Go Supply Chain’s director Craig Ryder examines the financial and logistics implications of the snap 2017 General Election. General elections require a phenomenal amount of organisation and planning, utilising people and resources across the country. Polling stations must be chosen and made accessible to everybody, postal votes must be sent (more…)
It’s something that many retailers and carriers have previously often resisted but will keeping the customer happy mean the need to increasingly open up systems, asks By Duncan Licence, VP for global solutions, MetaPack. When it comes to eCommerce, the ability to deliver customer choice and convenience is a key differentiator. (more…)
Keeping the customer happy was a theme of last week’s newsletter – as it is many weeks. But how do retailers best do that? In one of a number of opinion articles from industry experts that we have brought you this week MetaPack’s Duncan Licence asks whether keeping the customer (more…)
Customers expect returns to be as easy to do as their initial purchasing and they also offer retailers the ability to win customer loyalty but are retailers doing enough asks Frank Lochbaum, managing partner at KPS. Unfortunately, while returns are a big part of today’s retailing, too many retailers are (more…)
Drop shipping has its roots in the catalogue industry but could anyone have realised how big it would become? Richard Jones, co-founder, chief technology officer and EVP of operations at CommerceHub, looks back, and at what the future holds too. E-commerce sites are but a modern version of catalogue providers, (more…)
eDelivery.net and NetDespatch recently collaborated on research and a whitepaper. In this piece, NetDespatch co-CEO Matthew Robertson explains how the research proved that retailers must meet customer expectations through collaboration. In the age of instant gratification and personalised experiences, consumers are increasingly expecting more and more from retailers, particularly from the (more…)
We know returns are a persistent headache – the experience for many retailers and their customers is still lacking even for those with the slickest of procedures in place. Making returns as a customer and dealing with those returns as a retailer simply isn’t a great experience. But how do (more…)
A new wave of trackable options are changing customer behaviour and retailers that ignore such options do so at their peril, warns Paul Galpin, managing director of P2P Mailing. Missed deliveries continue to be a point of pain for many online consumers. Indeed according to a recent study by Engage (more…)
System downtime for retailers can be disastrous, its effects rippling through the supply chain, so how can cloud computing help, particularly in peak period asks David Jack, CIO of MetaPack. It is widely acknowledged that the tricky Peak season with its huge demands on retail systems has become a much (more…)
With the trigger finally pulled on Article 50, David Jinks, head of consumer research at international delivery specialist ParcelHero, reveals 10 tricks of the trade that will beat the imposition of duties and VAT. British manufacturers and retailers exporting overseas can no longer keep their head in the sand. With (more…)
As Brexit is finally triggered, many warehouse operators and managers find themselves with an unwelcome problem: where to find a hard-working, reliable and cost effective work-force to staff their fulfilment operations now that the flow of eastern European workers into Britain is slowing down dramatically. Alexey Tabolkin, CEO Eiratech Robotics, believes (more…)
The UK click and collect market is changing fast. Earlier this month Tesco extended its same day click and collect grocery service so what else can we expect? Tim Robinson, CEO of Doddle, reveals four key trends he believes we will see in 2017. 1) Collection of parcels at third (more…)
Frank Poore, CEO and founder of CommerceHub, explains why he believes that drop shipping is the future of retail and can help retailers meet the expectations of today’s shoppers. To be competitive in this Amazon dominated retail environment demands better range, lower supply chain costs and improved customer service – (more…)
Finding the perfect delivery option that works is tough and businesses are trying everything – not least deliveries to car boots. In Switzerland, online retailer LeShop.ch is now delivering directly to the boot of parked vehicles through a partnership with Swiss Post. The retailer is already a pioneer in delivery (more…)
Millennials aged between 25 and 30 are the most demanding generation of consumers anyone has had to face (apart from my mother – Ed), but while they may well be annoying, getting it right for them means getting it really right. So how do you do it? Matthew Robertson, co-CEO, (more…)
The challenge of managing deliveries at peak will remain one of the biggest that retailers will face this year as customer expectations continue to rise. Siobhan Gehin, managing director of Kurt Salmon, part of Accenture Strategy, examines just how long it takes for customers to receive their online orders. Over the (more…)
Luxury retailers were once hesitant to go online but are now embracing ecommerce, and fulfilment is likely to be the next thing in their sights, according to Georges Berzgal, vice president for Europe, global ecommerce at Pitney Bowes. For years, many luxury brands resisted the shift to ecommerce. Their tech-savvy, (more…)
By 2030 the impact of online shopping and home deliveries could mean more than half of today’s high street stores will have closed according to a new report from ParcelHero. David Jinks, head of consumer research at ParcelHero, explains why. Last November UK weekly online shopping spending reached the landmark (more…)
Retailers will continue to improve their fulfilment propositions as one of their main levers to influence sales growth in 2017 but what are we likely to see adopted by the mass market this year? Joanna Perry, head of marketing at Practicology, looks into her crystal ball to find out. Not (more…)
2017 will see delivery become a more important part of the customer journey, explains Patrick Gallagher, CEO, On the dot. 2017 is certainly set to be an exciting year for retailers. 2016’s peak season may barely be over, but it’s already proved that online retail is still changing the purchasing landscape. (more…)