e-commerce fulfillment

Fresh and safe: How porch boxes are redefining home delivery

As e-commerce has grown, so too has the number of porch pirates.

According to C+R Research, 59% of respondents to a package theft survey of 2,000 consumers conducted in 2020 reported receiving a package at least once a week. That is up 10 points from the 2019 survey. When it comes to package theft, 43% reported a stolen package in 2020, up from 36% in 2019, and of those that had a package stolen, 64% had been a victim more than once.

The average value of a stolen package was $136 in 2020.

“As...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/fresh-and-safe:-how-porch-boxes-are-redefining-home-delivery

Shopify says fulfillment network handled record volumes during holidays

A package is handled by a warehouse worker wearing gloves at a Shopify fulfillment network facility.

Shopify’s (NYSE:SHOP) U.S.-based fulfillment network handled a record volume during the holiday season, the Canadian e-commerce company said on Wednesday as it reported record fourth-quarter financial results. 

The company offered no details about how many shipments the Shopify Fulfillment Network handled or the impact on its financial performance. The network, launched in 2019, uses automated warehousing technology to allow merchants to manage inventory off-site and ship orders in direct...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/shopify-says-fulfillment-network-handled-record-volumes-during-holidays

Amazon acquires Shopify competitor Selz

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has acquired e-commerce platform Selz, the company confirmed to CNBC.

In a statement posted to the Selz site on Jan. 15 but not publicly acknowledged by Amazon until Tuesday, Selz founder Martin Rushe said the startup has reached an “agreement to be acquired by Amazon.”

Selz, based in Sydney, has built a platform to enable small businesses to sell across channels. It allows the seller to manage the entire process — from sales to payments, from fulfillment to returns — in a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-acquires-shopify-competitor-selz

Lyft sees its future, and it is autonomous and B2B focused

Lyft charts course to autonomous driving future

On the Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) earnings call Feb. 9, co-founder and CEO Logan Green spoke a bit about the future of transportation, a future he sees Lyft being perfectly situated to thrive in. He was talking about autonomous vehicles (AV) and business-to-business (B2B) deliveries.

“We believe the future of transportation is as-a-service, and we are the only company in North America that has a seamless multimodal transportation platform that can replace car ownership,” he said. “We expect autonomous...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/lyft-sees-its-future-and-it-is-autonomous-and-b2b-focused

E-commerce growth furthers interest in direct-from-origin shipping options

In recent years, consumers have consistently put pressure on companies to amp up their online options. E-commerce sales have steadily grown year-over-year for the last couple of decades. E-commerce’s share of total retail sales has historically climbed about 1% each year. That changed in 2020. 

Americans’ previously slow-growing fervor for online shopping was shifted into high gear when the coronavirus pandemic started making its way across the nation in March 2020. According to U.S. Census...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/e-commerce-growth-furthers-interest-in-direct-from-origin-shipping-options

GM bets on BrightDrop’s connected last-mile delivery ecosystem

BrightDrop electric pallet

Many shippers in the e-commerce segment learned invaluable lessons in 2020 — siloed solutions don’t work well when scale and speed are a must. The same can be said for last-mile delivery operations. Siloed operations — where data, equipment and people are operating on different timelines — can doom the overall customer experience.

Currently, hundreds of vehicle makers — both legacy and startups — are working to bring electric vehicles to market. For the e-commerce brand or anyone else involved...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/gm-bets-on-brightdrops-connected-last-mile-delivery-ecosystem

Fabric’s rapid rise continues with close of $43M Series A funding round

Commerce platform Fabric has announced the closing of a $43 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Sierra Ventures.

The funding round comes just over three months after Fabric closed a $9.5 million seed round at the end of October. Total funding in the company is now $53.5 million, according to Crunchbase. Redpoint led the seed round.

Fabric is a headless — meaning separating the front-end design from the back-end...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fabrics-rapid-rise-continues-with-close-of-43m-series-a-funding-round

FreightWaves focuses on gig economy with launch of Modern Shipper

As e-commerce and the gig economy have grown in the past year, the thirst for news and information has grown among the participants. Whether it is shippers moving online orders to consumers, or rideshare drivers supplementing declining volumes with on-demand food delivery, there is growing activity and interest in the space.

To help fill this information void, FreightWaves is launching Modern Shipper. Modern Shipper, which can be found at www.modernshipper.com, will sit squarely alongside both...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-focuses-on-gig-economy-with-launch-of-modern-shipper

Spiking sales draw Uber into on-demand alcohol business

Uber to buy on-demand alcohol provider Drizly

COVID-19 nearly crushed the restaurant and liquor industries. Stay-at-home orders and in-store customer limit restrictions were like taking a knife to butter – they instantly and drastically sliced away profits. Many restaurants tried to survive by turning to takeout.

Liquor stores felt the squeeze as well, with fewer people leaving their homes raising concern about lower sales. For liquor retailers, the answer was online sales. According to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, global beverage alcohol...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/spiking-sales-draw-uber-into-on-demand-alcohol-business

E-commerce delivery startup Pandion looks in eyes of giants

There would seem to be easier ways to build an empire than to launch an end-to-end e-commerce delivery company to compete with FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX), UPS Inc. (NYSE:UPS), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and, to a degree, the U.S. Postal Service. But Scott Ruffin is ready to give it a try.

Working in Ruffin’s favor is massive e-commerce fulfillment and delivery growth that might bake a big enough pie for multiple folks to get fat from. Also on his side is significant delivery industry chops:...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/e-commerce-delivery-startup-pandion-looks-in-eyes-of-giants

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