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Looking at Ecommerce Returns in a New Light

| Mike O'Brien

While ecommerce returns continue to soar and cost retailers both in terms of actual dollars and the bad customer experience, there are practical ways to reduce the rate, make the process more efficient and leverage the customer opportunity, attendees were told at the NRF 2023 Big Show in New York.

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WMS KPIs: Data, Measurement Optimize Performance

| Erhan Musaoglu

How are you leveraging your WMS KPIs? The answer can dictate your level of success in ecommerce and direct-to-consumer (DTC) fulfillment operations performance. The post-holiday peak period is the right time to assess your data and KPIs to help you measure performance and the bottom-line impact of process changes.

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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.

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Ecommerce Headwinds A-Blowing, Are You Ready?

| Frank Garcia

In 2023, brand success means streamlining shipping and fulfillment, in tandem with expanding omnichannel availability, to reach and delight shoppers. You need to be “omnipresent,” looking to the future and planning ahead while staying connected and delivering satisfying experiences to customers across all touchpoints.

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Amazon, UPS In Full-On Labor Battles

| Mike O'Brien

Amazon lost another skirmish in its ongoing multi-front labor war, as a federal regulator ruled Wednesday against its petition to have a successful union vote in Staten Island, NY vacated. At the same time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is heating up rhetoric ahead of the expiration of its contract with UPS on July 31.

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UPS Will Not Sunset Residential Peak Surcharges

| Mike O'Brien

UPS for the first time is extending its peak surcharges for residential delivery beyond the usual mid-January cutoff, referring to them as by the new designation of “demand surcharges” which will be in place until further notice, while FedEx is not following suit but letting them lapse.

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Supply Chain Jobs: Why Zoomers, Millennials Don’t Love Them

| Gabe Grifoni

Ask a millennial (the generation born between 1981 and 1997) or Gen Z (born between 1997-2015) to name his or her top 5 exciting and rewarding careers, and there is a strong chance that a supply chain professional isn’t going to be on that list. Here’s how to overcome this recruitment roadblock and attract the next generation of talent.

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3PL Sector Sees Some Consolidation

| Mike O'Brien

If any sector was ever ripe for consolidation, it’s third-party logistics (3PL), with literally thousands of companies plying their trade, looking to help retail shippers outsource fulfillment, storage, shipping and other operational aspects. Well, 2022 got us at least part of the way there. Here are some of the deals that got done.

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The Supply Chain Continues to Be the Story

| Mike O'Brien

In 2020, every consumer who had been the beneficiary of a mysterious apparatus called the supply chain to magically whisk goods to their door suddenly became aware it existed. In 2022, supply chain doings still dominated headlines as shippers, carriers and suppliers continued to grapple with myriad issues.

Supply Chain, Sustainability Tools: Working in Tandem

| John Rattay

Shippers know they must prioritize sustainability to remain competitive and align with customer demands. They also know that they must leverage technology to measure their company’s supply chain carbon impacts accurately and set attainable sustainability goals. To solve this, they need to break out of traditional ways of doing things.