FedEx Program Expands Pickup Times to Enable Next-Day Delivery

| Mike O'Brien

FedEx has created a new program to address demand for faster fulfillment of online orders by offering later pickup. Extra Hours lets retailers expand their pickup cutoff by up to eight hours to more easily offer next-day local delivery or two-day delivery anywhere in the continental U.S. via FedEx Express.

Most Retailers Delivered on Time This Christmas, Clearing a Lowered Bar

| Mike O'Brien

Retailers lowered the bar for Christmas season fulfillment, then easily cleared it, according to Kurt Salmon. Ninety-three percent of retailers tracked were able to process and deliver customer orders by the last guaranteed delivery date. But 33% of them ditched their last order promise date as Christmas approached.

Kroger Finds Its Voice … Ordering

| Mike O'Brien

Grocery giant Kroger is adding voice ordering to its online arsenal, interestingly hitching its wagon to the Google Assistant voice app and not to Amazon’s Echo, at six of its associated brands, the company announced. See what else Kroger is up to as well as other tech skirmishes in the escalating online grocery wars.

Best Buy Ecommerce Revenue up 10.1% in Q2, Now 15% of Sales

| Mike O'Brien

Best Buy reported strong topline, earnings and comp growth in the second quarter as its omnichannel focus, ecommerce sales and categories like appliances continued to be bright spots. See what executives had to say about the Q2 results and what the company is doing to improve the customer experience.

Half of U.S. Consumers Visiting Amazon During Prime Day Experienced Issues

| Mike O'Brien

A survey by JDA Software found that more than half of U.S. consumers – 52% – ran into technical difficulties during Prime Day. Of that group, 27% either gave up without making a purchase or bought less than they had planned. Amazon is also facing allegations of raising prices on some products, with the FTC looking into it.

Is Physical Retail in Vogue Again?

| Roei Livneh

As the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same. This is certainly true about today’s retail landscape. As ecommerce has certainly changed the way people are shopping, what the industry is finding is that more and more ecommerce retailers are looking to physical locations. Here is a look at how much retail is evolving and what the future holds.