Innovation has been fast and furious in the last-mile delivery sector lately, and shows no signs of letting up. Uber recently announced a new service, UberRUSH, which offers same-day delivery of local products. This service is similar to many others on the market, including Postmates, but Uber has taken the step of integrating its platform…
Archives for logistics
3PL: An Evolution
A look back at the evolution of logistics is an interesting one. Defined as “the management of materials flow through an organization, from raw materials through to finished goods”, logistics had been relatively unchanged for hundreds of years. Civilizations moved boxes, put products on ships, cars, trucks, trains and planes, and traveled all over the…
The Need for Big Data reaches Grocery
With consumer behavior becoming more erratic than ever, data analytics are crucial for future success in the grocery industry. According to a recent article on brick meets click, grocers need to catch up with other retail sectors and embrace analytical tools that offer both cost savings and the benefits of knowing their customers. Using analytics,…
Uber’s New Delivery Program
TechCrunch reports that Uber is planning on launching a new delivery service for retailers through its drivers and Uber Rush couriers. Sources say there are already 400 retailers in talks with Uber for same-day delivery services, including Neiman Marcus, Tiffany’s, and Hugo Boss. This service would be in addition to Uber’s current offerings, which entail…
Distribution 3.0: The Physical Internet
The below is an excerpt from ES3’s “collaborate.grow.win. how smart devices create smart supply networks” whitepaper. Receive your copy today to understand the impacts of the convergence of the Internet of Things and the Physical Internet on retail’s future state. The Physical Internet provides a global framework for collaboration, enabling scale and cost-savings. Designed to…
Shipping from Store Adds Cost- Lessons from Apparel and Accessories
DSW, the footwear and accessories retailer, shared its experience with omni-channel retailing on a call with analysts yesterday. Discussing fourth-quarter earnings, Mike MacDonald, president and CEO, reported revenue of $640.2 million in the fourth-quarter, $100 million of which was from omni-channel. According to MacDonald, about half of those omni-channel sales are fulfilled from in-store stock….
Amazon Prime Now: One-Hour Delivery in Manhattan
Last Thursday, Amazon implemented Amazon Prime Now, yet another benefit for Prime subscribers, a one-hour delivery service for select products in Manhattan. One-hour delivery costs $7.99, but two-hour delivery is completely free for Prime members. The online retail giant has not disclosed logistical details, but its new 17-year lease on over 400,000 square feet of…
Dabba-What? Dabbawalla!
As mentioned last week, Starbucks hopes to begin desk delivery in select urban markets as early as next year. Desk delivery in a crowded city environment sounds equally like a new complex innovation and a logistical nightmare. But what if a vastly successful delivery system already existed? What could we learn from it? On the other side of…
UPS Holiday Volume to Peak on Dec. 22
UPS expects to deliver more than 585 million packages this December, up 11% over last year. During the 2013 Holiday Season, bad weather and last-minute orders prevented UPS and FedEx from meeting Christmas delivery deadlines, resulting in many unhappy customers. This year, both FedEx and UPS have increased capacity and tightened last-minute order deadlines in order to not…
Uber Breaks Out Same-Day Delivery Service
Uber flexes its startup muscle and announces a new same-day delivery service called Uber Corner Store available only in certain parts of Washington D.C. The announcement comes just a few months after Uber launched UberRUSH, a courier delivery system in Manhattan where customers can have items be picked up and dropped off at a specific address by Uber…