Paul Durkin, director of home and efulfilment at Wincanton, talks about the best ways to handle the growing deluge of returns. Online shopping is now an everyday activity for consumers. We’ve become used to being no more than a few clicks away from our favourite products, and advances in delivery (more…)
Executives from Hermes and DPD used MetaPack’s Delivery Conference 2019 to showcase their new consumer-facing delivery apps – but the pitches show a potential conflict over who owns the consumer relationship. The talks came one after the other: first DPD’s director of marketing Tim Jones, who had stepped in for (more…)
This week Amazon outlined a shipment goal of delivering 50% of its shipments with net zero carbon by 2030. With the EU also introducing regulations on heavy duty vehicles, the pressure on the industry to act is increasing. eDelivery looks at some of the other players in the space and (more…)
Whether to offer free returns is emerging as a contentious issue for retailers. We recently published an op-ed by Gary Rohloff of Laybuy putting the case against. Now Tobias Buxhoidt, Founder and CEO of parcelLab explains why he believes the pros far outweigh the cons. It’s understandable why returns are viewed (more…)
This week saw Co-op announce that it is trialling home delivery using Deliveroo from a number of its London stores. The service is now available from 11 London stores, in addition to the five in Manchester where it has been trialled since last year. The product range includes fresh foods, (more…)
With urban deliveries on the rise, logistics companies are looking at ways to minimise their environmental impact as much as possible. For DHL, moving parcels by boat is providing a promising way to do so in Amsterdam and Venice – and the company is hoping to eventually export the model (more…)
Oliver Kingham, founder and MD at LLM Handling, explains the factors that need to be considered when choosing warehouse machinery. Whether you’re designing an entirely new warehouse, or just updating your current one, selecting the right equipment is essential if you want to move and store stock as quickly and (more…)
The immediate damage from Ocado’s warehouse fire in Andover has been dramatic, but the online grocer seems to be anticipating a long-term impact as well. Staff have now been able to access the affected area as normal and pressurised materials have been removed from the site. However, Ocado’s share price (more…)
According to Capgemini, warehouse automation could potentially increase margins by 8% through higher throughput and lower fulfilment costs. The interest is certainly there from retailers, with Zalando’s logistics head recently suggesting creating an “open operating system” for automation in distribution centres along the lines of Android, allowing different systems in a warehouse (more…)
Dan Ennor, commercial director at Global Freight Solutions (GFS), shares learnings from the company’s peak period, during which it saw parcel volumes rise 20% year-on-year. The peak period (Nov-Dec) is considered a lucrative time of year for nearly all retailers, emphasised by the fact that UK consumers spent a sizeable (more…)
Ocado saw its share price rise on news over the weekend that it might sign a new deal with Marks & Spencer. Details in the Mail on Sunday report were vague at this stage but suggested that Ocado could effectively replace its range of Waitrose products with M&S ones. It (more…)
Aoife Oconnell, retail business consultant at Zetes, explains the role of data in optimising the supply chain. Consumer behaviour changes are regularly charted and seemingly evolve at a rapid rate. However, today’s technology will have a direct influence on the store of the future and can help retailers to meet (more…)
A recent Capgemini report offered empirical support for something that crops up regularly at the anecdotal level: delivery companies are not hugely popular. A net promoter score (NPS) is based on how people respond when asked how likely they would be to recommend the company, product or service to a (more…)
Whistl is best known as a downstream access mail provider, but it is looking to make waves in the ecommerce fulfilment space. “We like this sector,” CEO Nick Wells (pictured, right) explains to eDelivery in an exclusive interview. “It gives you more control over the total supply chain.” Wells says (more…)
“Boringly consistent” is the phrase that Neil Ashworth, the CEO of CollectPlus and chief commercial officer of Yodel, uses when summarising how he wants customers to perceive his business. The internal catchphrase isn’t the most inspiring, admits Ashworth, but in its substance over style approach it strikes close to the heart (more…)
Gary Rohloff, co-founder at Laybuy, explains how so-called free delivery and returns are not such a good deal for the retailer that offers them. Last year the press reported on a growing trend amongst Instagram users who simply buy clothes to wear once for an #ootd picture – then return (more…)
A new drone corridor in Bedfordshire could provide a testing ground for retailers to test and demonstrate new automated delivery systems, says the founder of the company behind the initiative. Since August 2018, autonomy specialist Blue Bear and the University of Cranfield have been collaborating on a site for conducting (more…)
eDelivery looks at some of the major trends that retail logistics professionals will grapple with in 2019. Automation, automation, automation Of those technologies generally seen as futuristic, automation already has the weight of evidence behind it. Retailers and logistics companies are already achieving demonstrable results from introducing automation both (more…)
While a number of technologies promise to disrupt retail logistics, there are only a handful of companies that are actually putting them to practical use. In this article eDelivery looks into some of the innovative new European start-ups that are already working to transform the sector. Vekia – predictive (more…)
With nearly half of British shoppers doing at least 50% of their Christmas shopping online, Julian Krenge, chief technology officer at parcelLab, looks at how retailers can learn from the master of speedy deliveries: Santa Claus himself. It’s no secret that the festive period is the busiest time of the (more…)