With his well-tweeted animosity toward Amazon and Jeff Bezos as a backdrop, President Trump has twice pushed Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the U.S. Postal Service charges the ecommerce giant and other major shippers, the Washington Post has reported.
As merchants search for ways to contend with the behemoth of Amazon – which accounted for about half of ecommerce sales in 2017 – many are focusing on the last mile, returns and outsourcing to battle back. This MCM Outlook report, based on our annual survey of Multichannel Merchant readers, looks at trends and stats in all three areas.
Once again Amazon is in the news about logistics and the potential for encroachment on territory owned by UPS and FedEx, both of which have Amazon as a major client, the next iteration of what began as Amazon Seller Flex last fall.
President Trump has taken a break from favorite targets like Little Rocket Man to turn his Twitter fire and ire on the U.S. Postal Service, blasting the agency for not charging enough on parcel delivery, in particular singling out major client Amazon, as the USPS continues to hemorrhage cash.
The U.S. Postal Service’s Parcel Select service bested UPS and FedEx in terms of on-time delivery for the week of Dec. 2-9, according to data from ShipMatrix, hitting the mark 99% of the time, while FedEx Ground was second at 97.1% and UPS trailed at 91.5%.
While two-thirds of small-to-medium-sized ecommerce companies offer free shipping, only 3% of them are offering same-day or next-day shipping, as the economics don’t work for smaller online merchants, according to a new survey by Shippo.
Relocating your fulfillment operations is disruptive and can be challenging for employees even in the most organized businesses. Developing plans that all stakeholders collaborate on and buy into will help you minimize lost employee time and remain focused.
Effective Dec. 24 (yes, you read that correctly), rates for UPS Ground, UPS Air and International services as well as UPS Air Freight rates within and between the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico will increase an average of 4.9%. Here’s an analysis of UPS’s changes and the impact they will have on parcel shippers.
The U.S. Postal Service, as it has for years, reported an overall loss in the second quarter due to declining mail volume and ongoing pension obligations, while its parcel delivery business continues to grow by double digits. See what else came out of the results, and how moves by major carriers may affect its parcel business.
ShipRush offers a midmarket web tool that gives merchants a real-time view of parcel rates across multiple carriers, including UPS, FedEx and the USPS. See what it features and what competitors offer.