
Order Fulfillment

The retail industry is a marathon, not a sprint. While retailers and brands can’t risk falling behind their competitors in the short term, they also must plan for the long haul. To achieve this, investments must be made in areas that improve customer retention and conversion and reduce operational costs over the long term. However,…
Walmart opened a high-tech market fulfillment center in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas on Monday, underlining its strategic move toward expanding the use of its stores as fulfillment centers. Located inside Store 100, the center is powered by a proprietary storage and retrieval system named Alphabot. According to Walmart, the new market fulfillment centers will…
Amazon.com is offering some customers an incentive to pick up their orders in-store rather than have it delivered to a home address as shipping costs soar, Reuters first reported Monday. The e-commerce giant sent emails to a number of Amazon Prime subscribers promising them $10 if they picked up any of their orders worth at…
Like their customers, brands want to shop for the best deals, too. And when it comes to picking a peak season partner, the time to shop is now. Even though the holiday shopping season is months away, decisions you make now can impact whether you have a successful peak season in 2023. Traditionally, peak season refers to popular…
E-commerce and brick-and-mortar retailers are caught in a vortex of clamor about inflation, a potential economic downturn, and what some expect to be a shopping slowdown. At the same time, research shows there’s reason to be hopeful. Even if shoppers pump the brakes on spending, retail sales are still likely to increase some 4 percent…
For online retailers, the last mile is a critical element to the customer’s overall brand experience, covering the entire spectrum from website browsing to purchasing a product and, finally, to receiving a delivery. While the last mile is critically important to the customer’s brand experience, it contributes an estimated 53 percent to the total shipping…
Amazon.com is reportedly expanding ultrafast delivery options and devoting more resources to facilities and services structured to deliver packages to customers in less than a day, according to a Feb. 26 report in The Wall Street Journal. The expansions are happening at a crucial point for Amazon, which faces competition for fast delivery options while CEO Andy…
Target announced this week that it will spend $100 million to build a larger network of supply chain hubs to speed up and lower the cost of delivering online orders. The retailer plans to have at least 15 of the facilities, dubbed sortation centers, by the end of January 2026. It already has opened nine…
E-commerce is fast becoming the lifeblood of the retail economy. In 2021, the e-commerce industry generated $5.2 trillion worldwide, with a 56 percent increase expected by 2026. With statistics like these, it's no surprise that e-commerce has become a driving force for businesses of all sizes. However, serious blind spots threaten that profitability. Entering the next…
Amidst skyrocketing digital advertising costs and uncertain macroeconomic conditions, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands that once relied primarily on social advertising to drive customer acquisition are now seeking new ways to reach consumers. Companies like cosmetics maker Jones Road Beauty are shifting ad spend from early DTC mainstays Facebook and Instagram to platforms like TikTok that drive…