Whether it’s a deadly cold snap or a hole under an Antarctic glacier or a terrifying new report, there seem to be constant reminders now of the dangers that climate change poses to humanity.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., think they have a start to a solution.

What is the Green New Deal?

The Green New Deal is an ambitious proposal in the US to combat climate change. Named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to combat the Great Depression, the Green New Deal is a massive stimulus package aimed to address climate change, as well as the rising social, economic, and political inequality in the US that comes with it. It calls for economic mobilization not seen since World War II and the New Deal and aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in half by 2030, shift 100 percent of national power generation to renewable sources, upgrade all infrastructure and transportation for energy efficiency, decarbonize the largest polluting industries (manufacturing and agriculture), fund the capture of GHGs, and virtually eliminate poverty in the US by including everyone in the prosperity that this transition would provide.

Read the article here.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts

This is the million dollar question. Actually, it is a multi-million dollar question, as thousands of people have staked a claim in the success of Amazon’s seller marketplace, and many more are eyeing the potential of selling on Amazon and ready to make a move.

The goal was simply to get a better understanding of what an Amazon seller looked like: simple demographics like age, gender, location, but also at a deeper level, what factors helped the top sellers succeed?

Getting Started is Key!

The hardest part is getting started: finding a product idea, maintaining momentum, and ultimately getting it live on Amazon. If you can do that well, you have set yourself up for success. That is the exact path that every one of these successful sellers we surveyed took.

Read more here.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts

As Amazon gets stronger and companies become more competitive, e-commerce companies need to continually find ways to improve operations, reduce expenses, and at the same time improve customer service.

As we perform operational assessments for multi-channel retailers – while companies have similar functions and processes – they often end up with very different outcomes and costs per order. From the hundreds of practical blogs on our website, here are 13 major ways to make your fulfillment operation more efficient and links to detailed blogs for improvement.

1. Understand your cost per order
2. Compare your service level metrics
3. Reduce outbound shipping cost
4. Increase productivity
5. Effective picking and slotting

Read the full article here.

Some days you might feel like you’re caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Like clockwork, carriers increase their charges. The competition is absorbing more of their shipping costs and offering “free” shipping. The customer’s “point, click and deliver” mentality is here to stay.

The cost of shipping and the time to get the package to the customer affects many customers’ decisions to buy from your business. As these trends continue, multiple distribution centers may be the best bet to reduce shipping costs and deliver faster to the customer. As an alternative to internally managing additional facilities, we recommend companies evaluate the use of 3PL as a major way to reduce start up investment and shorten the schedule. You may be able to reach 80% of your customers in 1-2 days via ground from two strategically placed centers.

However, multi-DC strategies are not the right strategy for every company because of the added expenses, inventory required and managing a second remote center. 

Read full article here.

While the majority of UPS workers represented by the Teamsters union voted against a new contract, negotiations will continue as turnout was low and the no votes didn’t meet the threshold for killing the deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, 54.3% of 243,000 Teamsters members that include UPS drivers, sorters and other workers voted against a new five-year contract Friday, while 62.1% of 11,000 freight workers voted down a separate agreement; several regional and local deals were voted down as well.

Union rules require a two-thirds vote to reject a contract when less than 50% of members vote.

Read the full article here.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts

Creative destruction. The term was coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter to name the process of businesses eliminating one another as they evolve. Today, no company better represents this evolution than Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), the parent of Sears and Kmart.

Now a retail dinosaur and officially bankrupt, Sears was the largest American retailer as recently as the 1980s, and it dominated over the postwar era and much of the 20th century. Many of the innovations and strategies the company pioneered were borrowed by Walmart (NYSE: WMT), the biggest American retailer of the last generation, and later Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), the defining retailer of the e-commerce era — and there are more than a few similarities among them.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Related Blog Posts

In the fight for shoppers’ holiday dollars, retailers are increasingly touting perks like free shipping and easy returns.

Walmart said Tuesday it is expanding two-day shipping and in-store returns to many items sold by third parties on its website next month, just ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.

