Retail giant Walmart Inc. is testing a service that will store and ship products for third-party vendors, something that mega-retailer Amazon has done for over a decade. Currently Walmart only uses its vast logistics infrastructure to supply its own stores. The move by Walmart would not only allow it to compete for online sales against[…]
Welcome to the era of trade chaos for retail. Beginning in May, retailers lived with the official reality that a huge swatch of Chinese goods — known as “tranche four” which covers pretty much everything that hasn’t already gone through tariff increases — would get a 25% tariff. Retailers and analysts from nearly every sector[…]
Sam’s Club is preparing to reopen a shuttered warehouse club store as a fulfillment center for online orders in Worcester, Massachusetts. The 139,000-square-foot location closed last January when parent company Walmart announced plans to close 63 Sam’s Club stores and convert some locations to online order fulfillment centers. Converted centers have opened in Memphis, Tennessee;[…]
Walmart is undercutting Amazon’s newest Prime-member perk and launching free, next-day shipping on hundreds of thousands of products. Walmart’s next-day service, which applies to orders costing at least $35, is rolling out Tuesday in Phoenix and Las Vegas, Walmart said. It will be available to 75% of US shoppers by the end of the year[…]
Local governments worry that dying malls will blight the landscape, so they are buying them up. Local governments across the U.S. are taking over dying shopping malls. These municipalities, concerned that vacated retail centers will blight the landscape and drag down surrounding property values, have been buying up malls they fear are being starved of[…]
Online retail sales to consumers in the U.S. crossed $453 billion in 2017 by the U.S. Commerce Department’s measure, a 16.0% jump compared with 2016. That’s the biggest jump since 2010, and far eclipses the growth in retail sales in physical stores, which reached 3.6% last year. It means that e-commerce now accounts for 13% of total retail[…]
Walmart recently obtained a patent for a surveillance system that would use a series of sensors placed around the checkout area to monitor audio data. This data includes beeps, the sound of bags rustling, and conversations between shoppers and associates. The patent’s text suggests that the intended use would be tracking performance metrics for employees[…]
Spending on ecommerce logistics in the U.S. reached $117.2 billion in 2017, representing 6.9% of all domestic logistics costs, up from 5.2% in 2016, according to a new report from third-party logistics research group Armstrong & Associates, as online buying continues experiences 14% annual growth. The report estimates that ecommerce logistics costs will reach $196.2[…]
From Bloomberg News: Less than a year after closing its acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon.com Inc. is looking for fresh ways to expand its brick-and-mortar retail network while bolstering the online shopping business. The world’s largest online retailer is searching for bigger Whole Foods locations in cities that can serve as both grocery stores and urban distribution[…]
Over the past couple years, retailers have begun to close brick-and-mortar stores to focus on growing eCommerce distribution. Kohl’s is taking a different approach. In the current consumer climate, eCommerce and operations strategy requires smart inventory management, distribution and demand planning. For retailers, the key challenge is getting the right product, in the right place,[…]
With wide-open spaces and central locations, dead malls are coming back to life as logistics centers for online shopping facilities. The pressure for speedy online package delivery is prompting companies to look for distribution facilities closer to residential areas or highways. Some of the best locations, it turns out, are dead malls. Warehouse landlords say[…]
Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods is expected to add to the pressure for warehouse and distribution space Bananas are the Holy Grail of online delivery, the one thing that’s almost impossible to perfectly ship to someone’s doorstep after being ordered. “They are so finicky,” said Ben Conwell, a Seattle-based senior managing director at real estate[…]
Amazon’s blockbuster acquisition of Whole Foods sent shockwaves through the stock market, as well as the retail industry last week. While the proposed $13.7-billion deal is eye-popping, expansion by acquisition is hardly new, though the implications for those in the retail CRE sector are complex and will take time to better understand. A CRE industry[…]
Yes, another article on growth of e-commerce and decline of the mall but has some good thoughts and stats to consider: The shift has been building gradually for years. But economists, retail workers and real estate investors say it appears that it has sped up in recent months and may be at a tipping point.[…]
Cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services, unveils new offerings at annual conference in Las Vegas By JAY GREENE and LAURA STEVENS November 30, 2016 LAS VEGAS—In Amazon Web Services, Amazon.com Inc. has built one of the most powerful computing networks in the world, on pace to post more than $12 billion in revenue this year. But the retail giant on Wednesday[…]
According to the Wall Street Journal, these gains marked the best two-month sales stretch in at least two years. Gross domestic product rose at a 2.9% annual rate in the third quarter, which economists believe could be a sign of a growing momentum for 2017. Retail sales have risen 4.3% over the past 12 months, the best[…]