It may still officially be two days away but for most retailers the Black Friday promotions have already started – fuelled both by consumer desire to bag the bargains early but also tactical planning by retailers stretching out the promotion to relieve the pressure on their delivery supply chains. It (more…)
To meet the demands of customers today businesses simply have to have an agile supply chain behind them as Sid Holian, managing director at Bis Henderson Consulting, explains. One of the greatest challenges facing retail businesses today is how to keep the customer proposition attractive yet affordable. Many retailers are (more…)
Keeping on top of your supply chain and logistics operations is vital to help to prevent fraud and other crimes taking place within your business, says Michael Harris, director, financial crime compliance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. For all its complexity, for all the people hours, route planning, re-planning and deal making, a (more…)
With peak season fast approaching we spoke to Mike Richmond, chief commercial officer of Doddle Parcel Services, for his tips on how to prepare your click and collect services to cope. ED: Why is the click and collect trend continuing to grow? MR: “Because in today’s tough retail environment it’s (more…)
Click and collect is increasingly important for all retailers. As part of a wider feature looking at how to prepare click and collect for peak we spoke to Jay Brown, multichannel services lead, to find out how important click and collect is for Debenhams. ED: How is click and collect (more…)
Guy Davenport, co-founder and CEO of Locpin, discusses the implications of failed deliveries, with an estimated 120 million deliveries arriving late in 2017, and why companies need to act to ensure they reduce costs and keep customers happy. In recent years the e-commerce sector has boomed with more internet users (more…)
Drop shipping has the potential to completely change the world of retail. However, as John Weber, director of business development and product management at Aptean, explains, retailers need an effective ERP system to truly make the most of this new retail reality. It’ll come as a shock to no one (more…)
The challenge of returns is a constant one. In this piece, Mike Cockfield, managing director and founder at Khaos Control, explains how retailers can best manage returns, or better still, prevent them. With the National Retail Federation announcing that 15-30% of purchases in 2018 will be returned, an effective returns policy (more…)
Retailers are facing increasing pressure from environmental lobbyists. In this piece, Andy Hill, director at Sorted, reveals how this could impact delivery and the supply chain. What do plastic bottles, drinking straws, carrier bags, and disposable coffee cups all have in common? They’ve all been used as physical examples of consumers (more…)
Too often retailers ignore the potential of packaging but it’s about more than just a box, explains Konrad Kwiatkowski, marketing manager and co-founder at Packhelp. Despite what the headlines say, bricks and mortar stores still have an advantage over ecommerce when it comes to connecting with the customer. When you step (more…)
Despite the opportunities for increased profitability and better customer satisfaction retailers are still overlooking the benefits of optimising their packaging when it comes to delivery, says Isabel Rocher, head of ecommerce at DS Smith. As a whole, packaging performance in e-commerce is far from optimised: it hasn’t caught up with the rapid (more…)
The subscription box industry is growing fast and offers great opportunities to tie customers in around delivery and product, says Marie Louise Dalton, global vice president of marketing at Hitwise. The subscription box industry is one of the fastest-growing retail verticals in the UK, with online visits rising by 30% year-on-year, (more…)
With Australia’s new Goods and Service Tax imminent next month UK retailers should look for expert partner support to relieve the administrative burden and ensure compliance says Gary Tervit, international director, P2P. UK retailers wishing to explore the lucrative Australian market will soon be obliged to negotiate new import tax laws. (more…)
It’s time that retailers stop paying lip service to a good returns experience and do more to improve the experience since for modern returners, variety, trust and transparency are not just buzzwords, according to Graham Best, CEO of ReBOUND. It’s common knowledge in ecommerce that today’s shoppers, especially millennials, are harder (more…)
The customer experience is more important than ever in last-mile delivery so how are retailers innovating in this area asks Anthony Gavin, regional director EMEA at Narvar. Digital customer experiences have redefined our expectations of the physical world. We’ve grown accustomed to the instant gratification of cyberspace and want to (more…)
Brexit is an opportunity for businesses to grow outside the EU so long as they treat delivery as an integral component to growth, according to Dan Ennor, commercial director at Global Freight Solutions. Uncertainty abounds for UK-based retailers post-Brexit. The easy option for companies would be to bury their heads in (more…)
As the growing demands around delivery continue to evolve Matthew Robertson, co-CEO of NetDespatch, reveals why he believes flexible parcel delivery will become the norm. In 2018, we see shopping habits continue to evolve as more consumers switch between online and in-store and also between the devices they use to both (more…)
Great delivery has to be about more than just cost but should be appropriate to the needs of the customer and what’s being delivered, says Ian Bolton, director of logistics at DX. In an increasingly competitive landscape, it can be tempting for logistics firms to focus exclusively on price when (more…)
With failed deliveries still happening Rijk van Meekeren, CCO at B2C Europe, askes whether social delivery is the answer and what else consumers are thinking around delivery. We all know the online retail industry has grown substantially in recent years. With such a large increase in parcels however, there has also (more…)
Regular forecasting and planning meetings are one of the cornerstones of any successful relationship between a company and its fulfilment partner, says William Walker, sales director of Walker Logistics. For most businesses forecasting involves a degree of guesswork, but it is nevertheless an essential process – particularly when it comes (more…)