Supply Chain

Citing supply chain disruptions, the White House on Wednesday said major retailers like Walmart, Target and The Home Depot will expand working hours to move more cargo off docks. Walmart announced it would commit to extending nighttime hours by as much as 50 percent. The goal, according to a White House press release, is for ships to…

The Home Depot on Wednesday became the first retailer to announce it was using Walmart's new delivery business, GoLocal, and would engage Walmart's drivers to deliver home improvement products purchased online to customers' doors in the coming weeks. In a press release Wednesday, Stephanie Smith, senior vice president of supply chain for The Home Depot,…

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss a blog post by Jim Shea recently published titled, “Brands Are Making Bets on Which of Their Products Will Be Hot This Holiday, But They Don’t Have to Guess.” Shea writes about how supply chain and shipping crunches mean leaner…

The Flex Company launched in 2016 with a revolutionary invention — a disposable menstrual disc — and a clear mission: to improve the lives of people who have periods. At first, the team was small and the sales model was primarily subscription-based. However, Founder and CEO Lauren Schulte Wang was ready to take on the…

Costco is renting its own container ships to prevent delays and keep costs down as the global shipping crisis continues, according to Business Insider. In a call with analysts Thursday, Costco CFO Richard Galanti said the retailer has chartered three ships to import products from Asia to the U.S. and Canada to help Costco avoid spending six times the normal price…

What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, consumers were hesitant to spend on much besides essentials and products that would make their life at home more comfortable. They were fearful about going into stores, many of which were temporarily closed due to the pandemic anyway, worried about how COVID-19 would affect…

Shipping challenges and carrier capacity issues driven by the rapid growth in e-commerce over the last year demonstrated to retailers the need to begin planning for peak season as early as January. For many retailers, it’s already too late to adequately prepare for peak holiday shipping season 2021. During the 2021 holiday season, delivery demand…

As we conclude the back-to-school shopping season and prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season, e-commerce sales continue to show tremendous secular growth. The search for online solutions has only intensified with the closing of brick-and-mortar locations across the globe. This flurry of unprecedented shifts carries both risks and opportunities for retailers as they grapple…

Retail sales increased during August as consumer demand outweighed the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and other factors affecting spending, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said Thursday. The U.S. Census Bureau reported overall retail sales in August were up 0.7 percent seasonally adjusted from July and up 15.1 percent year-over-year. Despite occasional month-over-month declines, sales have grown…

On the heels of COVID-19, we sit in the most complex environment for parcel rates and service that we’ve seen in our lifetime. A confluence of factors have come together to bring sometimes fast-moving volatility to the market, which make parcel planning for large retailers incredibly challenging — both for peak and nonpeak.