We’re coming to the end of 2018 and preparing for 2019 – and you know what that means: year-end “best of” lists. And, while our list may not be as entertaining as the “top 10 movies of 2018” rankings you’ll see in your social media feeds, we hope that you find it valuable. Here, we present the three Weber Logistics blog posts that were most popular among our readers in 2018.
Growing from 100 orders per month to 15,000 per month. For most companies, that’s a dream come true. But if you have the wrong solution in place for eCommerce order fulfillment, that’s a dream that may never materialize. Here at Weber, this type of quick growth spurt can, and has, happened with eCommerce order fulfillment clients. The only way to handle it is to have an operation that can seamlessly scale to meet the uptick in demand.
Just as Scotch is to transparent tape and Kleenex is to tissue paper, Amazon is synonymous with eCommerce. If you’re selling products online, chances are a sizeable portion of your efforts take place on Amazon’s site with its 197 million users per month.
But, just because Amazon’s marketplace is where you want your products to be, doesn’t mean that Amazon’s fulfillment service (Fulfillment By Amazon – FBA) is the best method for you to store your products and ship them after sale on Amazon or anywhere else. There are many third-party logistics (3PL) providers that, although smaller than FBA, are just as adept at handling your eCommerce fulfillment services.
In today’s growing e-commerce world, online businesses are in a position to optimize their operations that will fuel growth, because they are able to focus on a single product-to-consumer distribution channel. Many of the technical aspects of e-commerce business such as social marketing, website design and content management continue to be executed by in-house staff. These functions are crucial and have to be in house as they are the foundation of growing startups and online business. But when it comes to the operational and logistics aspect of the business, adding on an outside partner that has the knowledge and expertise to optimize your supply chain could provide great value.
“I want it and I want it now!” the mantra of consumers. Companies are doing everything they can to compete with one another in order turnaround time.
Amazon was one of the first to enter this realm with Prime 2 day shipping. Many big box retailers have jumped in the game of quick turnaround time for orders. They allow consumers the opportunity to order online and deliver to home or to store for pick up in days or even hours.
One week delivery simply does not cut it anymore. Partnering with a 3PL can help you deliver your product the quickest way possible.
According to the Fall 2013 “Big Box Velocity Index” from Jones Lang LaSalle, even though just 5.5% of current retail sales are online, fully 12% of the U.S. requirements for warehouse space are eCommerce related. The reason? eCommerce fulfillment is increasingly moving to a one-day and same-day delivery model. So companies, like Amazon, have to increase the number of distribution centers to get physically closer customers.
eCommerce sales in Q4 2012 broke another record. For the year, online sales grew 15.8%, while retail trade in general grew only 5%. When it comes to retail sales, “clicks are definitely gaining on bricks” and making efficient multi channel fulfillment a priority.
In a previous blog post, we discussed the Southern California warehouse market. In this post, we want to focus on the Inland Empire region – the logistics hub of Southern California. Located about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, the region has 1.1 billion square feet of warehouse space. The traditional strength of the Inland Empire has been its access to the nation’s largest port complex in Los Angeles-Long Beach.
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