The move comes as rivals Amazon and Target have been improving their own shipping perks to persuade shoppers to pick them over the competition. When it gets down to the last minute, shoppers who procrastinate later this year will be flocking to the retailers that can get items to them fastest before Christmas.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts

• Fulfillment and operations fixes will play a major role in pulling Pier 1 out of the downward spiral of 11.4% same-store sales declines, said CEO Alastair James on an October earnings call.
• James said “pool distribution,” speeding up fulfillment and consolidating three warehouses into one Columbus, Ohio facility — which happened three months ago — will bring greater speed and efficiency needed to re-engage customers in-store.
• CFO Nancy Walsh named “higher supply chain costs” among the factors putting pressure on gross margins, and the company is evaluating whether tariff hikes could hit margins further.

Pier 1’s “pool distribution,” in which one truck delivers to more than one location, is expected to double store delivery days to twice per week and meant to reduce stockouts and increase the chain’s ability to replenish stores quickly, said the CEO.

James also mentioned the warehouse consolidation as a source of increased efficiency. “The newly configured space which moves us from three buildings down to one is enabling faster processing, improved accuracy, and smarter packaging. We’re now positioned to take the learnings from this transformation and bring this model for the remainder of our supply chain network over time,” said James.

But there is still a serious element of uncertainty behind these strategies to increase efficiency and boost margins since Pier 1 relies so heavily on imports from China. “Approximately 59% of our sales in fiscal 2019 are expected to be generated from goods produced in China. And about half of that will consist of product classes that are subject to the 10% tariff that went into effect last week,” said Walsh.

He added that the retailer is “evaluating” the effects of tariffs in the new year, when they will rise to 25%.

Read the article here.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts

By Heidi Vogt

Discounts established to help less-developed countries have continued to apply even as China has become a major e-commerce shipper.

WASHINGTON—A Trump administration threat to pull out of a global mail system over its discounted shipping rates from China could spur a change in those rates as early as April, the head of the United Nations agency that oversees the system said.The U.S. last week started a year long process to withdraw from the 144-year-old Universal Postal Union because it had failed to eliminate international discounts. Those discounts, aimed at helping developing countries, have continued to apply to China even as it has grown to become the world’s second-largest economy. They can make it cheaper to ship small packages from China to the U.S. than from locations within the U.S.

The move was the latest salvo by the Trump administration against China and a reminder of the president’s willingness to abandon international organizations that he says don’t help U.S. interests. American manufacturers welcomed the move, saying the flood of cheap goods from China undercut their business. The UPU, which is now holding previously scheduled council meetings, commissioned a report Tuesday that is the first step toward fast-tracking new rates, Director General Bishar Hussein said in an interview.

“If we work fast enough, and the member countries are all in consensus on these issues and decisions are made, by April next year I think it is a possibility,” Mr. Hussein said.The discounts also benefit countries including Russia and Mexico. The U.S. has stressed that its decision isn’t only about China, though that obviously is a large factor. Administration officials have said the lower rates cost the U.S. Postal Service some $300 million a year, with discounts ranging from 40% to 70%. Mr. Hussein said he welcomed the move by the U.S. if it manages to reform the group’s “archaic” rates.

“Now with the U.S. coming in and saying, ‘Sorry, enough is enough,’ I think this is going to take the conversation to another level, and I’m very happy to see that,” Mr. Hussein said.

Mr. Hussein stressed that even a fast-tracked process has many steps, including the research report, a proposal and a vote by members. At least half of the organization’s 192 members have to vote for a proposal to be considered, and it can pass only with a two-thirds majority.

If the U.S. were to withdraw from the UPU, it would lose access to global processing and coding systems that make international mail possible, and it would have to negotiate bilateral postal agreements with every individual country, Mr. Hussein said. The U.S. has said it hopes to negotiate a solution that keeps it from having to withdraw from the UPU, but also has said it is proceeding with a plan to institute “self-declared” rates that could take effect within six months.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts

The big-box brand with the bullseye dog are at it again, putting a target on competitors’ backs.

In the never-ending pursuit of Amazon and seeking separation from other foes like Walmart, Target has announced the availability of same-day delivery in 46 states ahead of the peak holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas. The company is also offering free two-day shipping plus curbside pickup on hundreds of thousands of items with no purchase threshold, from Nov. 1 to Dec 22.

Frank Poore, CEO of ecommerce software firm CommerceHub, said the continual push toward “free” and “fast” by the big three just raise the pressure on the rest of the field to keep up, citing Walmart’s non-subscription-based program and incentives for store pickup, in addition to Target.

Read the article here.

Offer 1-day and 2-day shipping at ground rates or less.

Recent Blog Posts