Fearing possible encroachment from Amazon into prescription delivery, CVS will begin offering next-day delivery of both prescriptions and other retail items in major cities in 2018, and same-day service in Manhattan beginning Dec. 4.
Just ahead of the holidays, the U.S. Postal Service is testing a new program that offers major retailers Sunday delivery for orders placed on Saturday, a service mostly involving Amazon shipments until now.
Right on the heels of Walmart’s September announcement of an in-home grocery delivery service being tested in New York City, Amazon has come out with its own offering allowing drivers to enter homes and drop off items under the watchful eye of a new Amazon smart connected camera – all tied to Alexa.
FedEx announced it has acquired inventory management provider Northwest Research, adding technology to help with its ecommerce fulfillment capabilities. The companies said Northwest will provide “new approaches to inventory management issues, including specialized research to maximize successful outcomes for challenging shipments.”
Jeff Bezos and the innovation teams at Amazon seem to have cornered the market on far-out ideas that push the envelope for ecommerce distribution, from delivery drones to blimp warehouses to even an undersea DC. That is, until Elon Musk and his hardy band of rocketeers at SpaceX came along and shot the moon – or Mars.
An executive with bpost cross-border unit Landmark Global said it will be able to help customers of new sister company Radial expand into markets in Europe and Asia, while Radial can provide a range of value-added ecommerce and omnichannel services for bpost’s customers in those same markets.
Target is significantly expanding its partnership with Google, offering customers voice-directed ordering through a Google Home device or an Android TV – and two-day delivery nationwide via Google Express. The company will also soon offer voice ordering through Android phones and iPhones.
Ahead of the holiday season, FedEx has expanded same-day delivery service to 1,800 cities in 30 regional markets through its FedEx Office division. The deliveries are made by uniformed FedEx drivers in branded vehicles, and the service includes a mobile app to track delivery status including alerts on estimated arrival time.
Once again raising the specter of cutting out more business to UPS and FedEx, Amazon is reportedly testing a program that involves making local deliveries from the warehouses of retailers selling on its marketplace. See what the move entails, and what else Amazon has been doing to beef up its logistics and delivery capabilities.
Fulfilling a recent promise from its U.S. ecommerce head Marc Lore, Walmart has acquired courier service Parcel to provide same-day delivery of fresh and frozen groceries and online merchandise orders to Walmart and Jet.com customers in New York.