Back in July Yodel caused an industry-wide intake of breath when it announced it would be capping the amount of next-day delivery Black Friday business it would accept from retailers. Now those capped chickens are, of course (in the wake of cyber week), coming home to roost. Yodel says it (more…)
It came and it went … Black Friday passed, along with it Cyber Monday. The twin peaks, as it were, that usher in the Christmas peak season. Far from wishing to sound like archetypal ambulance-chasers, so far at eDelivery we haven’t heard or seen anything calamitous happen in the delivery (more…)
Not long now. Not long at all. On Friday, along with some of my colleagues from both eDelivery and InternetRetailing, I’ll be monitoring some of the retailers from the InternetRetailing Top500 to see how Black Friday is affecting things like site performance, availability of delivery options, and plenty more besides. (more…)
After announcing it was pulling out of Black Friday, Asda unveiled a new end-to-end parcel delivery and collection service it’s called ToYou, which will put the retail giant’s 600+ stores on the click-and-collect map. The economics behind this are worth reflecting on. One of the big questions the major supermarkets (more…)
So, Asda is pulling out of Black Friday. Hands up if you saw that one coming. Will it save deliveries from the peak period fire though? Probably not – it’s still going to be a very busy period, and if you’re not ready for it you’ll suffer. No one should (more…)
When we launched eDelivery, roughly a year ago, one of the little bits of shorthand we started using to explain our focus was that we were interested in the people, processes and technology that lie behind the business of fulfilling the multichannel promise. The procurement of logistics and operations systems (more…)
Where’s everybody gone? There’s a shortfall of 60,000 lorry drivers in the UK and the retail warehouse sector needs something in the region of an extra 100,000 people to get through peak. In about four weeks time that’s likely to be a bit of a problem – or at any (more…)
One of the most well-attended sessions of last week’s eDelivery Conference (EDC) was when Argos Stores’ central operations director, Andy Brown, was speaking. Having just gone national with its same-day Fast Track delivery (which also offers super speedy collections), after spending most of the last couple of years re-engineering its (more…)
Argos saw operating and distribution costs increase by £14m during the first half of its FY16, coupled with falls in sales and profits for the period. Declines in electrical and seasonal products are being blamed for a negatively impacting sales and profits at Argos in the first half of its (more…)
Yesterday, Tuesday 13 October, saw the first eDelivery Conference (EDC15) take place, at the Novotel Hammersmith in London. It was a genuine pleasure to meet so many eDelivery readers, to visit many of the exhibitors’ stands and listen to some very interesting speakers. I’m only sorry I couldn’t get round to (more…)
We’re only a week into October and it’s already been a big month for new delivery service offerings. Anyone would think there was a busy period coming along soon. In the US, Amazon has been flexing in Seattle, House of Fraser is sharpening up its next-day offerings, and Doddle wants you (more…)
We have a jam-packed newsletter this week. But before we get stuck into it, I’d like to ask you a question. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? One-in-three UK shoppers already have, according to research carried out for Yodel. The rest of you need to look lively – there’s (more…)
Starting a business is one of those things that many people dream of doing. But once you’ve done it there are still plenty of dreams left for you to have – like growing the business and taking into international markets, or seeing it become acquired by a global household (more…)
As anyone with a passing acquaintance with economics will know, elastic demand has very little to do with the demand for elastic. No, for elastic demand is that which is affected materially by increases in price. Changes to the prices of things you want – but perhaps don’t need – (more…)
It doesn’t matter how you dress it up, we all know the only thing that matters in the etail game is keeping your promise. The customer chooses, buys, and parts with their hard-earned, all in return for a promise. When buying online felt a little like risking swapping your cow (more…)
It is now less than three months until Black Friday 2015, which – if the predictions are to be believed – will attract a huge increase in awareness compared with last year, leading to more orders, and therefore more deliveries. How much more requires guesswork. But some people think sales could (more…)
It is now three months (to the day, as this item is published) until Black Friday 2015. Predictions are that we’ll see a huge increase in awareness of Black Friday, leading to more orders, and therefore more deliveries. How much more requires guesswork. But some people think sales could hit (more…)
In 2014, the UK imported something in the region of $60bn worth of goods from China, which accounted for around 9% of China’s exports. Some of will have travelled by air, some by sea, all of it, ultimately, ended up in warehouses, lorries, trucks and vans. Unless you happened to miss (more…)
I’ve just finished sifting through some of the recent stories that have gone up on eDelivery, making selections for our weekly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up for it, you’ll find details of how to at the end of this column. There are three themes that stand out from the (more…)
Last month we ran a number of pieces on the theme of home delivery and the growing headache of the final mile. For a lot of people – and you might be one of them – home delivery has never been an ideal solution; if you’re out at work every (more…)