As ecommerce sales ramp up, especially heading into the holidays, merchants face growing pressure to deliver the perfect order. To meet customer expectations, you need to get the right product to the right customer at the right place and the right time. To do so, you need to establish meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs).
The harsh truth is that this holiday season will be a true test for retailers and brands – can they meet demand while exceeding high customer expectations? Those that can’t quickly adapt will lose out to fierce competition. Technology can help them scale up and optimize their fulfillment and delivery to win the 2020 holidays.
A massive shift to ecommerce has already created peak-like conditions for shippers and carriers in 2020. Now comes the actual holiday season, a huge unknown but still expected to generate staggering volumes. This report taps ecommerce logistics experts who discuss the extraordinary challenges facing shippers this Q4.
Freight carrier and brokerage provider C.H. Robinson has introduced a new tool that lets shippers more efficiently procure freight by using data analysis to best determine when to contract and when to make spot market purchases in an increasingly volatile and disrupted trucking industry.
eBay has struck a deal with UPS to provide its sellers with discounted shipping, after telling them last month it was aware of service delays with primary carrier the U.S. Postal Service and complaints from sellers. The major marketplace said the discounts would be available to all of its sellers by the end of September.
Like UPS before it, FedEx reported a blowout first quarter fueled by pandemic-era ecommerce demand, with revenue and profits exceeding estimates and average daily volume in its ground parcel network increasing by 31%. Executives said they are ready for a massive peak holiday season with personnel, facilities and technology.
FedEx announced its 2021 rate schedule, once again with a 4.9% increase for its ground, express and home delivery services, lower than some observers had expected, and the addition of a late fee for unpaid invoices, which UPS has had in place for years. FedEx is also adding surcharges for high cost and out-of-the-way areas.
Amazon is warning ecommerce shippers using Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) that late shipments to an FBA facility on the part of their carrier could result in suspension of their FBA shipping privileges, even if the shippers themselves aren’t responsible for the delays. The new policy went into effect on Aug. 25, 2020.
The monumental shift to ecommerce is causing businesses to re-evaluate their fulfillment experience to make sure they get it right. At the heart of that process is understanding how to improve the status quo by putting the customer relationship front and center. The stakes are high, but those who get it right will see substantial growth.
Amazon has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate its delivery drones beyond visual line of sight of the pilot, removing a key roadblock to its eventual goal of deploying aerial fulfillment for Prime customers in less than a half hour.