With the anticipation of lower foot traffic in stores coupled with inventory concerns, prioritizing your ecommerce channel from a planning perspective, even at the intentional detriment of having lower stock levels in stores, may save sales during this peak holiday shopping period. And omnichannel is no longer an option.
It’s often joked that robots will soon replace humans, down to the most menial, everyday tasks. But many robotics companies are in an actual arms race to replace human labor, particularly in the supply chain. Yet it’s often still too costly to implement, leaving humans as the most efficient, effective method for warehouse picking.
Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island, NY have withdrawn their petition to form a union, two weeks before a meeting before the National Labor Relations Board to determine if sufficient interest existed to proceed with unionization, the NLRB told the Associated Press.
Amazon Air this week has begun operations at Des Moines International Airport, helping to expand same-day delivery for Prime members in the Hawkeye State as its cargo operations continue to spiderweb across the country, increasing Amazon’s independence from traditional air freight carriers.
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.
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.