Amazon by the Numbers! (Infographic)

Whether you love, hate or remain neutral on Amazon, one can only marvel and admire Amazon by the numbers which only appear to be accelerating.

The infographic from Fortna in this post from Jeff Ashcroft provides a startling picture of where Amazon is at currently and how they’re expected to handle over half of online e-commerce transactions with Walmart now only at 5% and growing!

Content provided by Jeff Ashcroft.

Competing against Amazon? You need a Blue Ocean strategy!

Amazon by the numbers article and permission to publish here provided by Jeff Ashcroft. Originally published on Supply Chain Game Changer on August 24, 2017.

Has Walmart Beat Amazon Using an Omnichannel Returns Strategy?

Amazon has reigned supreme in e-commerce for years, but Walmart is well on its way to making the e-commerce giant a little nervous. Amazon acquired Whole Foods and dropped the price of Prime Pantry through Prime Perks. Amazon began looking into brick-and-mortar storefronts, hoping to capture a new slice of the omnichannel pie.

Walmart has a different approach, and in several ways, Walmart is positioning itself to best Amazon in e-commerce through an innovative, omnichannel return strategy. To understand the true scope of this accomplishment, supply chain leaders need to understand the precursor steps Walmart has taken.

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3 Challenges Facing Supply Chain in the Next 5 Years!

We stand at the cusp of some interesting new possibilities for business. As such, we can expect some potentially drastic changes, and with them the need for smart solutions. We’ll take a look at a handful of the major challenges facing supply chain over the next half-decade, and how the industry is approaching these. 

It can sometimes feel as though our commercial landscape is in a constant state of flux. Whether due to frequent changes in technology, attitudes of consumers, or shifts in working practices, this can breed both an exciting sense of competition, as well as uncertainty. Supply chain managers are often at the forefront of these developments.   

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Omnichannel Customer Service Best Practices!

The growing size of today’s consumer market sets the stage for entrepreneurs and companies of varying capacities to take part. The US consumer market alone was at $1.5 trillion in 2016. And this number is continuously increasing, including omnichannel customer service.

According to an article from AdAge, US Gen Y or millennials are also swiftly increasing their slice of the pie, spending more than $200 billion annually.

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The Christmas Retail Checklist – Get Your Store Prepared! (Infographic)

Now that the record-breaking Black Friday is behind us, retailers small and large must place their focus over the coming weeks on preparing for the Christmas retail holiday shopping season.

According to a report by Gartner L2, nearly 85%of holiday sales in 2017 took place in brick-and-mortar stores. It’s therefore hugely important for retailers to make the most of this time to get everything ready to maximise sales over the holiday period.

If you’re unsure where to start, we recommend taking a look at this helpful infographic from the team at Colourfast Printing which offers a handy Christmas retail checklist.

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The Omnichannel Alphabet Soup!

Unchaining Change Leadership

At the start of my career, most brands and OEMs used a traditional two-tier distribution process through wholesalers and retailers to sell their products. There was no omnichannel alphabet soup.

“Advanced” companies passed orders via EDI. Brands knew little about their end-users, a far cry from today’s growing customer-centric approach with expanding arrays of channels and convenience options.

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Last Minute Supply Chain Preparation for Black Friday!

Black Friday is almost here!

Retailers have been anticipating and preparing for this over the last year.  It has become the biggest online shopping period of the entire year with expectations for exponential growth over last year.

Further this period is so dramatically busier than at any other time of the year that it has an absolutely enormous impact on the Supply Chain of these companies.

In fact the readiness of the Supply Chain can make or break the success of Black Friday for most any company.

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What are the Top 7 Trends in Last Mile Logistics?

SC Viral The Pandemic Diaries

Shippers face many challenges in successfully delivering products to end-users, and last mile logistics will be a core focus of change in the coming months. Consumer demands and expectations are rising, and up to 25 percent of consumers are willing to pay extra for same-day delivery.

Also, same-day delivery will reach a 25-percent market share by 2025. By 2018 alone, same-day delivery and last mile logistics will be valued at more than $1.35 billion.

