Air pollution, overflowing landfills, and greenhouse gasses are all by-products of environmental damage created by manufacturing products and delivering those products into the hands of consumers.  

What — if anything — does watching a Paris runway show on your iPhone or buying a new dress online have to do with the global climate crisis?  

A last-mile distribution center can save you shipping costs, improve order fulfillment and transit time, and help your distributors balance inventory.

It’s a common misconception: A last-mile distribution centers is only for the biggest of retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot. This simply isn’t the case. If your business does significant amounts of e-commerce, a distribution/sales center where customers can pick-up products could be the right move.

The growth of online shopping has caused retailers, rightly, to make real estate investments with an abundance of caution. But in Manhattan, the softening retail market is finding new friends in the pop-up-store concept.

Let’s examine this phenomenon and how it’s helped retailers looking to meet buyer demands for a physical location without a traditional real estate investment.

Here are 6 ways retail is using big data to keep operation costs low, increase customer satisfication, and increase profits.

When it comes to retail, the smallest gains can count the most. With such small margins, every bit helps to keep the bottom line in the black. This goes into keeping track of overhead as well as delivery costs. Now analysts are able to use data to keep operation costs low, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits. So how are retailers using big data to bolster their sales and marketing efforts?

Package theft is particularly problematic around the holidays. But will that make consumers more open to delivery people entering their homes with Amazon Key?

Nearly 11 million U.S. homeowners had a delivered package stolen within the past year. This unfortunate side effect of the e-retail boom has many consumers searching for secure measures to keep their packages safe. Amazon, the company who is responsible for more e-retail than anyone else in this country, thinks they may have the solution in Amazon Key.

We intend this blog to be a resource for direct selling and e-commerce businesses trying to overcome last-mile delivery and shipping challenges. We want to keep you informed about the latest news and trends in your industries, particularly when it comes to last-mile challenges and customer pick-up centers. This is the second part of a two-part series recounting our most popular blog posts covering these topics. See part one here. 

It’s important to us that we keep you informed about the latest trends in your industry, specifically last-mile challenges and customer pick-up centers. In case you missed them the first time around, here is a summary of our most popular posts thus far.

Within any industry, there are issues that arise from time to time, and some issues that may arise more frequently. Direct sellers are not immune to these sorts of problems.

But like any successful enterprise, they look for ways to adapt. So, what are some common pain points direct selling organizations and their distributors face, and how can they overcome them?

Shipping: it’s the blessing and the curse of every e-commerce business. E-commerce is the fastest growing segment of the retail economy, and direct shipping to customers is the grease that keeps it moving. But that “last mile” of delivery — from a distribution point to your customers’ hands — can be especially challenging.

Fast and free shipping: every e-commerce customer wants it. Unfortunately, this sort of service isn’t always feasible. Trying to keep up with the Amazons of the world can put a dent in a business’ bottom line — and sometimes it can even cause a business to fold.