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Solving for Oversized Fulfillment in Ecommerce

| Mike O'Brien

Oversized fulfillment for ecommerce remains a black hole for many. Pickup/delivery schedules, assembly and costs all friction factors. How do you find more efficiency by reducing costs and what are the customer expectations? Retail executives discuss the issue in our inaugural Think Tank Forum, “Solving for Oversized Fulfillment.”

AWS Outage Plays Havoc, Delays Peak Deliveries

| Mike O'Brien

An hours-long outage from Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused all manner of global havoc on Tuesday, shutting down government and private websites, robotic vacuums and popular streaming services as well as idling Amazon facilities as networks and apps went dark and operations ground to a halt.

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DoorDash Promises 10-15-Minute Delivery in NYC

| Mike O'Brien

Utilizing a team of employees vs. its bread-and-butter gig workers, DoorDash is rolling out 10-15-minute delivery of 2,000 grocery and essential items in New York from a DashMart store in the Chelsea neighborhood, the company said. Main rival Instacart is also working on a 15-minute delivery service, according to reports.

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Amazon Union Push Gets New Vote in Alabama

| Mike O'Brien

The National Labor Relations Board has ordered a new election to determine if Amazon fulfillment center workers in Bessemer, AL can organize as members of a union for collective bargaining, which would be a first in the United States and set off a warehouse labor chain reaction.

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Walmart Launches Multi-Site Drone Delivery in Arkansas

| Mike O'Brien

Just in time for the holidays, Walmart on Monday went live with drone delivery from one of three stores near its headquarters in Bentonville, AR, via partner and investment recipient DroneUp, with service running from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, and deliveries coming in 30 minutes or less.

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Startup Via.Delivery Brings BOPIS to SMBs in the U.S.

| Mike O'Brien

Via.Delivery, a startup platform offering the power of buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) to smaller retail and ecommerce businesses, has expanded beyond its Russian roots with a launch here that features 21,000+ pickup locations at pharmacies, convenience marts and grocery stores.

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Holiday Shopping Uncertainty Leads to Ecommerce Innovation

| Jamie Saucedo

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.

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Human Warehouse Picking Still Has It All Over Robots

| Gabe Grifoni

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.

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DeJoy May Be Gone Soon With New Nominations

| Mike O'Brien

President Biden is close to getting Louis DeJoy removed as Postmaster General, which would end a rocky 18-month tenure for the Trump appointee and would-be reformer who, it was frequently noted, was a major donor to the campaign of the former president and 2020 RNC finance chair.

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Amazon Workers in Staten Island Withdraw Union Petition

| Mike O'Brien

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.