Warehouse Management

William S. Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart for the United States, said on Thursday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors that the company was providing a $10 million fund to promote American manufacturing in a push to sell more American-made products. The fund, to be distributed over five years, will award grants for new manufacturing processes and help to encourage such projects in this country, a company spokeswoman said. Early last year, Wal-Mart said it would increase sourcing of American-made products by $50 billion over a 10-year period, buying goods already made here and helping vendors bring production back from overseas.

So the ad on Workamper read: Work in our distribution centers — Fernley, Nevada, Coffeyville, Kansas, or Campbellsville, Kentucky. We offer: paid campsite, $10 to $11.50 wage per hour, shift differential, completion bonus, overtime at time-and-a-half, paid utilities in KY and KS (except propane), Amazon.com employee discount. Over the past five years I've crossed the country twice in my RV working for a variety of businesses from KOA campgrounds. Here's a look at my experiences:

Preference centers are the foundation of a brand's digitally connected infrastructure. They help companies recognize and engage their customers, and enable consumers to digitally connect with a brand on their terms. Brands need to consider the elements of channel, frequency and content, and let customers choose their own unique combinations of communication with the brand. The CRM concepts of right time, right message and right channel are steeped in analytics to deliver a message sometimes even before the customer knows they want it. You need to start with what the customer tells you, however, and then layer in more data to reach a rich customer profile.

Amazon.com is expanding its distribution centers in a new direction, one that's unlikely to please its competitors or third-party sellers. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon has set up operations inside Proctor & Gamble's manufacturing warehouses, enabling it to fulfill products cheaper and faster than if the manufacturer shipped the items to Amazon's own warehouses. "The e-commerce giant is quietly setting up shop inside the warehouses of a number of important suppliers as it works to open up the next big frontier for internet sales: everyday products like toilet paper, diapers and shampoo," wrote the Journal.

The holiday shopping season is an annual sweet spot for both online and brick-and-mortar retailers. Unfortunately, the holidays aren't all fun and games, especially for online retailers that can't scale to the sudden influx of orders that this time of year brings.

Strategy and planning can transform your warehouse into a driver of increased efficiency and bottom-line business gains. By thoroughly evaluating the amount of space, labor and automation your warehouse operation requires, you can create daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly plans capable of improving the efficiency and profitability of your operation.

The best business partners do more than just act as vendors or clients; they go the extra mile to collaborate and achieve targeted goals. Within the third-party fulfillment space, that's not always easy, and sometimes collaboration means the distribution partner is literally working itself out of a job. But in the end, the collaborative process can result in key wins for both the brand and the fulfillment partner.

“Omnichannel” is one of the hottest buzzwords in the retail industry. Yet while everyone is talking omnichannel, relatively few brands