While the USPS gets tossed around like a political football and threatens insolvency without more federal aid, the agency continues to report poor results as already lower mail rates have fallen through the floor due to coronavirus. Meantime, Trump ally, donor and fundraiser Louis DeJoy will be the new Postmaster General.
Parcels are small, but have a big bottom-line impact for subscription box businesses. Whether you’re sending curated boxes, doing replenishment or ecommerce orders, shipping puts pressure on limited transportation budgets. If cost are getting proportionately higher, it’s time to reevaluate your parcel management approach.
Israeli drone startup Flytrex has begun a pilot program making backyard deliveries from a Walmart in Grand Forks, ND to about a dozen nearby homes, looking to expand the program to further-out properties there in the months ahead while keeping to current FAA restrictions to line-of-sight piloting.
Amidst the massive pivot to online during the coronavirus crisis, providers of last mile delivery services are seeing huge growth in demand from various kinds of merchants, as house-bound consumers are ordering away for both essential and nonessential items. Demand is coming from a variety of sources, including stores, SMBs and CPGs.
The USPS is asking Congress for $75B to avoid a liquidity crisis this fall, including $25 billion each for a cash infusion, for upgrades and modernization and for unrestricted borrowing authority, according to Government Executive. The USPS had already been in a bad position before the crisis, with even parcel growth falling off.
Amazon plans to halt its Amazon Shipping service that competes directly with FedEx and UPS, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, diverting workers to over-maxed fulfillment operations for its own business. Amazon Shipping is only active in a few cities. The company is working with shippers to limit the amount of disruption.
What will the world of ecommerce operations and fulfillment look like after World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic ends? The answer, like predictions of that date, is uncertain. But industry experts firmly believe that the seismic shifts that began in February 2020 will create a new normal in ecommerce operations.
Reality as we know it has been interrupted. Our entire lives have been put on hold. And it’s not a great feeling. How has this impacted you? While you’re working from home, carve out a quick minute to answer this Multichannel Merchant survey: https://bit.ly/341qzM4 and share the effect COVID-19 has had on your business.
If nothing else, bad actors perpetrating ecommerce transaction fraud are clever opportunists, and a crisis like the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is proving a perfect opportunity for them to prey upon unsuspecting sellers and consumers, experts agree. The rise of contactless deliveries and working from home are among the entry points.
The impacts of the coronavirus spread are being felt everywhere across retail and ecommerce, with first stores and now ecommerce operations shut down to comply with government orders, and warehouse workers and drivers testing positive, forcing facilities to close so they can be scrubbed and restarted.