Order Fulfillment

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to total 14.5 million containers for 2010, a 15 percent increase over last year’s unusually low numbers as the economy continues its cautious recovery, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Problem: Pearl Izumi USA, a cross-channel retailer of sports apparel, wanted to bring back its custom clothing business, which had been shuttered nearly eight years ago because it wasn't hitting profit targets.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be up 16 percent in July compared with the same month a year ago, but double-digit increases seen in recent months should taper offer this fall as retailers cautiously manage their inventories, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Clothing maker Perry Ellis International sees a 10 percent rise in industrywide apparel prices over the next two years amid rising commodity prices and higher labor costs in China. "Prices have to go up at some point. The American consumer will have to pay higher prices... It's only apparel and electronics, the items that keep coming down, everything else in life has come up," Chief Executive George Feldenkreis told the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit in New York.

Retailers have been plagued by issues; some have suffered from product misses, others from deep discounts, and everyone has been hurt by the decline in consumer spending. But one factor that has actually been a positive for the sector may now begin to put pressure on retailers. After a decade of a favorable sourcing environment, the cost of production is rising. Prices for cotton have nearly doubled over the last year, capacity in China is drying up and freight costs are expected to rise. And retailers, who have finally begun to regain their footing, will now be forced to up their prices to pass along some of the costs to consumers.

With signs of economic recovery taking shape this year, especially in the world of retail, marketers are refocusing their attentions on maintaining a competitive edge. One way they're doing this is by considering outsourced fulfillment operations with third-party providers. Here are three reasons why it may be the hottest iron to strike this year:

To help shed some light on the packaging industry, and how it affects the consumer experience, JoAnn Hines, Packaging Diva, a consultant and expert on packaging, and Mark Mitchell, president of Tailford Mitchell, a branding and packaging design consulting firm, led a session on the topic at last month's National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Orlando, Fla.

In a session at last month's National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Orlando, Fla., a panel of cross-channel marketers spanning a wide array of product categories presented tips on how their companies survived the economic pressures of 2009 to see the promise of 2010.

Product returns are a part of every merchant's operations, whether you sell online, retail, catalog, B-to-B, apparel, consumer electronics, etc. In fact, according to a recent survey, returns cost retailers $53 billion last year alone. But what's often viewed as a drain on profits and employees’ time can also be an opportunity to attract and retain customers when the process is handled right.

For this very special report, we chose what we believe to be the three most crucial and timely and important topics in operations and fulfillment for multichannel merchants today.