While there are some concerns about robots replacing humans and taking their jobs, with U.S. unemployment at about 3.6% ecommerce companies are struggling to find enough workers. Thus companies are seeing robotics as a way to close the gap and augment human labor instead of replacing it. Find out more in a new MCM report.
After robotics and automation, order management systems (OMS) and inventory management systems were the highest priority for tech investment in 2019, based on the MCM Outlook survey, noted by 12% of respondents each. The results also reflect rising customer expectations for ecommerce fulfillment: make it cheap and fast.
Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) remains very popular among Amazon sellers, with over 650,000 using it in the U.S., but it’s not the right solution for everyone. So how do you make that decision? Executives from Complemar, Motor City Distributing and Tech Armor discussed the pros and cons at this year’s Ecommerce Operations Summit.
Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Minnesota are planning to rain on the company’s Prime Day parade, organizing a walk-off to call attention to working conditions, employee status and pay, according to a report in Bloomberg. The workers plan to stage two three-hour walk-offs on different shifts on Monday, July 15.
To determine if your ecommerce fulfillment center is running as efficiently as possible, start with an operations audit or assessment, taking into account quantitative and qualitative aspects of all processes and systems. Here are 11 ways to reduce costs, make your operations run smoother and improve the customer experience.
Shooting across Amazon’s bow with its FBA program, Shopify is going all-in on ecommerce fulfillment, tapping 3PL partners to provide two-day delivery across the U.S. for merchants on its ecommerce platform, many with physical stores, while letting them keep customer data and a branded packaging experience.
Studies have shown that ecommerce backorders can cost you $15 to $20 each, eroding profits. This includes customer service calls, fulfillment labor, shipping and packing material costs. Also, backordered items often have a higher return rate. Here are 8 practical solutions to help you reduce ecommerce backorders and stockouts.
Packaging is the last touchpoint of an ecommerce order, and it’s also a branding vehicle that has to protect your product. Sustainability is another imperative, as tons of excess materials end up in landfills and customer perception is a concern. Learn what brands are doing and how innovation plays a role in sustainability efforts.
There are many opportunities to make your SCM more efficient, reduce costs and provide higher service levels to customers, including in sourcing, storage, fulfillment, distribution, IT and transportation. Here are four major ecommerce supply chain areas that you can streamline to reduce your overall fulfillment costs.
Ecommerce fulfillment robots are trending up. The entry point for ecommerce companies is now in the hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of multiple millions, and can be scaled up as needed. This report from MCM examines the players, the state of the art, advancing capabilities and results being seen by ecommerce companies.