Amazon’s decision to limit new inventory for Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) to essential items through April 5 due to the coronavirus situation is severely impacting sellers heavily reliant on FBA, forcing some out of business while others scramble to move product or find fulfillment partners.
With the rapid escalation of the coronavirus situation in recent weeks, and in consideration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most current recommendations, Ecommerce Operations Summit 2020 is being postponed until later this year at a date to be determined. Stay tuned for more details.
Amazon has temporarily suspended fulfillment of non-essential items through FBA through April 5, due to high coronavirus-related demand. Meanwhile, retail and DTC brands are closing their doors, while UPS assures customers their deliveries are safe, and major e-grocery delivery app downloads are setting records daily.
Carol Tomé, who has been CFO of Home Depot for 18 years and helped manage its strong growth, will be the new CEO of UPS. She succeeds David Abney, who will stay on as executive chairman until retiring from the board in September and acting as a transitional consultant through the end of 2020.
Midwest grocery chain Hy-Vee is moving fulfillment of online orders from a network of four fulfillment centers back to its retail stores. The facilities, in Eagan, MN, Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE and Kansas City, MO, will be closed later this month. The network and logistics made same-day fulfillment difficult, executives said.
Following the playbook of developing innovative tech then selling it, Amazon is offering retailers its cashierless checkout capability from Amazon Go stores. Amazon said Just Walk Out is already under contract to several retailers it wouldn’t name. OTG, with hundreds of CIBO stores at 10 major U.S. airports, will soon be using it.
Panic buying continues to cause empty grocery shelves due to the coronavirus panic, with heavier clusters in affected states as grocery retailers are starting to ration supplies. Same-day delivery providers Instacart and Postmates have expanded a “leave it at my door” option as more spooked shoppers opt for no physical contact.
A strong economy is good for business, but it strains your ability to find and retain quality candidates. In the retail and ecommerce fulfillment sector, employers are facing ever-growing demand and labor shortages. Now is the time to implement proactive strategies for finding qualified talent and optimizing resources.
Considering all the challenges facing today’s ecommerce fulfillment center operations, how should you go about conducting an assessment, and what are the objectives? Here are 12 key aspects of a complete ecommerce fulfillment center assessment that will help make your operations more productive and efficient.
This was a busy M&A week among operations and fulfillment vendors. FOG Software Group acquired shipping software firm ProShip from Quadient; Hy Tek Material Handling acquired Johnson Stevens Consulting; Dematic acquired Digital Applications International Ltd; and Aptean acquired TMS firm Paragon Software Systems.