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Fulfillment Operations: Scaling Starts with Strong Systems

| Brian Mattingly

Scaling for growth and business fluctuations are expected to be a primary focus for retailers and brands this year, and has a major impact on fulfillment operations. Before you get ahead of your skis on automation and robotics, here are some basics on doing a needs assessment and a system check to align investments with business needs.

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Walmart, Salesforce Team Up on Fulfillment Services

| Mike O'Brien

Drawing parallels with Amazon’s expansion of Buy With Prime to all U.S. merchants — do they each have moles in the other’s operation? — Walmart and Salesforce have linked up to provide the former’s delivery and fulfillment services to a wider swath of merchants in the latter’s app store.

Amazon air plane

Amazon Leasing Air Cargo Space, Delivering by Drone

| Mike O'Brien

Amazon, facing a continued slowdown in its ecommerce business and under pressure to boost flagging sales, is looking to sell excess capacity on its commercial cargo jetliners used to move goods among its network of warehouses here and in Europe. Meanwhile, both Amazon and Walmart announced multi-state drone delivery.

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FedEx Q2 Again Hit by Softer Volume

| Mike O'Brien

FedEx experienced another challenging quarter, with lower volumes impacting the top and bottom line, especially in the Express segment, and the company announced further moves to rein in costs and trim operations, including grounding more flights and dialing back capital spending.

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USPS, Under Pressure, Upgrades EV Plan

| Mike O'Brien

The U.S. Postal Service today announced a major upgrade to its planned rollout of electric vehicles to replace its aging delivery fleet, saying the USPS will purchase only EVs after 2026, as the agency bows to significant pressure from Washington and the states to expand and speed up its changeover.

Macy’s Converts 35 Stores to Mini FCs

| Mike O'Brien

Ahead of peak season, Macy’s converted 35 stores into mini fulfillment centers, creating about 1 million square feet of space to handle online orders, lowering costs, speeding up delivery times and reducing the incidence of painful split shipments, executives said on a recent earnings call.

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OneRail Raises $33 Million, Looks to Expand to SMB

| Mike O'Brien

OneRail, an Orlando-based startup with software that optimizes last-mile deliveries, has raised $33 million in a Series B round to further develop its platform and bring in new talent to fuel its growth, with plans to launch an extension for SMBs on Shopify in 2023.

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Using Customer Delivery Personas as a Growth Tool

| Chris Jones

How do you create a positive delivery experience that offers consumers the choice they crave, translating your last mile delivery process into repeat purchases and brand loyalty? Retailers in the know are focusing on delivery segmentation to differentiate themselves, crafting customer delivery personas to inform their last mile deliveries.

USPS old mailboxes

USPS Sees Revenue Gain, Net Loss, Parcel Drop

| Mike O'Brien

The U.S. Postal Service reported a revenue gain for the year but an income loss, while parcel volume continued to drop relative to the 2021 pandemic surge, as the USPS like other shippers has experienced a slowdown in ecommerce-related business due to challenging economic conditions.

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1MRobotics Focuses on Nano Fulfillment

| Mike O'Brien

Israeli startup 1MRobotics, just 18 months old, is leapfrogging micro fulfillment to nano fulfillment, using automated robotic systems within containers that can be dropped in suburban locations or fit into an urban building, fulfilling orders in lights-out fashion for delivery in as little as 15 minutes.