Out to Launch:
Amazon picks its first Australian warehouse, a step towards launching. U.S. retail giant Amazon.com unveiled the site of its first Australian warehouse on Thursday and named a German executive as country manager, signaling it is prepared for industrial strife in the world’s 12th-biggest economy. Reuters
Drive thru’ builder’s warehouse to open in Birmingham. A new drive through style builders warehouse is to open in Aston, Birmingham which will offer tradespeople a click and collect service in which they can drive through the unit to pick up their purchases. eDelivery
eBay guaranteed delivery program launches this fall. This fall, sellers on eBay will be able to let shoppers know that items will be delivered within a guaranteed timeframe, similar to Amazon Prime’s two-day delivery guarantee. Multi-Channel Merchant
Amazon wants to build a network of mobile drone maintenance and delivery platforms. A new patent indicates that the ‘intermodal vehicles’ could be used to meet consumer demand. The Verge
Office Depot using Deliv for same-day delivery service. Office Depot is using the “crowdsourced” last-mile logistics provider Deliv to launch its same-day delivery service in three key US markets. Post and Parcel
Industry Skinny:
FedEx will not charge extra for most holiday home deliveries. FedEx Corp (FDX.N) said on Thursday it will not charge customers extra fees for most packages delivered to homes during the peak holiday shopping season this year, challenging rival United Parcel Service, which plans more widespread peak-season surcharges. Reuters
Ecommerce in UK increased by 17.8 percent in 2016. Ecommerce in the United Kingdom grew 17.8 percent last year, and was worth 174 billion euros. Ecommerce News
Will Amazon’s new return policy help or hurt its marketplace sellers? Customers who have had a problem with an order placed on Amazon.com know that returns for products sold directly by the e-tailer are a no hassle affair. The policies of third-party marketplace sellers, however, can be decidedly different, often leading to frustrating experiences, as some do not accept returns. Retail Wire
Metapack announces new partnership with HERE to boost ecommerce conversion rates and hrevenues. Metapack has announced a partnership with mapping and location services company HERE Technologies in a move that it claims will boost conversion rates and revenues for brands and retailers. eDelivery
Deutsche Post: strong revenue growth thanks to ecommerce. Deutsche Post DHL Group saw its revenue increase by 4.4 percent to 14.8 billion euros during the second quarter of this year. It’s mostly the company’s international parcel and ecommerce business that drove this strong growth. Ecommerce News
PostNL: “45% of our revenue comes from ecommerce by 2020”. PostNL saw 36 percent of its revenue come from ecommerce during the first half of this year. Ecommerce News
After heavy restructuring, London on-demand delivery app Jinn claims to be ‘profitable’. Jinn, the U.K.-based same-hour ‘shop on your behalf’ delivery app that operates quite similarly to Postmates in the U.S., has gone through a turbulent time of late. Tech Crunch
Birchbox has held acquisition talks with several retailers, including Walmart. The startup received a $15 million lifeline from investors in 2016. Recode
Tech Space:
CommonSense Robotics raises $6M seed round to make on-demand logistics affordable for all retailers. CommonSense Robotics wants to make near-instantaneous deliveries accessible to smaller businesses with micro-fulfillment centers that can be built inside existing retail spaces. Tech Crunch
DHL completes smart glasses vision picking trial. Augmented reality supported smart glasses are now the new standard in logistics, according to DHL Supply Chain, the contract logistics specialist within Deutsche Post DHL Group. eDelivery
DHL expands ‘City Hub’ concept in the Netherlands with customised electric vehicles. DHL Express has extended its City Hub concept for environmentally-friendly inner-city deliveries to The Hague, Netherlands with a new pilot involving electric vehicles. eDelivery
VIDEO: Watch a drone deliver drinks on an Estonian beach. Cleveron’s UAVs will deliver beverages to a drop-point for impressed customers to pick up during a two-week demonstration. The Drive
Robot chefs and en route baking could be the future of pizza delivery. Pizzabots! Pizzabots! Delivering pizzas piping hot! [as sung to the Spider-Man theme] Engadget
Will your future home delivery come via drone or by road? For a while it was easy to accept the view that, in the future, drones would be the kings of home delivery. On the face of it they seemed to be the most efficient way of moving packages between locations, and, for both for large and small businesses to reach their customers. SME Web
Robocado! Online supermarket completes successful trial of the UK’s first driverless delivery van in London ahead of launching the service nationwide in 2019. Mail Online
Food for Thought:
Ways to think about Last Mile Delivery. Last mile delivery is going to change significantly over the next few decades. Techgistics
The future of retail: How we’ll be shopping In 10 years. Are we all going to shop at home in our underwear? Will physical storefronts go away? Move over, Jetsons. Here are a few things you can expect to see based on current technology that’s in the works. Forbes
7 things drop shipping will teach you about ecommerce. Drop shipping is vastly different to the traditional model of retail. Business Computing World
The new delivery models disrupting the industry. Drapers examines the pros and cons of two emerging models of pay-later delivery. Drapers Online
5 steps to decode the ecommerce customer journey: multi-device mayhem. Customers now use multiple devices during the customer journey & it can be difficult to accurately track them between devices, but we’re here to help. Digital Current
Why Amazon is losing to JD.com and Wal-Mart. Chinese e-commerce giant, JD.com Inc. is already far ahead of Amazon in the game of merging virtual stores with real ones. Investopedia
