Order Fulfillment

In episode 40 of Total Retail Talks, Marshal Downey, director of direct marketing at Build.com, discusses how an intelligent fulfillment platform is helping the online home improvement retailer better meet the demands of its customers for a seamless, fast delivery experience.

If you were hoping that Target’s curbside pickup would eventually reach your city, your hopes are for naught. Target tells Consumerist the pilot program will be discontinued effective June 15. After Consumerist received word that the program — which kicked off in October 2014 with partner Curbside, and was being tested in 121 stores in the…

The first thing online clothing reseller ThredUp did after clinching a new round of funding last year? Hunt for strategic warehouse space to get the goods to its customers as fast as possible. Amazon.com has spoiled them for anything less. Within six months, ThredUp's chief executive officer, James Reinhart, had signed leases on two additional warehouses.

Wal-Mart sure is trying to be more like rival Amazon.com in an effort to to improve its weak sales trends. The world's largest retailer is testing a two-day shipping subscription service called ShoppingPass that mirrors Amazon's successful Prime service, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Members to ShoppingPass reportedly will get free, two-day…

We’ve all been there — going online to see if a specific piece of merchandise is currently available at a particular retail store, before taking the time to drive to said store or calling the store directly. If the online site shows that a product isn't currently available at that store (or the store location…

There's no arguing that the convenience of click-and-collect has become one of the retail industry’s biggest trends of the last few years. In 2015, 32 percent of holiday shoppers used a click-and-collect service, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. That percentage will almost certainly increase this year. Delivery and collection are core to…

When San Francisco resident Catherine Lelong recently received a delivery from Sam’s Club, she was confused: She didn’t remember having placed an order with the membership club. She was right. Lelong hadn’t placed an order from Sam’s Club, but she eventually realized that the bottle of detergent inside the box was something she had recently ordered…

Before the rise of e-commerce, the intricacies of a complex global supply chain were mostly hidden from the consumer. Products appeared on store shelves and in the pages of catalogs seemingly by magic; the very appearance of a mail-order package on a doorstep was considered impressive in and of itself. Not so today. With each…

In the shadow of Greenwich’s 02 Arena — the futuristic dome originally built as London’s showpiece for the Millennium — what looks like a picnic cooler on wheels zips among groups of gawking children. This little delivery robot, designed to autonomously navigate sidewalks, not roads, later this year will begin making deliveries from local businesses…

CVS has invested in Curbside, a Silicon Valley startup that allows shoppers to order products online and pick up their orders from a local store without leaving their car. The drugstore chain and the startup have been working together since last year, when they launched a pilot test in three cities that now encompasses 350…