Flexport’s Post

I haven’t posted much on LinkedIn in a bit, but June marks a big milestone for me and my Omnichannel Fulfillment team that I want to celebrate – it’s the one-year anniversary of Flexport's acquisition of Shopify Logistics/Deliverr Inc. As I reflect on this past year, I am overcome with deep gratitude and pride for all the team has built, transformed, and accomplished for merchants in such a short period of time. Integrating two robust businesses and navigating through complexity and ambiguity was no easy feat. On June 6, we closed the acquisition, and a mere 90 days later we launched the first-ever #supplychain product that married international freight services, domestic omnichannel and #ecommerce fulfillment, and trade and financial services. This rapidly evolved the legacy Deliverr Seller Portal into the first platform to connect a customer’s supply chain from factory floor to customer door – now known as Flexport’s Omnichannel Seller Portal. This consumer-grade product lowers the barriers for merchants of all sizes to not only manage their end-to-end logistics in one spot, but make #omnichannel growth achievable by all. We knew from the beginning that our operations, customer service, and execution had to be world-class. We acquired a fragmented network of 50+ warehouses operated by a myriad of 3Ps. This model was a drain on our profitability, and prevented us from consistently driving the quality our customers expect. We designed a new operating model and invested in consolidating our network to five strategically placed hubs that Flexport will own and operate. This rapidly improved our unit economics, but also allowed us to take the reins on performance. We improved our Dock-to-Stock speed, making customer inventory available twice as fast. Our On-Time-Shipping is 99%, and our On-Time-Delivery is 97%+. With this consolidated network, our five hubs now represent more cumulative square footage than we had before, allowing us to co-locate multiple services under one roof for faster processing and scale 5X during Peak, all while maintaining (and in some cases increasing) the speed of delivery. To help merchants grow, Flexport now integrates with more than 30+ eCommerce platforms and #B2B retailers including Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, Costco Wholesale, Target, Nordstrom, and our newest addition SHEIN. Ultimately, this gives merchants flexibility/optionality in how they serve customers with the simplicity of one inventory pool. Since we launched in September, we received substantial interest from merchants, with over 25K sign-ups to the Portal. Thousands of merchants have entrusted us with their goods, booking tens of thousands of shipments, and moving tens of millions of units through our network this past year. We’re on track to crush prior records this Peak, growing alongside our diverse merchants, making fulfillment a long-term profitable growth engine for Flexport. In just 1 year, we learned a ton, built a lot, and delivered even more.

😲With the impact of e-commerce on traditional retailers, a new retail e-commerce model has emerged. Traditional retailers are integrating e-commerce, bridging online and offline sales channels, with warehouses becoming an essential part of online order processing. However, a recent move by retailers in the United States seems to be changing the industry. 🏬To expedite online order delivery, Walgreens closed its e-commerce warehouses in November 2023, using its 8700 retail stores nationwide as fulfillment centers. This mirrors the strategy of retailers like Target and Walmart to enhance online delivery efficiency by leveraging their physical store networks. 🚀Walgreens now requires store employees to pick and pack items, and utilizes third-party delivery platforms such as DoorDash and Uber Eats to deliver orders on the same day. This approach significantly improves the speed of order delivery, merging the distribution networks of e-commerce and in-store sales, and enhancing overall operational efficiency. ⌚️Apart from Walgreens, retailers like Victoria's Secret, Lush, Party City, Staples, Petco, and recently, Best Buy, have partnered with DoorDash. These collaborations not only align with strategic expansions but also cater to changing consumer preferences in the information age. They highlight how traditional retailers are adapting to succeed in a dynamic retail environment, meeting consumer expectations for convenience, speed, and quality through flexible and coordinated approaches. 🛒However, it's worth noting that the "de-warehousing" of the retail industry requires a crucial condition – the retail store layout must be extensive and widespread enough to meet the same-day delivery demands of consumers. For instance, Walgreens ensures that 78% of Americans reside within a 5-mile radius of its retail stores, allowing for efficient management and delivery. Source: Supplychaindive & Pymnts 📩 Send us a message and let us know how we can help #RetailTrends

With a growing number of online retailers now offering to provide third-party logistics to vendors, the boundaries are blurring between e-commerce and logistics. In 2017 we identified a nascent trend in the consumer goods market of moving physical distribution to third-party logistics providers (3PLs). With the growing market share of e-commerce, 3PLs offered a simple and flexible solution just as companies were coming to see physical distribution as a non-core competency. The pandemic has fast-tracked the shift towards omnichannel retail, supercharging the trend of businesses employing 3PLs. This is causing the lines between manufacturer, 3PL, and customer to blur. A look at the online retail giant Amazon helps illustrate this point. Amazon is not simply a retailer that happens to sell its suppliers’ products online. For years, Amazon has been offering a solution called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), whereby Amazon would store goods for its vendors and prepare/ship orders on their behalf – for a fee, of course. Simply put, Amazon offers to act as a 3PL for its vendors. Read the complete article by Ralf Seifert, Professor of Operations Management at IMD, and Richard Markoff, PhD, supply chain author and contributor for IMD, here: https://lnkd.in/eAYvtDww #ecommerce #logisticsindustry #onlineretail #omnichannel Carlos Cordon Nicole Messink Niels Bartels

