Channel & Market Strategy

Many companies, particularly at early stage, face a common dilemma around eCommerce fulfilment.  Is it better to maintain in house – keeping control over that vital customer experience, or to outsource to a provider that can manage professionally and at scale?   Pros Cons In house fulfilment – Direct control of the customer experience.– Opportunity […]

International companies seeking to access European markets have long realised that Europe is not a single homogenous market.  Language, cultural, financial, and infrastructure differences have always existed.  While the development of the EU has simplified many elements of trade, companies looking to trade with European customers – particularly since BREXIT – need to solve many […]

The eCommerce brand experience that starts online continues through order confirmation, payment experience, order tracking, delivery and subsequent support.  The package that is delivered to your customer’s door is the first physical introduction to your brand, so it is worth paying attention to the message it delivers. Fit the packaging to your product Choose packaging that […]

As we enter the peak retail season for many companies, it is useful to reflect on the impact of supply chain on in-store activities. Receiving supplier deliveries, managing purchase orders, repricing items, adding security tags, replenishing shelves, merchandising items, picking eCommerce orders and picking products for returns are just some of the supply chain activities […]

In May this year, Shopify announced its intention to acquire the logistics provider Deliverr for $2.1B.   Founded in 2017, Deliverr created a network of eCommerce fulfilment operations, connected through a single platform that managed inventory and the delivery promise to customers.  The month before, CEVA Logistics completed the acquisition of Ingram Micro Commerce and Lifecycle Services, […]

There was a time when you could go to the darkest corner of most warehouses and find a bone pile of wrapped pallets of returns.    Returns were the inconvenient afterthought of supply chains and the chore that was left until the pile could no longer be ignored.  Along with the task of sorting through […]

Reflecting on a challenging retail season As retailers reflect on what has been a challenging holiday season, supply chain constraints will feature heavily in their considerations. Planned inventories to support holiday sales and promotions were disrupted.  Supplier shipments were delayed, transportation costs rose, and suppliers looked to recover additional costs.  Labour shortages across the supply […]

The prospect of driver shortages in our supply chains been well flagged for some time.  In many labour markets around the world, the driver population is ageing, and the industry struggles to attract new entrants.  At the same time, our expectations of drivers to improve the customer experience, facilitate trade complexities, aid regulatory compliance and […]

Cyber Risk in Supply Chain On the 14th of May 2021, the Irish health service was the victim of a ransomware attack.  The attack forced the immediate shut down of all of the services’ IT systems.  The immediacy and scale of the disruption from such an event, has made cyber risk in supply chains an […]

Packaging trends in eCommerce In an online world the customer experience is dictated by a series of interactions from pre-purchase, to the online store experience, through payment, fulfilment, order communications and the delivery and presentation of goods to the receiver.  The brand is reflected in all of these touchpoints.  A positive customer experience comes from […]