Out to Launch

Burger King’s ‘Burger Clan’ Delivery Service Plays PS4 Games And Takes Food Orders At The Same Time
Do you always find yourself hungry during high endurance multiplayer sessions but couldn’t risk pausing the game to call for delivery? Well, Burger King has got you covered. The restaurant chain has recently unveiled its newest delivery service that will appear in select multiplayer PlayStation 4 titles to help you both in your games and cravings.
TheBitBag

Food delivery space to get hotter with UberEATS set to enter India 
San Francisco-based cab aggregator Uber is set to launch UberEATS in India in the second quarter of the year. The platform, which is different from the cab-hailing app, has started on-boarding restaurant partners to create a network. 
The Economic Times India

Amazon launches fresh grocery delivery service in Japan
The new service, known as “Amazon Fresh,” started in Japan on April 21. For the time being, paying members who are based in certain districts in Tokyo will be able to select fresh groceries and daily goods from a list of approximately 100,000 items, and have them delivered.
The Mainichi

DHL launches next-day delivery, cross-border shipping solutions for e-commerce firms in Malaysia
DHL eCommerce, a division of the world’s leading logistics company Deutsche Post DHL Group, has launched its domestic delivery operations in Malaysia with a range of customer-centric services catered to the country’s growing e-commerce market.
E27 

The next desert unicorn is a startup solving the middle east’s ‘no address’ delivery problem. For the emerging e-commerce startups in the the region, it has been a everyday struggle to deliver a package to the customer when there is no formal delivery address. 
By allowing users to geolocate the pick-up and drop-off points for their packages, Dubai-based delivery startup Fetchr has provided an innovative solution to this issue, allowing packages to be delivered from one phone to another, so to speak.

Industry Skinny

1 in 5 UK retailers still fail to offer next day delivery
Although 52 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom see next-day-delivery as their most preferred delivery method, still a fifth of UK retailers are failing to offer their customers next-day delivery. On the other hand, 65 percent of retailers offer click & collect, even when only 18 percent of consumers consider this their preferred delivery method.
Ecommerce News

Cash on Delivery Still Wins Out Among Digital Shoppers in Indonesia
Indonesia is still a country where cash is more widespread and useful to residents than any other form of payment. That explains why consumers still rely on cash even for digital purchases.
Emarketer

Amazon’s UK expansion to deliver 1,200 jobs in Warrington
Amazon is to create 1,200 jobs in northern England with the opening of a warehouse, as part of a UK expansion drive.
FT.com

UPS Adds Saturday Deliveries to Meet Online Shopping Demand
United Parcel Service Inc. will add Saturday ground deliveries, making one of the biggest shipping-time changes in its 109-year history in response to rising demand from online shoppers.
Bloomberg

The number of people working in shops is collapsing. The number of people working in retail shop floors across Britain fell by 2.4% in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), while the total number of hours worked fell by 3.9%. 

Business Insider

Tech Space

Walmart and Target could beat Amazon on drone delivery
Among big retailers, Amazon has pushed the potential of drone delivery the hardest. But, according to BI Intelligence’s exclusive analysis of data from The Weather Company, the e-commerce giant isn’t the best positioned to take advantage of drones’ promise. Instead, its brick-and-mortar rivals, Walmart and Target, may be poised to reap the biggest gains.
Business Insider

Amazon is interested in self-driving vehicles, too
Apple and Alphabet aren’t the only tech heavyweights branching out into self-driving vehicle technology. Amazon wants in on the action, too. 
Engadget

IBM wants future delivery drones to pass off your packages in mid-air
On Wednesday, IBM Research announced a patent that might someday allow delivery drones to pass off packages to one another mid-flight to create a relay system, extending a supply chain’s reach even farther.
Mashable   

Will Google’s Patent For Automated Package Delivery Be A Game Changer In Logistics Space?
Amazon has been trying to use the drone technology for automating the product delivery and delivering it right to the customer’s house. But Google has come up with more advancement to this technology. It has filed for the patent for automated package delivery in 2014. The US patent office has granted them the patent for this technology.
TechStory

Toyota to test hydrogen-powered drayage truck
 “Toyota believes that hydrogen fuel cell technology has tremendous potential to become the powertrain of the future,” 
American Shipper

Food for thought

Cities Seek Deliverance From the E-Commerce Boom
It’s the flip-side to the “retail apocalypse:” A siege of delivery trucks is threatening to choke cities with traffic. But not everyone agrees on what to do about it.
CityLab

The Haves and the Have Nots – The Dichotomy of the US Ecommerce Experience
Over the past few years there has been a transformation in the ecommerce checkout experience from the one-size-fits-all approach to one with options presented that vary depending on where in the country the consumer resides. 
LinkedIn

How In-Home Package Delivery Could Save E-Commerce
Would you allow UPS to drop off a package inside your home when you’re not there?
That question is at the heart of a three-month pilot program that smart lock maker August tried out last winter with 76 of its users in an attempt to see if the company could help jumpstart the e-commerce industry.
FastCompany

A Night of Money, Mansions and Mexican Food Showed Us How Delivery Could Reshape Franchising
A night out with a delivery driver.
Entrepreneur

Is Free Shipping Really Sustainable for E-commerce?
More than 90% of e-shoppers declare shipping options are very important for their overall online shopping experience. Then, do you really need to propose free shipping to your customers? Can your e-commerce afford it?
Ecommerce Nation

The Importance of Effective Translations in Product Packaging
The packaging you use for your products is important when it comes to presenting a great image, not only for the product itself, but also for your business and its brand.
Ecommerce Nation