Temu has set up U.S. warehouses for sellers on its growing marketplace to offer faster delivery. The company has partnered with WINIT and Easy Export to offer the service. Those firms have existing warehouses in the U.S. and elsewhere and will effectively act as Amazon's FBA/ Walmart's WFS of Temu. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gMHgDxu8 📰🔍To stay ahead of the game, sign up to our 'Marketplace News in 60 Seconds' and keep up to date with the latest e-commerce news and updates, plus a fun article of the week! Follow the link to sign up today and get our weekly newsletter delivered straight to your inbox: https://lnkd.in/edFDPn4S #marketplace #omnichannel #ecommerce #insights #news #ecommercetrends #globalmarketplace #businessgrowth #businessexpansion #temu

With a growing number of online retailers now offering to provide third-party logistics to vendors, the boundaries are blurring between e-commerce and logistics. In 2017 we identified a nascent trend in the consumer goods market of moving physical distribution to third-party logistics providers (3PLs). With the growing market share of e-commerce, 3PLs offered a simple and flexible solution just as companies were coming to see physical distribution as a non-core competency. The pandemic has fast-tracked the shift towards omnichannel retail, supercharging the trend of businesses employing 3PLs. This is causing the lines between manufacturer, 3PL, and customer to blur. The repercussions on costs, working capital, and supply chain structures will play out in the coming months and years.

As eCommerce started to grow, experts quickly predicted the "merging" of physical retail and online fulfilment. And we did see that happen quickly, with many retailers picking orders from the floor, using backrooms to handle packages, and all kinds of variations of omnichannel retailing. So, while not a "new" concept, I personally feel what Walmart just announced is the true version of what experts predicted would happen. The line between an actual store and a fulfillment center truly blurring. "These stations are “like a mini post office that receives and delivers packages,” Jennifer McKeehan, SVP of transportation and delivery for Walmart U.S., said in a company blog post. Walmart plans to have more than 40 parcel stations in its stores by the end of the year, and some are already in operation." And from the blog post: "Parcel stations help us move goods even faster to a customer’s home by using our Private Fleet to transport more online orders. Packages originate in our fulfillment centers and move to a sortation center or directly to stores, where they are then delivered to a customer’s home using our last-mile delivery network." Walmart says it has "4,700 stores located within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population" and that they "have over 4,000 stores operating as delivery hubs" in some fashion already. #CSCCSCM #Walmart #parceldelivery #homedelivery #eCommerce #retail #omnichannel #supplychain #logistics

Customer expectations of ultra-fast #delivery speeds, free and flexible #returns, on-demand package tracking and convenient payments are on the rise, changing the game of #ecommerce fulfillment. Recent consumer surveys have also made it clear that customers prioritize online shopping for its convenience, while they consider the overall shopping experience when shopping in-store. Likewise, as e-commerce sales in the U.S. increase year -over -year, so does the need for #retailers to build stronger distribution networks to fulfill these online orders. To compete with e-commerce titans like Amazon, it’s important for each of these retailers to have a strong omnichannel experience. Glossy’s sibling publication Modern Retail recently released the annual Modern Retail Index (MRI), which analyzes retailers’ e-commerce fulfillment services. The data compares retailers’ ease of fulfilling e-commerce orders to provide a ranking of each retailer’s capabilities. The index found the following. Story by Dania Gutierrez-Flores

Expedited shipping can increase transportation expenses by up to 68%, but how can retailers achieve this while remaining competitive with big box retailers like Amazon and Walmart? The answer is order consolidation and order merging! ➢ Order consolidation is the process of centralizing all the items from a customer's order into a single inventory location before shipping. ➢ Order merging is an effective technique used when a customer places multiple orders that can be fulfilled from the same location. OmnichannelOMS empowers businesses to implement these fulfillment strategies to satisfy happy customers and create a more enticing buy with a same-day and next-day shipping promise. Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q0298bQR0 #ShoppingandtheRetailIndustry #Retail #Ecommerce #InventoryManagement

Big box retailers like #Walmart and #Amazon continue to increase their shipping speeds, with same-day delivery offered to customers at little to no extra cost. But how can smaller, #Shopify retailers keep up with this demand for speedy shipping that now feels like a customer expectation? Check out our latest blog to learn how retailers can offer Shopify #SameDayDelivery without breaking the bank. The right #OMS strategy just might be key to improving customer satisfaction and remaining competitive with retail giants. Read now: https://hubs.la/Q02kGkL-0 #ShoppingandtheRetailIndustry #eCommerce #Retail #Omnichannel

Why do merchants need flexible routing rules to make the most of their store fulfillment strategy? We recently discussed this with a Shopify merchant whose stores receive more traffic during certain times of the year and less for the rest of the year. When the store was experiencing lower traffic volume at the store, the staff had the bandwidth to fulfill more online orders. At other times of the year, this was not the case. HotWax Commerce Order Management System enables merchants to set “max order limits,”’ which specify the maximum number of orders that can be sent to a store for fulfillment. This gives the stores more dynamic decision-making power to determine how many orders they can fulfill on a given day or season. Sometimes store fulfillment initiatives can face obstacles due to a lack of support from the stores. To get stores on board, the leadership team should implement incentives, like giving store staff credits and commissions for fulfilling online orders in-store. Similarly, having a “max order limit” allows retailers to send limited orders to stores for fulfillment based on season and store traffic instead of overloading store staff with orders they cannot fulfill because they are busy engaging walk-in customers. This helps in keeping both associates and customers happy, and ultimately results in a better customer experience. Could you use flexible routing rules to improve your store fulfillment strategy? #ShoppingandtheRetailIndustry #eCommerce #Retail #OmnichannelRetail #OrderManagementSystem