The Federal Aviation Administration is so slow to approve drone permits that the aircraft become obsolete while waiting, an Amazon executive told a Senate panel last week.

In 2015 we will see a change to how all UPS and FedEx shippers pay for ground packages. No longer based simply on physical weight, dimensional (DIM) weight pricing takes into account the exterior package size which is the amount of space a package occupies when in the cargo area of a transport vehicle. – Paul Steiner, Vice President of Strategic Analysis, Spend Management Experts

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.