Walmart and Target both announced plans Thursday to improve last-mile fulfillment and delivery from their stores, taking alternate routes via an investment in self-driving car project Cruise, and a new sortation facility powered by acquired technologies from Grand Junction and Deliv, respectively.
For any DTC brand, choosing a 3PL is a huge decision. Order fulfillment is your single biggest cost line item. More importantly, your fulfillment provider will be entrusted with all of your inventory. The consequences of a poor choice can be catastrophic, while those of a good choice could be life-changing. Here are 8 key things to look for.
In omnichannel and ecommerce companies, inventory management, including tracking and reserving inventory for orders, is crucial for maximizing sales and improving customer satisfaction. Here is a 6-step process for assessing your inventory systems and developing an action plan for improvement.
The union that was unsuccessful in its effort to organize workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Alabama immediately challenged the April 9 outcome as expected, claiming the ecommerce giant illegally interfered with the election. The complaint was filed with the NLRB, asking it to investigate Amazon’s tactics.
If the past year has taught us anything, it’s this: Retailers can no longer afford to view returns as a cost of doing business, but instead need to make it a key business strategy driving customer loyalty. Successful retailers are enhancing their returns policies and solutions to make returns a differentiator.
AxleHire, a last-mile solutions company powering delivery for HelloFresh, Deliverr, Freshly and Pet Food Express, has closed a $20M funding round aimed at increasing its sortation capabilities, expanding its network and moving more into general ecommerce. It also hopes to create a national network to compete with regional carriers.
The National Labor Relations Board has accused Amazon of illegally firing two tech workers last year who spoke out publicly about its treatment of fulfillment workers and its sustainability policies, and upheld a complaint by a worker who led a Queens, NY walkout in 2020. Amazon also apologized for a tweet attacking a political critic.
Boston Dynamics, creators of the viral dancing robots video just before New Year’s Eve, is making further inroads into the warehouse automation space with the unveiling this week of Stretch, a mobile robot purpose-built for unloading and palletizing and de-palletizing boxes. The company was acquired by Hyundai in December 2020.
3PLs and 4PLs have both seen an explosion in popularity and are now being used to ship all kinds of goods. Each offers big potential benefits for retailers to outsource major elements of their supply chain. Here are some of the main differences between them and pluses and minuses to help you decide which is right for your business.
Big data presents supply chain and ecommerce fulfillment center managers with an unprecedented opportunity to acquire real-time visibility of goods in transit and part of inventory. But this also comes with a set of challenges, not least of which is how to manage the resulting flow of information without becoming drowned in data.