Operations & Fulfillment

Once upon a time, retail sourcing was a fairly predictable craft. Merchants ventured into familiar manufacturing markets, negotiated favorable costs, managed lean inventories, and relied on well-established trade routes to keep products flowing smoothly from factory floors to store shelves. The rules were clear, the maps were reliable, and surprises were relatively rare. Those days…

Retailers operate in a world of volatile demand. Holiday surges, flash promotions or unexpected supply chain hiccups can fill storage space and cause delays. Seasonal spikes in consumer behavior often lead to inventory overflow or stockouts. Businesses need a way to scale capacity without paying for unused warehouse space during slow periods. This volatility is…

The launch of Amazon Supply Chain Services reflects a broader shift in retail logistics. More retailers are moving away from fragmented arrangements and toward shared platforms that coordinate freight, warehousing, fulfilment and delivery at scale. For retailers, the platform approach is attractive because it can simplify fragmented fulfilment networks, meet rising delivery expectations, and support…

As we march further into the 21st century, it's clear that the only thing that stays the same is the fact that everything changes. As new technologies emerge and are integrated into daily life, their importance and utility is only increasing. Adaptive and proactive, not reactive approaches, are becoming the new normal. For logistics operations,…

As the United States hosts the World Cup, retailers, manufacturers, and logistics providers are positioning inventory, labor, and fulfillment capacity for what could become one of the most volatile demand cycles in recent years. Unlike traditional retail peaks such as Black Friday or back-to-school, the World Cup creates compressed, synchronized demand that can surge within…

Evaluating last-mile providers used to come down to three things: cost, coverage, and delivery speed. But as customer expectations rise, brands are under pressure to ensure predictable deliveries, accurate tracking information, and timely issue resolution. Meeting those expectations increasingly depends on another critical factor: the technology coordinating the delivery network. Research from McKinsey shows that…

For years, marketplace growth was largely viewed through a listing and marketing lens. Brands focused on ensuring listings were live, keyword optimization, sponsored ads, ratings, reviews, and creative content to win visibility on platforms like Amazon.com, Walmart, and Target. Marketplace success often came down to who could outbid competitors for attention and convert shoppers more…

International retailers have spent the past year navigating a trade environment defined by constant change. Tariffs shifted with little warning. Customs requirements tightened across major markets. Carrier conditions fluctuated week to week, forcing e-commerce teams to adapt in real time while still meeting customer expectations for fast, reliable delivery. Many brands anticipated some level of…

Most retail fulfillment technology investments don't fail at go-live. They fail months earlier, in a planning meeting where a vendor hands over a 14-week implementation timeline and nobody — not merchandising, not store operations, not the warehouse team — pushes back on the assumptions underlying it. By the time the project is six months in…

A single viral moment can reshape demand almost instantly. A product featured in a TikTok video or picked up by a creator can generate more orders in a day than a brand typically sees in a week. In some cases, that can mean a day’s worth of orders arriving in an hour. For e-commerce leaders,…