Category Archives: Ecommerce

Will Amazon’s delivery trucks permit competitive same day delivery?

An article in the Wall Street Journal (April 24,2014) titled “Amazon, in a Threat to UPS, tries its own deliveries”, describes a plan by Amazon in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, to operate its own Amazon logo delivery … Continue reading

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The “click and collect” grocery model in the UK

An article in the Financial Times (April 21, 2014) titled “WalMart’s English Experiment”, describes “click and collect”, an approach where WalMart owned Asda’s customers in the UK order their grocery online, it is delivered to temperature controlled lockers close to … Continue reading

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Ullmart’s three tier ecommerce distribution in Russia

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (March 10,2014) titled “In Russia, call it You-Commerce”, describes the company Ullmart, that sells 55,000 fast moving items through a three tier distribution system. The company buys from manufacturers to three warehouses that supply 30 urban … Continue reading

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Is web ordering shifting the market share to national chains ?

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Big Pizza Chains use web ordering to slice out a bigger market share” (February 6,2014), describes an increase in the market share for large pizza chains to 52% from 47% in 2009, … Continue reading

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Amazon’s “Flow” tool and potential impact

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Amazon’s Flow Image Recognition beats Barcode Scans” describes an app that enables Amazon’s customers to use their smartphone cameras to identify objects without the need to scan the barcode. This increases the … Continue reading

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Delivery, fashion tips, payment collection and returns by Lamoda’s couriers

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek titled “Where the Deliveryman Gives Fashion Advice” (February 10, 2014), describes the ecommerce website Lamoda in Russia. The internet fashion retailer offers home delivery of fashion that customers can try on and decide within 15 minute … Continue reading

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“Anticipatory Shipping” ideas from Amazon

An article in the CBS News website (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-files-patent-for-anticipatory-shipping/) titled “Amazon files patent for anticipatory shipping” provides an outline of the idea. The key is that goods would be shipped out before the customer places the order so that the deliveries … Continue reading

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The many reasons for Christmas delivery delays by UPS

An article in Supply Chain Digest (Jan 6, 2014) available at (http://www.scdigest.com/ontarget/14-01-06-2.php?cid=7717) discusses reasons for the delivery delays of Christmas orders handled by UPS. While UPS anticipated an 8% increase in shipment volume, and added 55,000 employees and 23 aircraft, … Continue reading

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Centralized vs decentralized last mile delivery models in New York City

An article in the Wall Street. Journal (December 21,2013) titled titled “Delivery goes Hi-Tech” describes Hobsons, a delivery service with its own vans that does 300 trips a day currently, and Postmates, a decentralized service provider that broadcasts request to … Continue reading

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Tracking consumers and adjusting inventory locations to improve retail performance

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Hot at the Mall:Heat Maps to Track Shoppers” (December 9,2013) describes heat sensor technology and cell phone tracking software used by retailers to identify shoppers routes through the store, bottlenecks, and products … Continue reading

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