Order Fulfillment

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?

Kohl’s has closed on the purchase of a building for a new e-commerce distribution center. It's expected to open in July 2011, and the 602,000-square-foot building will fulfill Kohls.com purchases, and Kohl’s will expand the facility to 1 million-square-feet by 2012.

International footwear designer and retailer Stuart Weitzman will launch VendorNet’s StoreNet Ship-from Store software to integrate its store inventory with e-commerce sales and fulfillment to save sales on the web and in stores.

Online retail giant Amazon.com is closing a suburban Dallas distribution center and scrapping plans to expand Texas operations after a dispute with the state over millions of dollars in sales taxes, an executive informed employees in an email obtained by The Associated Press.

It all started with a click. Or was it a call? Or could it have been that direct mail piece? In a world with seemingly endless customer touchpoints, if you don't know what's driving your customers to your business, you're not alone.

Wal-Mart has reached a deal in principle with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York that guarantees union workers will construct or renovate any stores that the retailer opens in the city during the next five years. The deal is a coup for Wal-Mart, which faces stiff opposition from grocery and retail unions worried that the retailer's entry into the New York City market will put downward pressure on the salaries of their members.

New York City residents spent nearly $200 million at about a dozen Wal-Mart stores in the New York metropolitan area in 2010, up about 20 percent from the amount reported in a previous 12-month period, the company said. Although it doesn't have any stores in New York City, the chain is determined to break into the market and is working to overcome opposition from labor, community and small business groups. An ad campaign being launched in three dozen community newspapers blames "special interests" for keeping it out.

Deluged by paper-based invoices, which required employees to open envelopes and key information into a system, Canadian-based quick-service restaurant chain Tim Hortons decided a more efficient and more environmentally friendly system for processing suppliers' invoices was needed. Tim Hortons turned to Transcepta, a provider of hosted e-invoicing solutions.

eBay rose after it gave a sales and profit forecast that surpassed analysts' estimates, reflecting progress in a turnaround effort by Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe.