Shop Direct has been going through a major transformation as it changes from a catalogue operation into a leading digital business. Paul Miller, director of logistics, explains to Emma Herrod the impact on its logistics operation. Shop Direct, the bastion of the UK home shopping industry, no longer prints paper (more…)
Parcel and document delivery specialist, DX, is to launch its own click-and-collect network, in association with Doddle and InPost. The DX Parcel Exchange will give shoppers the option to have deliveries made to InPost’s 1,000 lockers and Doddle’s 45 parcel stores, nationwide. Stuart Godman, chief strategy & marketing officer at DX, (more…)
With delivery costs and customer service expectations both rising, real-time telematics and mobile data solutions will become a core investment for 21st century retailers. In the first of a new series, telematics editor Sharon Clancy reports on how it has become a fundamental building block in many logistics operations. Telematics (more…)
In preparation for a networking lunch held at the House of Lords in March, Peter Ward, CEO of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) is calling on the government to support the future needs of the supply chain and logistics sector. Calling for better planning consent, investment in road infrastructure (more…)
This time last year, we looked at the issue of returns in relation to the competing pressures of maintaining customer relationships and protecting margins. Here in early January 2016, as this year’s returns peak is in full swing, it seemed like as good a time as any to look back and reflect (more…)
Irish carrier the Nightline Group has recorded 30% growth in parcel volumes this year, citing the Republic’s booming ecommerce sector, increased interest in cross-border shopping, and favourable exchange rates as key reasons for its success. A significant proportion were generated by orders placed by Irish consumers shopping with UK-based retailers, (more…)
Problems with the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland will have little or no impact on deliveries, says Amazon, whose largest UK fulfillment centre is in Dunfermline, just north of the bridge. The Forth Bridge, which connects Fife to nearby Edinburgh, and is the main highway south, has been closed following (more…)
The morning after the night before, and Twitter was starting to come alive with people complaining about delivery problems. In the wake of what seems to have been a quiet in-store Black Friday, all the action taking place online is starting to filter through to delivery networks which are already (more…)
You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t, at least from time to time, wish you could just walk away from it all and do something different. If the pressure of peak preparation already feels like it’s getting to you, few people would think too harshly of you for a moment (more…)
Delivery times from China are being cut as Royal Mail and Alibaba’s global retail marketplace AliExpress forge closer ties. China is already the largest importing country Royal Mail deals with, and the two parties have an existing strategic agreement in place. This extension to that agreement will see shipping times from (more…)
Multichannel fashion and homeware retailer M&Co has appointed Clipper Logistics to handle all of its distribution, under the terms of an exclusive three-year deal starting in the new year. Headquartered in Leeds, Clipper’s distribution centres in Harlow, Avonmouth, Brighouse and East Kilbride will handle the M&Co work. M&Co has around 250 (more…)
Procurement. It’s a word that fills few people with joy; lengthy, dull, and sometimes downright painful, are perhaps more likely descriptions. But it needn’t be like that, and – more importantly – it shouldn’t. If you are embarking upon investing in any new system as part of your operations and (more…)
US-based supply chain software company LLamasoft has acquired Barloworld Supply Chain Services in a deal announced this morning, which includes Barloworld’s technology, software applications, and employees across Europe. It does not include Barloworld SCS operations in the Middle East and South Africa, which will be covered by the terms of a strategic (more…)
In collaboration with our colleagues at InternetRetailing, we are collating some of latest noteworthy stats and analysis of the forthcoming peak period. As useful information arrives, we’ll update this piece. Predictions Digital commerce consultancy Salmon predicts that UK retailers will collectively take more than £1bn for the first time on (more…)
Greater delivery choice at the online checkout stage can reduce cart abandonment rates, and boost order completions by as much as 10%, according to parcel and carrier manager, GFS. GFS director Simon Veale has described how his customers – which include a mix of small and major retail brands – have reported a 10% (more…)
As we gear up for 2015 peak, here is a feature from the very start of the year, which appeared in the first print edition of our magazine. In it, our executive edit0r, Emma Herrod, reflected on how the industry coped with Black Friday and Christmas. Did a combination of (more…)
As the sector gears up for the busiest period of the year, a national shortage of lorry drivers could undermine deliveries. That’s the warning issued by James Clifford of HGV Training. According to Clifford, thousands of temporary drivers are needed for December, and with 75% of consumers expecting to do (more…)
With Christmas less than 60 days away, and the peak shopping period soon to kick in, more than 100,000 temporary staff are needed to work in warehouses fulfilling ecommerce orders this year. That’s according to one recruitment firm, which is looking for an additional 18,000 temp workers to urgently fill (more…)
Although he’s not in a position to give us his opinion on how to run a successful ecommerce business, few people were more practiced in the art of expansion than Napoleon Bonaparte. The Little Corporal came a cropper 200 years ago, finally succumbing at the battle of Waterloo in June (more…)
Essex-based haulage firm, KBC Logistics, which operates a fleet of 120 44-tonne articulated trucks, has seen a dramatic decrease in the incidence of speeding by its drivers. Thanks to a risk management initiative, which saw the adoption of WEBFLEET, the TomTom Telematics fleet management platform, speeding has dropped by 95%. (more…)