Package delivery company United Parcel Service Inc says it will consider raising prices across the board in coming years to offset pressure on margins, particularly from the rising costs of delivering packages to e-commerce customers.
The biggest companies by market capitalization 15 years ago were deeply rooted in the physical world. No. 3 Exxon sold you the gasoline to drive to no. 5 Walmart back in 2001. Even Microsoft, the no. 2 company, dealt largely in the OS and software for your notebook or desktop PC.
Two container shipping lines, France's CMA CGM and Israel's Zim, have signed up with Alibaba to allow customers to book space on their vessels through the Chinese e-commerce giant, in a bid to boost sales as the sector battles a severe downturn.
For Q4 2016, $109.3bn was spent online - marking an 18-percent increase versus the same quarter in 2015 - according to comScore's report on U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers and mobile devices.
Electronics manufacturer Thin Film Electronics ASA (Thinfilm) and Dutch logistics solutions provider Prime Vision are teaming up to develop an RFID-enabled smart packaging system. Prime Vision is utilizing Thinfilm's OpenSense and SpeedTap Near Field Communication (NFC) tags as it develops its new solution.
FedEx Supply Chain has announced the launch of FedEx Fulfillment, a service designed to meet the shipping needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to challenge to Amazon's dominance of the e-commerce sector, the company says. FedEx Fulfillment delivers orders across multiple channels, including websites and online marketplaces, and manages inventory for participating retailers.
The availability of same-day delivery is still catching up with demand as retailers seek new ways to combat Amazon, according to a new study from L2 on the omnichannel fulfillment landscape and customer expectations. This could be an opportunity area for retailers as delivery partners can make same-day a reality across a wider swath of the country than Amazon, which covers 27 U.S. markets at present.