2006 Benchmark Report INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

| Mark Del Franco

Here’s an encouraging statistic from Multichannel Merchant’s 2006 Information Technology Systems Benchmark Report: More than 70% of respondents said that

TALES FROM THE FRONT

| MCM staff

Wisteria gets wistful A Multichannel Merchant staffer in late July ordered a blue bedding set from the Wisteria Website as part of the Dallas-based home

Getting down to business

| MCM staff

As the vice president of logistics for Milwaukee-based multititle business mailer K+K America, Chuck Mathe oversees four distribution centers: In addition

TIDBITS

| MCM staff

Nordstrom expands Cedar Rapids DC Nordstrom plans to expand its Cedar Rapids, IA, fulfillment and contact centers, which coincides with the Seattle-based

Winterthur puts gifts book on hold

| Jim Tierney

Due to a steady decline in sales, the Winterthur Museum has suspended its gifts catalog indefinitely. The Winterthur, DE-based organization, which is

Coping with the seasonal crunch

| MCM staff

By now, many of you are beginning to get the first waves of holiday orders. Are you as well prepared as you think you are? It’s not too late to make a

Working for Scale

| Kate Vitasek

It is a long-held belief among warehousing professionals that highly automated distribution centers are more challenging to modify in response to changes

Paper prices holding for now

| Jim Tierney

With the fall mailing season under way, paper prices appear to be holding steady a relief for catalogers after a series of increases earlier this year.

7 tips for shopping for a shipping consolidator

| Mark Del Franco

Direct marketers have long relied on shipping consolidators to help them get their packages farther down in the U.S. Postal Service mail stream so that

Securing Global Supply Chains: Seven Reasons Why “Getting It Done” Is So Hard

| MCM staff

We all know that a company’s global supply chain is a potent strategic weapon, economically speaking. Unfortunately, it can also be a potentially fatal area of vulnerability. Consider the hundreds of millions of shipping containers that move among the world’s seaports–about 80% of the world’s cargo, which adds up to 5.8 billion tons per year–and you can see that there is a lot of room for error.