Competing against Amazon? You Need A Blue Ocean Strategy!

Amazon is far and away the leader in the E-C0mmerce space.  Their growth continues at an exceptional pace.  And they continue to expand their products, services, and capabilities.  In short they continue to press their advantage and make it difficult for anyone else to compete with them.  You need a Blue Ocean strategy!

But if you are in the E-Commerce space that is your reality.  Amazon is the biggest shark in the room.  So how do you compete in the face of such an overwhelming adversary?

One technique is to consider creating your own Blue Ocean Strategy to create competitive advantage!  If you can define dramatically different space in which to do business you may be able to keep this shark, and others, at bay (at least for a period of time).

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The Amazon Effect is the New Walmart Effect!

In 1994, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos read a statistic that the Internet had been growing at 2300 percent annually. He fashioned that changing tide into a business plan that has been breaking barriers across supply chain and e-commerce that has left an indelible mark with the Amazon effect.

Beginning with booksellers, the e-commerce giant has expedited the closure of many retailers and threatens to redefine the standards of shopping in a digital world. Retailers are forced to lower prices, optimize their systems and processes, and reduce profit margins in favor of competition; meanwhile, Amazon continues its trek toward dominance.

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Featuring Our 10 Best Warehouse Order Fulfillment Articles!

Our latest “Featuring” series article covers the topic of Warehouse and Distribution Centre order fulfillment. With the exponential growth of E-Commerce and online shopping the backbone of activity that makes it all happen is order fulfillment.

Every time you place an online order someone somewhere is picking up those items and placing them in a box for delivery to you. Given that hundreds of millions of people are doing the same thing at the same time it is imperative that companies have the most efficient fulfillment process possible, whether they do this work themselves or outsource it.

We have had the opportunity to lead the implementation of some world class fulfillment processes, even surpassing the speed of Amazon. So take some time and check out our very best Warehouse and Distribution Centre fulfillment articles!

Enjoy!

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The Omni-channel Approach to Customer Experience!

Unchaining Change Leadership

In the last decade, the growing adoption of ecommerce has been swift–and ruthless. Huge retail market players like Best Buy and Toys R’ Us are shutting down huge chunks of their physical locations due to plummeting revenue and poor customer experience.

Not only is this a result of not embracing ecommerce early in its wave, they are also now competing with ecommerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba who sell the same or competing products online.

Traffic drought in physical stores could be attributed to the rising number of purchases made over the internet for certain customer and product segments. For some, the revenue drop is significant. And yet another part of the challenge big box retailers face as publicly traded companies is that they have to answer to their investors–and with ecommerce delivering superior results, the patience afforded to big box retailers is just not as generous.

So, where does the success of ecommerce lie?

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Turn your Brick And Mortar Stores into E-Commerce Distribution Hubs!

Retailers with Brick and Mortar stores continue to be under tremendous pressure.  Competition is intense in the fast growing Omnichannel E-Commerce world.  Every week there seems to be news about how one Retailer or another is closing more of their stores when they could be using them as Distribution hubs.

And very few Retailers with Brick And Mortar stores have been able to make a profit in E-Commerce.  Competitors who only sell online without physical stores appear to have an advantage with lower overhead costs.

So how can Brick And Mortar Retailers turn their stores into a competitive advantage plus a source of greater profitability?

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Cutting out the Middleman: The Growth of Direct to Consumer!

As supply chains evolve and grow, products are often passed between dozens of hands at factories, shipping vehicles and pallets, distributor warehouses, retail warehouses, shop floors, and delivery fleets. They often travel thousands of miles to go direct to consumer.

And they go through multiple intermediaries, something which has an impact not only on the profit margins, but also on the brand’s ability to connect and communicate with their customer.

With revenue growth remaining a challenge, almost half (48 per cent) of manufacturers are racing to build Direct to Consumer (DTC) channels, with almost all of them (87 per cent) seeing these channels as relevant to their products and consumers.

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Last Mile Delivery! What is your Strategy?

Amazon has set the benchmark for Last Mile Delivery.  With massive Distribution Centres within a short distance of every major population centre they are able to offer fast delivery of virtually any product they sell.  The Amazon Prime Now service promises delivery within 1 hour.

Amazon Fresh is their grocery delivery option and with their Whole Foods acquisition they are obviously planning for rapid delivery.  Amazon Go is their Retail store option.  Amazon Key is their in home delivery service.   And the Amazon promise of drone delivery will further cement their leadership in the Last Mile Delivery race.

So how do you compete with that?  What are your options?  And what is your Strategy?

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What’s the Difference Between Fulfillment and Replenishment?

People who do not work in Supply Chain may hear the terms Fulfillment and Replenishment and consider that they mean the same thing.

Interestingly many people who do work in Supply Chain consider the terms Fulfillment and Replenishment to be synonymous.

I have worked in many different industries and all around the world but the place where I heard these terms used most frequently was in Retail.

Given that there is some ambiguity in the understanding of these terms it makes sense to provide the distinction.

What is the difference between Fulfillment and Replenishment?

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3PL Fulfillment Prices! (Infographic)

Growing e-commerce fulfillment demands and costs have collided to bring about an uptick in average 3PL fulfillment prices within the outsourced fulfillment industry, as was evidenced by FulfillmentCompanies.net’s annual poll of 500+ warehouses across the US.

Each year, the online fulfillment match-making service surveys their network of 3PL companies to gauge the industry’s average costs of doing business, as well as what prices they charge users of fulfillment services. 

Below are the survey results at a glance.

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