Order Fulfillment

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports will remain below last year’s levels for the remainder of the summer before seeing year-over-year gains again this fall as retailers begin to stock up for the holiday season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

While the order fulfillment department of your cross-channel retail business isn’t the sexiest or most fun, it’s arguably one of the most important. Most customer complaints are centered around fulfillment issues, for example. And if your business has even the slightest fulfillment gaffe in today’s social media environment, it’s one tweet away from a public relations disaster.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association may sue the state if officials don’t require Amazon.com to pay sales taxes when it begins using two distribution centers now under construction in Tennessee.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is staying at about the same levels as last year this summer, but is expected to resume increases in the fall, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Williams-Sonoma, a specialty retailer of high-quality products for the home, announced today that Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma will offer international shipping, joining PBteen in its partnership with FiftyOne Global Ecommerce, a provider of international e-commerce services and infrastructure to U.S. retailers. Customers in more than 75 countries will now be able to shop online for Williams-Sonoma products.

While direct marketers and their suppliers have been preaching multichannel retailing for years, there's been a singular lack of attention given to back-end operations designed to support this new and more complex retailing environment.

Toys"R"Us today announced plans to open a new e-commerce distribution center near Reno, Nev. to support the company's growing online business. The dedicated e-commerce fulfillment center will be located within the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center and is scheduled to open this July. 

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be up 9 percent in April over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

A fast-paced session titled 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes for Your Distribution Center at the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Las Vegas, left attendees with a bevy of new strategies and solutions that they can implement in their businesses. Timothy Holody, COO/general manager of cross-channel retailer Seta/Palm Beach Jewelry, Lance Curran, warehouse director of online apparel retailer Threadless, dispensed the tips in rapid-fire format.

In an opening session at the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Las Vegas on Monday, Susan Rider, president of logistics consulting agency Rider & Associates, wasted little time in getting to what was on the minds of nearly all attendees: How can you make your warehouse more efficient and thereby more profitable?