Innovation of the Year: Disruptive technology products must get to market faster than ever, and a product innovation center at Flextronics reconfigures the supply chain to do just that.
Runner-up: Sears Holdings Corp.
Finalists: Intel, Fast Logistics, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council
Getting your finished goods to customers damage-free is key, but it never hurts the bottom line to do that cost effectively and in an environmentally friendly manner. Intel accomplished all of that by changing how it packaged its products.
Late or inaccurate deliveries greatly impact consumers' future decisions to shop with a retailer online, by phone or in the store, according to a Voxware study of 500 consumers.
With the meteoric rise of both e-commerce and express shipping across China, a distribution relationship between Alibaba and SF Express seems to be a natural fit. However, with SF Express recently showing interest in developing its own e-commerce businesses, Alibaba may consider SF Express as more of a competitor, making China Postal Airlines a more comfortable distribution option.
This past June, the largest overnight delivery carriers, FedEx and UPS, announced that they would apply dimensional weight pricing to all shipments, effective January 2015. It is expected that shipping costs will increase 20 percent to 30 percent and affect over 70 percent of all shipments. What shippers are truly affected by the new pricing model? What can be done to avoid the cost increase?
Deliv, a provider of same-day delivery on behalf of retailers, is expanding its service area with the addition of four urban centers: Seattle, Houston, northern New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
UPS has launched UPS Temperature True Cryo, a service that includes real-time tracking and intervention services for healthcare customers with temperature-sensitive shipments.