Category Archives: Ecommerce

Do surging ecommerce orders portend lower ontime Christmas deliveries by UPS and FedEx

Posted on December 17, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (December 13, 2016) titled “UPS, FedEx Struggle to Keep Up with Surge in Holiday Orders” describes the increase in ecommerce orders from 18% last year to 25% this year and a reduction in … Continue reading →

Posted in Capacity, competitiveness, consumer, Cost, delivery, Ecommerce, Supply Chain Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon.com’s 43% increase in shipping costs

Posted on October 30, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (October 28 2016) titled “Amazon’s Shipping Costs Likely to Surge With Holiday Orders” describes a 43% increase in shipping costs in the third quarter of this year as reported by Amazon.com. The article … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, competitiveness, consumer, Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, ordering, truck | Tagged | Leave a comment

Will distributed satellite facilities and automation maintain holiday hiring as volumes grow at FedEx and UPS ?

Posted on September 30, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (Sept 30, 2016) titled “FedEx, UPS Gear Up for Holiday Season With More Sorting Hubs, Technology” describes moves by FedEx and UPS to create satellite facilities and mobile delivery centers respectively, and increase … Continue reading →

Posted in consumer, Cost, delivery, Ecommerce, logistics, Operations Management, ordering, Prices, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues, technology, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ecommerce and time to market

Posted on September 17, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Financial Times,  (November 20 2015) titled “Ecommerce offers a cheaper and faster way to market”, describes the growth of BAT i.e., Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, in China. With Alibaba selling $14.3 billion worth of goods on … Continue reading →

Posted in consumer, Cost, delivery, Ecommerce, Global Contexts, Service Operations, ship, Supply Chain Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon’s logistics foray and UPS relationship

Posted on September 17, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (December 23,2015) titled “Amazon Seeks to Ease Ties with UPS” describes the close relationship between the two companies evolving into one where Amazon is attempting to control it’s logistics costs, which increased from … Continue reading →

Posted in Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, Supply Chain Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The productivity benefits from Amazon ‘s Kiva robots

Posted on June 20, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in Quartz (http://qz.com/709541/amazon-is-just-beginning-to-use-robots-in-its-warehouses-and-theyre-already-making-a-huge-difference/) claims that the “click to ship” time at Amazon has decreased from 60-75 minutes with human operators to 15 minutes using Kiva robots. In addition, with robots, warehouse inventory can increase by 50%, thus decreasing … Continue reading →

Posted in competitiveness, consumer, Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, Operations Management, productivity, Service Operations, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 161 Comments

Shopping cart robots at Walmart ?

Posted on June 20, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the website geek.com (http://www.geek.com/news/walmart-is-turning-its-shopping-carts-into-robots-that-follow-you-1658786/) describes a partnership between Walmart and Five element Robotics to assist Walmart shoppers using a personal robot. The goal is to have the robot gather things in the shopper’s shopping list and freeing … Continue reading →

Posted in competitiveness, consumer, Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, Operations Management, productivity, Service Operations, technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Will managing delivery logistics help Amazon improve service?

Posted on February 21, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal (December 23,2015) titled “Amazon Seeks to Ease Ties with UPS” describes the close relationship between the two companies evolving into one in which Amazon is now attempting to control it’s logistics costs, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Capacity, competitiveness, Cost, delivery, Ecommerce, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Will shared luxury car buying succeed?

Posted on February 21, 2016 by aviyer2010

An article in the Financial Times (February 19, 2016) titled “Car-sharing tests boundaries of the motor industry” describe a company, Orto, that plans to offer four customers shared ownership of cars such as Jaguar F-type. Owners get access for 170 … Continue reading →

Posted in Capacity, Collaboration, consumer, Cost, Ecommerce, logistics, manufacturer | Tagged | 1 Comment

Amazon’s Dash button for consumers

Posted on March 31, 2015 by aviyer2010

An article in The Verge (March 31, 2015) titled “Amazon Has invented tiny plastic buttons that simplify ordering” describes Amazon’s partnership with 18 manufacturers to supply wifi enabled buttons that, when pressed, generate an order through Amazon Prime.  These buttons … Continue reading →

Posted in consumer, Cost, delivery, Ecommerce, loyalty, manufacturer, ordering, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment