The U.S. Post Office suffered most in terms of on-time performance and complaints this peak holiday season, experts agreed, with FedEx also having issues but not to the same extent and UPS doing better. Carriers of all stripes were buried by a cataclysmic holiday package deluge from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
Dark stores, even as a temporarily approach, can help offset the cost of underperforming stores and the expense of freight and logistics, especially in more densely populated areas. It also takes online fulfillment out of store operations, allowing retailers to concentrate on customer service and minimizing inventory confusion.
After the explosion in holiday ecommerce, comes the flood of holiday returns, expected to cost retailers $1.1 billion, twice what it did in 2020, according to data from Narvar. goTRG and Returnly both said Dec. 26 was the peak day for consumers to initiate returns. UPS traditionally lists Jan. 2 as peak returns day for transit of returns.
It is not farfetched to say that the success of any ecommerce fulfillment operation will come down to human resources and how well they are managed. Here are some of the benefits improved workforce management, even after the pandemic is behind us, can deliver to your ecommerce business.
The pandemic has accelerated customer experience and convenience trends that were previously gaining momentum. Now, some of those trends have become essential for businesses to offer safe shopping experiences. To know which ones are worth investing in, recognize which are fads and which will prevail long past next year.
UPS has extended shipping surcharges into 2021, with some similarities and some differences FedEx. Most notable was a steeper price drop for the surcharge on UPS’s SurePost last-mile service, used by many smaller ecommerce shippers, as FedEx may be covering the cost of shifting volume from the USPS into its own ground network.
Passport, a provider of international parcel shipping services, has raised $12 million in a Series A round to build out its parcel supply chain network for ecommerce and DTC brands. Funding for the round was secured by M13 and included participation from Resolute Ventures, Precursor, Kleiner Perkins, RiverPark and Republic.
Beyond the holiday rush, multichannel retailers can’t afford to be short-sighted, ignoring the paradigm shift in consumer purchasing behavior that will extend long after the pandemic is over. If they aren’t looking at long-term investments to create hybrid customer experiences, they will soon find themselves way behind the pack.
Multichannel Merchant has published its sixth annual MCM Top 3PL listing for 2021, a searchable directory of leading third-party logistics (3PL) providers in ecommerce and direct-to-customer operations. Each of the 60+ profiles includes data on key capabilities, top merchandise categories, facilities, B2B/B2C split and more.
FedEx announced this week it is extending peak surcharges beyond the holiday season, while lowering them from higher holiday levels, citing the expectation of ongoing heavy volume and associated costs, although some observers question that rationale amid strong financial results. UPS is expected to follow its duopoly partner.