A new start-up out of San Francisco, Swapbox bills itself as a robotic post office, providing shipping and receiving services. This dual functionality of the Swapbox differentiates it from other locker programs, as most only offer delivery. Additionally, Swapbox works across all retailers, similar to a PO Box. When checking out online, the shopper enters…
Archives for September 2014
Whole Foods Promotes Instacart Partnership
In a lighthearted video, Whole Foods and Instacart extol the benefits of their new partnership. Want hard to find products or want to send groceries to your favorite college student? The service has you covered with rapid delivery. As detailed in our previous post, Whole Foods now offers online ordering and delivery via Instacart in…
Online Shopping Can Help Brick and Mortar Stores
“Webrooming” occurs when a customer researches or browses products online and ultimately buys in store; “showrooming” happens when a customer browses in store and buys online. Retailers apprehensively believed that “showrooming” would end their business at the start of the internet age. According to new research from Nielson, interestingly, 88% of U.S. consumers admit to…
Amazon Drops Price of Fire Phone to 99 Cents
Amazon drastically cut the price of its 32-bit Fire Phone to $0.99 from $199, in an attempt to increase the Fire Phone’s mediocre sales, only a few months after the phone’s debut. The price cut come strategically a few days before Apple’s announcement of a new iPhone and a new mobile payments system, Apple Pay….
Apple Announces a New Mobile Payment System, Whole Foods Signs Up
With the new announcement, Apple attempts to succeed where other mobile payment systems have quietly under performed, payment systems like Google Wallet and Softcard. Apple Pay will use near-field communication (NFC) to process the mobile payment. A customer can simply wave their mobile phone in front of a retail terminal and press their thumbprint on…
There’s No Such Thing as Free Supply Courses, or Is There?
MIT is providing materials for its new digital supply chain course for free to students and working professionals. The first course provides a survey of tools, approaches, and techniques for the design and operation of supply chains. This is a chance for all of us to continue to learn at no cost. MIT Plans Launch…
Whole Foods Partners with Instacart
Whole Foods announces a new partnership with grocery delivery start-up Instacart, to deliver groceries from their stores directly to their customers’ homes. The service will be immediately available in the 15 U.S. cities where Instacart already operates, and the two companies are also testing an in-store pickup service in select stores in Boston and Austin….
Amazon is 20 Years Old. What will the next 25 years bring?
Amazon’s stock price goes up as its margins decline. Will investors continue to believe? Will the ever fickle Millennials stick with Amazon or will it become “where grannies shop” mimicking the trend of Facebook which has lost favor with Millenials. Will the burden of all of the infrastructure Amazon is putting in to support same-day…
Multi-Channel Moves In House
When eCommerce first gained a lot of volume, retailers built dedicated warehouses to ship orders. This process resulted in the creation of two inventory pools, one for online, and one for in-store. Often these two inventory pools are separated by a firewall, and cannot communicate. This makes for a frustrating experience as a shopper; how…
Forbes: Top 3 Shopping Trends
Retail is changing more now than in any time in history. For those of us trying to “aim where the ball is going,” predicting future trends is what it is all about. Forbes suggest that the top three trends are: Location-based Technology: Knowing where your customers are and how to use that information to engage…