A month after prohibiting third-party sellers from using FedEx Ground and FedEx Home for Prime orders due to alleged on-time performance issues, Amazon is now saying they’re back on the nice list. Amazon said the performance issues have been resolved to its satisfaction, allowing 3P sellers to use the services again.
It is the synthesis of things Amazon does so well that makes it seemingly invulnerable. To me, trying to beat Amazon on just logistics without a symbiotic combination of brand, merchandising, marketing, technology and a financial war chest is just pure, unadulterated sophistry. Is there such a thing as an effective anti-Amazon strategy?
Amazon is telling 3P sellers they can’t use FedEx Ground for Prime deliveries this holiday season, citing performance issues, according to the Wall Street Journal, saying the policy will remain until there are improvements. UPS and other carriers stand to benefit in the short term if they can find room in their networks.
An agile ecommerce supply chain is focused on speed, cost savings, productivity and responsiveness and flexibility to market demands. Supply chain management (SCM) exists to improve a company’s long-term performance. Here are 10 steps to help you improve your ecommerce supply chain agility and performance.
Maybe they should’ve stuck with “Walking in Memphis.” Several FedEx delivery robots, collectively dubbed Roxo, were seen prowling the streets of Manhattan recently, but instead of getting a red-carpet welcome they elicited some Bronx cheers, according to the New York Post. The city threatened to physically remove any it spotted.
Effective Dec. 29, UPS ground, air and international rates will increase by an average of 4.9%. Keep in mind that there is often a discrepancy between the announced increase and the effect on individual shippers. The team at Shipware provided a breakdown of some areas that will likely provide the most impact for merchant shippers.
In an effort to attract more business from SMB ecommerce shippers, UPS and FedEx continue to expand their competitive offerings in flat-rate shipping, offering more options, customization and economy. Such programs aren’t as economically attractive to large enterprise shippers with their volume-based discounts.
The USPS saw a slight increase in package volume for fiscal 2019, after its first quarterly decline in years during Q3, as the agency is being challenged by Amazon and FedEx rerouting packages to their own networks. Total mail and package volume declined by 3.8 billion pieces or 2.6%, and the net loss more than doubled to $8.8 billion.
The U.S. Postal Service is projecting it will handle 800 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, a drop from both 2018 and 2017. Sunday delivery will be expanded beginning Nov. 24 to high-volume urban locations, with projections of over 8 million package deliveries on Sundays in December.
For many years, UPS and FedEx were in virtual lockstep on pricing and service offerings. That is until the past couple years, when they’ve begun to diverge as they seek to differentiate and carve out different market strategies. Mark Taylor of enVista discusses these changes as part of an MCM CommerceChat podcast.