Pitney Bowes is rolling out a new series of smart lockers that can be used either in office or apartment buildings, college campuses or retail stores that can be configured to use as parcel boxes for individuals to send and receive items, or for picking up ecommerce orders and processing returns.
With labor costs increasing, parcel shipping becoming more expensive and carriers struggling to support peak volumes, companies are implementing new strategies with micro fulfillment centers or MFCs. The concept is not new and they’re not for everyone, but it’s worth assessing how it might fit into your fulfillment network strategy.
Seven years after its launch, Amazon plans to discontinue the Prime Now app for fast delivery of grocery and other goods, folding it into its main Amazon app and website by the end of 2021, the company said. Amazon said the same level of same-day delivery service, in many cases two hours, will continue for Prime members.
Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s consumer business, was behind efforts to ask the U.S. Postal Service to install a special temporary ballot mailbox outside the company’s Bessemer, AL fulfillment center where a union vote was taking place, numerous outlets reported. The NLRB is hearing testimony as part of a union challenge to the vote.
While many retailers have seen record ecommerce sales in the pandemic era, the execution hasn’t always been pretty. That’s because many were caught with an omnichannel order management process that was less than optimized. This report will detail how you can create a more unified process across all channels.
The arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020 clearly had an enormous and unexpected impact on retail sales channels but the fundamental goal for merchants remained the same: Provide a great product and exceptional customer experience. So here we are, in the new ecommerce landscape. Here’s what you need to focus on to succeed.
Increasing demand for next-day and same-day delivery is forcing companies to adopt new strategies and restructure traditional methods to compete. How can you evolve from surviving to thriving in a disrupted economy? Intelligent fulfillment is one way, a multi-layered strategy powered by data and analytics.
Now that the challenges of the lockdown era are behind, and disruptions have solidified into new consumer behaviors and business practices, what’s next for ecommerce operations? In our annual MCM Outlook report, we talk to retail leaders and industry experts to drill down into how companies are faring and what’s working.
Capping a relationship going back three years, Panasonic will acquire supply chain software firm Blue Yonder, formerly JDA Software. It formally joins together Panasonic’s edge computing, sensor and IoT capabilities with Blue Yonder’s autonomous supply chain solution, solving complex logistics and fulfillment challenges.
Pickle, a startup that grew out of a lab at MIT and created a robotic arm that can unload up to 1,800 boxes an hour from a trailer, has raised $5.75 million to date and picked up 3PL and parcel shipping clients who have a need for speed. Dill can handle the 1,800 items per hour to a sorter, or 1,000 an hour directly to a putwall.