Manhattan Associates

With the rise of mobile shopping, e-commerce growth and same-day shipping, the retail landscape looks very different than it did five years ago. In today's e-commerce world, much of the retail experience lies heavily in the hands of changing consumer behavior. Shoppers can make purchases at any time, from almost anywhere and expect a seamless shopping experience that allows them to choose from various options for ordering, receiving and returning their purchases.

Google FedEx SmartPost or UPS SurePost and plenty of hits show up in the search results. Some reviews are positive, extolling benefits that include cost effectiveness and fewer surcharges over air/ground alternatives, end-to-end package visibility, free Saturday delivery, and more. However, your search results will include complaints ranging from transit times that were too lengthy to crushed/damaged packages. One thing is for sure: With the meteoric growth of e-commerce and consumers’ demand for free or low cost shipping, these services are here to stay.

Belk, Inc. is making all the right moves around improving its warehouse and fulfillment operations to meet the needs of its growing e-commerce business.

When catalog order management systems were first developed in the 1970s, they were designed to manage all aspects of catalog operations: from order entry, customer service and customer database management to response analysis, inventory management, purchasing, fulfillment, and returns. Thirty years later, they still are, which is why so many direct merchants can run their businesses on these applications without a need to add specialized solutions for things like warehouse management. Some companies, however, find their catalog management systems don’t provide the flexibility or sophistication they need to address their inventory or fulfillment challenges. For them, a warehouse management system (WMS) is a necessary

In an industry where improperly handled returns can erode 30 to 35 percent of potential profits (source: Gartner), todayï3/4¿s catalogers can turn the reverse supply chain into a powerful source of both profit and customer satisfaction. Managing the returns process more effectively through tighter control and visibility across the supply chain and a more personalized touch with each customer can help you uncover hidden revenue and increase customer satisfaction. Capturing this “hidden revenue” stream can yield numerous benefits. Here are a few: *Real-time visibility. Especially for online catalog companies, the Internet is increasingly being used to help automate the reverse logistics management process, because

This article will define RFID technology and offer examples of how it could help improve your distribution center operations. RFID uses radio waves to automatically identify physical items in varying proximity to readers that can uniquely identify them. The identification process entails the following: - the RF antenna broadcasts a signal; - the tag enters the RF field; - the RF signal powers the tag; - the tag transmits data to the reader; and - the reader interacts directly with the supply chain execution system. By now, no doubt, you’ve heard that Wal-Mart is requiring its top 100 suppliers to