Amazon to open another Fulfillment Centre in US

 Amazon opens the forth fulfillment center in the US as the need for more capacity to continue to satisfy high expectations of online shoppers for on-time, fast product deliveries become central for the giant online retailer and a network of small businesses that use its logistics services.

Fulfillment centers are giant warehouses that help online retailers to store and ship products and handle returns quickly. These are important for providing the level of customer service that customers have come to expect of Amazon.

Over the past few years, Amazon has invested heavily to set up fulfillment centers across the country to reduce shipping costs and speed up delivery to its customers. To further automate its order fulfillment, Amazon agreed to buy warehouse-robot maker Kiva Systems Inc. in 2012 for $775 million. This was the company's biggest acquisition since the buyout of shoe retailer Zappos.com in 2009.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/amazon-to-open-fulfillment-center-in-washington-analyst-blog-cm337490

Amazon's venture into 3D printing retailing

This past year Amazon partnered with 3DLT and several other 3D printing companies to offer their products through Amazon's digital store front. At the time, the industry is still in a nascent state of development offering limited options to consumer in terms of variety of products they can get via 3D technology. However, this technology in the not so distant future can change the way consumers think of product purchases. Furthermore, it may turn traditional supply chain upside down and permanently alter how manufacturers and retailers operate.

In the future 3D technology will allow people to buy digital designs of products, the material to make the products from and printers to print them on all in the comfort of their homes, thereby eliminating the need to travel to a retail location or wait for a delivery of an online product. Instant gratification and reduction of scarcity are the some of the consumer benefits this technology offers.

Read more about this topic here...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/03/13/how-3d-printing-could-transform-amazon-and-online-shopping/?tid=hpModule_79c38dfc-8691-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394

Wal-Mart takes aim at Amazon's online dominance

Wal-Mart Stores is rapidly building fulfillment capacity and will be able to match Amazon's range of products and delivery speed within two years, Wal-Mart Global E-commerce CEO Neil Ashe says. "This is not a side project," he said. "This is how we will be serving customers going forward." 

NRF

News about Amazon

Planet Retail reports that Amazon is going to experiment with the new single package delivery and demand anticipation models wherein the company will use its extraordinary analytic capacity to predict the likelihood of an item purchase and ship it closer to the client's location to cut the delivery time and cost for the customer. 

Another news is the company now offers Sunday delivery service in UK. 

Price Intelligence - a big gun in Amazon's arsenal

Amazon.com makes more than 2.5 million price changes every day, compared with a little more than 50,000 total price changes made by brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart and Best Buy throughout November.

The extent of Amazon.com’s daily price changes is even more significant when compared with the number of daily price changes implemented by brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart and Best Buy. During November, Best Buy made a total of 52,956 price changes and Walmart a total of 54,633 price changes, highlighting the massive price advantage Amazon has over other retailers — and demonstrating why retailers need to monitor their online competitors’ prices every day to remain competitive on the market and avoid losing sales.

http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/amazon%E2%80%99s-quest-be-most-price-competitive-retailer-web

Buying local will beat online in the next 5 years

 According to one of the predictions from the IBM "5 in 5" annual report about the use of technology in the not so distant future, "buying local will beat online".

The forthcoming innovations can bring the power of the Web into the bricks and mortar stores making sales people smarter and more effective at servicing customers.

Artificial intelligence can be incorporated into physical shopping experience.

Augmented reality can deliver more information to the store shelves.

Retailers will use the immediacy of the store and proximity to customers to create experiences that online-only retail can’t replicate.

The technology will help stores to anticipate customer wants and needs. 

The report even suggests that on-line retailers will have to "set up showrooms to help their own sales".

Technology will help us save time and reduce the 'pains' of shopping for some while amplifying the fun of shopping for others. In grocery retail, augmented reality will map out the optimal route to the products on our shopping list; based on the list of product, a shopper may get suggestions as to some items a person may be missing; using the history of one's shopping choices, the technology can help us not miss some stuff we usually buy or suggest something new to try in line with our tastes; or show what's on sale visually, directing a shopper to the sale products; we may be able to see interactive product descriptions and contents that will even tell us if they can work with our diet plan or health requirements; we will be able to locate staff on the floor and connect with them more easily or a store manager or any other function of the company; we will be able to instantly share our thoughts about products with fellow shoppers and ask their opinion about it. In apparel retailing, we will be able to instanteniously get fitting rooms and remotely ask for help; get any information about the product contents, construction, history, compare them with what we have in our wardrobe; we will be able to get our questions answered and concerns addressed. The home and hardware retailers will show and explain how to use, store and recycle products. Physical retailing will be interactive, efficient and fun.

To expand on the topic about what could happen in the future, here's the link to Michio Kaku's "The Physics of the Future", which gives mind boggling predictions based on more than 300 interviews with top scientists of today - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UgE-NhcmbM







http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/16/ibm-reveals-its-top-five-predictions-for-the-next-five-years/

Victims of late Xmas package deliveries, try shopping in store

 This short article about the failure of UPS to deliver last minute Christmas online purchases on time raises an interesting point. Perhaps it is not realistic to count on last minute online purchases for Christmas to arrive on time. This is a great opportunity for brick and mortar retailers to drive more traffic to stores a few day before December 25. I expect that next year we will see commercials with this theme on TV before Xmas. Hopefully this will alleviate some of the pre-xmas strain on the delivery services and result in a merrier holiday for all.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131228172641-205524815-ups-is-no-santa?goback=.nmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=NUS_UNIU_PEOPLE_FOLLOW-megaphone-fllw