the Customer Experience

| Julian Krenge

For retailers and ecommerce brands, interacting with customers and leaving a good impression is not only a never-ending task, but incredibly important for sustained growth. This is why brands should make it a priority to take advantage of automated tools that save time, reduce the need for customer service agents and provide a consistently seamless customer experience while shopping.

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Ecommerce Packaging Waste: The Issue and What’s Being Done

| Mike O'Brien

No one questions the fact that ecommerce packaging waste is a major problem, clogging the planet with yet more plastic and cardboard. The twofold question then becomes, what is being done about it, and what more can be done? This Multichannel Merchant special feature discusses the scope of the issue, and steps that are being taken by retailers, suppliers and governments to reduce the amount of waste.

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Looking at Ecommerce Returns in a New Light

| Mike O'Brien

While ecommerce returns continue to soar and cost retailers both in terms of actual dollars and the bad customer experience, there are practical ways to reduce the rate, make the process more efficient and leverage the customer opportunity, attendees were told at the NRF 2023 Big Show in New York.

Macy’s Converts 35 Stores to Mini FCs

| Mike O'Brien

Ahead of peak season, Macy’s converted 35 stores into mini fulfillment centers, creating about 1 million square feet of space to handle online orders, lowering costs, speeding up delivery times and reducing the incidence of painful split shipments, executives said on a recent earnings call.

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Cyber Week, Here We Come

| Mike O'Brien

Sales expectations are somewhat muted based on a welter of surveys and experts, as well as most retail earnings, but Cyber Week is still kind of a big deal, extended season and early deals notwithstanding. There are, of course, no lack of consumer jitters due to nagging inflation, with study after study indicating some degree of hesitancy.