E-commerce is the driving force behind the sudden uptick in last mile logistics, and as explained by Logistics Management, e-commerce is expected to grow to $2.4 trillion by 2018 as well.

To gain a competitive advantage in last mile logistics, shippers need to understand the top seven trends in last mile logistics.

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Shipping With Amazon: Cutting out the Middle Man!

In February, 2018 it was reported that Amazon was going to launch its own delivery service:  Shipping With Amazon!

Effectively Amazon has declared that they are officially entering the logistics business.  The “Shipping With Amazon” service, albeit currently on a much smaller scale, competes with the logistics service and delivery capabilities offered by UPS, FedEx, and UPS.

But these are incredibly large, well established logistics companies.  And they are also the major delivery service suppliers to Amazon.

So why would Amazon choose to go into this space?

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Full Case Fulfillment – The Retail Holy Grail!

The retail company I had joined had just invested $25 million to automate their Distribution Centre. They automated the process of fulfilling orders in individual units, or eaches, instead of case fulfillment.

As I learned more and more about the system and the operation it became obvious to me that the entire paradigm that went into the $25 million investment was wrong. They wasted at least $20 million by perpetuating individual unit.

They could have save a lot of time and money by changing their fundamental operating model to one of case fulfillment – the Retail Holy Grail!

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Space Planning: Could You Run Out of Space in Your Warehouse too?

“We are out of space!”

“What?  We’re only in the middle of September.”

“The receiving docks are backed up.  We have trucks in the parking lot waiting to unload their goods.  There are even more containers on their way.  And we have no empty space left in the warehouse racking.”

That was the actual conversation I had with the head of the Distribution Centre (DC).  We had a big problem on our hands to say the least.

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The Growing Expectations of Last Mile Delivery!

The latest advancements in technology have had huge impacts on the world we live in, almost overnight transforming industries such as taxi services, food and grocery delivery, and music. Sometimes this change happens so fast it’s hard to even comprehend the growing expectations and what’s happening for businesses and consumers alike.

Although many of these growing expectations have been positive, creating a more efficient and faster-moving world (can you imagine a world without Uber?), there are many that reach too far, not taking into account the realities of the industry they are frantic to establish themselves in.

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7 Pitfalls of Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon)!

Fulfillment by Amazon or Amazon FBA lets sellers in the Amazon marketplace take advantage of Amazon’s giant logistics operation to ship their orders.

FBA items are eligible for Amazon Prime shipping and Amazon handles your angry customers (which Amazon considers its customers, not yours). Amazon has dozens of warehouses all over the country, and more around the world, so your products may be in your customers’ hands quickly.

If you pull back the Amazon curtain, however, you find the picture isn’t always rosy.

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Warehousing: Optimize Storage Locations!

“We just spent several millions of dollars on a new Warehouse Management System for our E-Commerce Online Distribution Centre.  We do not need to spend any more money on our Supply Chain.” That sounded very intriguing to say the least.  At a minimize we needed to optimize storage.

The E-Commerce business anticipated 20-30% year to year growth. I could only interpret, having just joined the company, that all of the steps and planning needed had been taken.  We had to ensure that the Distribution Centre could handle Holiday volumes, especially over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period.

However imagine my surprise when I went to the Online Distribution Centre.  All I saw was a very large warehouse with nothing but racks and shelving as far as the eye could see.  Employees were pushing carts up and down aisles, across the entire warehouse.  They were trying to find each of the products required to fill a particular customer order. The company had just invested in an expensive Warehouse Management System.

Yet  no time or money had been spent on process optimization, order fulfillment cycle time reduction,  cost reduction, or peak capacity load management.

We were in for a hectic Holiday season, at best!

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Get Ready for Holiday Now: Make It Boring (From A Supply Chain Perspective)!

The Holiday season finished recently.  And the next Holiday season may seem far away.  But in the area of E-Commerce Fulfillment it will be here before you know it.  Now is the time to begin implementing the improvements and strategies you need to make this coming Holiday season more successful than last year.

Having gone through the ups and downs and stresses of several Retail Holiday seasons myself, one January I gave this direction to my team.  For the upcoming Holiday our theme was that we were going to have a BORING Holiday season … from a Supply Chain perspective.

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