Shipping
July 9, 2020 at 5:33 pm
As of November 2019, all three major carriers — USPS, FedEx, and UPS — now offer flat-rate shipping options. This begs two questions: One, should you be using flat-rate shipping? And if so, which carrier’s flat-rate shipping options should you choose and when? Below are some of the pros and cons of using flat-rates shipping,…
July 7, 2020 at 5:05 pm
Thanks to its dominance, Amazon.com is shaping consumer expectations for fast, free order fulfillment that other retailers struggle to meet. However, retailers can fight back by focusing on crucial service offerings and tapping consumer misgivings about Amazon to present a viable alternative. A new survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers conducted by Austin, Texas-based delivery experience…
June 10, 2020 at 6:52 pm
Cross-border shipping rates will go up for many U.S. shippers on July 1. This change comes after countries began to self-declare postal rates based on the deal reached by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in September, Supply Chain Dive reported. Many postage sellers, consolidators and other cross-border service providers such as FedEx, UPS and Stamps.com, received new contracts from…
June 5, 2020 at 4:43 pm
Less than two weeks after United Parcel Service (UPS) posted surcharges on all types of deliveries, FedEx Corp. has followed suit. In an announcement posted on its website last week, FedEx said it's imposing a temporary surcharge, effective today, June 8, on certain types of packages as shipping carriers struggle with the surge related to e-commerce orders due…
June 1, 2020 at 3:08 pm
UPS announced two Peak Surcharge increases effective May 31, 2020: an increase on UPS Ground Residential and UPS SurePost packages, as well as an add-on charge for larger shipments that incur the Large Package Surcharge (LPS). Ground Residential as well as SurePost will be assessed an additional surcharge of $.30/package when the current average weekly…
May 28, 2020 at 5:09 pm
Whether you're a Fortune 500 retailer or an emerging direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) brand, your customers expect ease and convenience when ordering online. The problem is, meeting these expectations can put a significant strain on your business. Traditional logistics networks weren’t designed for D-to-C fulfillment because they were built to get goods onto store shelves. To meet…
May 27, 2020 at 5:25 pm
In the last installment of this 10-part series, I focus on emerging technologies and trends that will shape fulfillment in the coming months and years. These innovations enable merchants to fulfill orders faster while reducing costs, especially in the last mile and warehouse operations. Many large e-commerce merchants have started to adopt these technologies, and…
May 15, 2020 at 4:40 pm
The 21st century has brought about major changes and advancements for e-commerce, defining its first phase. “E-commerce 1.0” ushered in off-the-shelf solutions that automated transactions and fulfillment for a number of goods. The meteoric rise of multinational giants like FedEx, UPS, Amazon.com, and Stripe have made buying and receiving shipments a breeze for the average…
May 13, 2020 at 4:19 pm
In the past four months, we’ve covered nearly 50 unique strategies for making free shipping profitable, from pricing mechanisms and outsourcing to managing returns. In part nine of this series, we’ll focus on tweaks you can make in your operations to optimize your costs further. (Here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight of this series.) 1. Downsize your…
May 10, 2020 at 7:36 pm
Target announced last week that it's in the process of acquiring technology from Deliv, a startup that focuses on last-mile batched delivery. Target is acquiring the technology so it can explore new ways to deliver online orders more quickly while also lowering its shipping costs, according to a May 7 blog post on Target's corporate site. Target…
