ALL IN THE FAMILY

| Steve Harris

When the holiday season draws near, magazines dispense healthy doses of advice on how to survive family gatherings. Clearly, these are hugely stressful

Postal Power

| Bill Kuipers

The total freight is often as much as 40% lower than UPS ground Despite an impressive performance in recent years, few direct-to-customer shippers view

Keep IT Happy

| David Pluviose

When it comes to top talent, finders aren’t always keepers. A report by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young titled Retail I.T. 2000 gauges how much priority companies

FORBIDDEN CITY

| Dave Eckley

In traditional direct marketing, the statement You will receive your order in seven to ten business days actually meant something to both the cataloger

Crossing the Bar

| Timothy Van Mieghem

Inspect process, not production, with overseas suppliers Preparing for an international audience through an appreciation of their culture and methods

talking heads

| MCM staff

Everybody’s going to go wireless. Wires are expensive, and so are the infrastructure, the support personnel, and the office space. Wireless technology

Ahead of the Game

| Barbara Arnn

As stories and jokes about failed dot-coms proliferate, it begins to seem that they are all here today, gone tomorrow. But e-commerce and multi-channel

*Hot Properties

| MCM staff

With a reasonably constructed ten-year lease, a fulfillment operation can expect to attain an equity-underwritten rate of three dollars a square foot

Joining Forces

| Lew Waddey

Companies have to keep the main thing the main thing Direct-to-customer retailers choose to outsource because of the third-party fulfillment industry’s