Warehouse Management

Amazon.com is expanding its distribution centers in a new direction, one that's unlikely to please its competitors or third-party sellers. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon has set up operations inside Proctor & Gamble's manufacturing warehouses, enabling it to fulfill products cheaper and faster than if the manufacturer shipped the items to Amazon's own warehouses. "The e-commerce giant is quietly setting up shop inside the warehouses of a number of important suppliers as it works to open up the next big frontier for internet sales: everyday products like toilet paper, diapers and shampoo," wrote the Journal.

The holiday shopping season is an annual sweet spot for both online and brick-and-mortar retailers. Unfortunately, the holidays aren't all fun and games, especially for online retailers that can't scale to the sudden influx of orders that this time of year brings.

Strategy and planning can transform your warehouse into a driver of increased efficiency and bottom-line business gains. By thoroughly evaluating the amount of space, labor and automation your warehouse operation requires, you can create daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly plans capable of improving the efficiency and profitability of your operation.

The best business partners do more than just act as vendors or clients; they go the extra mile to collaborate and achieve targeted goals. Within the third-party fulfillment space, that's not always easy, and sometimes collaboration means the distribution partner is literally working itself out of a job. But in the end, the collaborative process can result in key wins for both the brand and the fulfillment partner.

“Omnichannel” is one of the hottest buzzwords in the retail industry. Yet while everyone is talking omnichannel, relatively few brands