The Amware Fulfillment & Logistics Blog

If the only thing it took to win an NBA title was having one of the world’s most dominant players, the 1984-1990 Chicago Bulls should have been a slam-dunk.  After all, they had Michael Jordan.

Yet the struggling Bulls didn’t manage to win a single championship until the early ‘90s, when new coach Phil Jackson convinced Jordan and his teammates to focus on team play instead of individual glory. 

For online retailers, processing and delivering orders eats up a huge chunk of operating expenses. That’s why it pays to know as much as you can about this critical function.

But here’s the problem: You’re a busy entrepreneur. For now, being successful requires focusing most of your time on growing sales and building your team. You simply don’t have time to make yourself a fulfillment expert.

It’s often referred to as Second City.  But when it comes to transportation and fulfillment, there are many reasons why Chicago is second-to-none.    

Home to world-class culture, the nation’s highest building, and several beloved sports franchises, it’s also a vital cog in many companies’ national fulfillment networks. 

When it comes to outsourcing certain parts of your logistics and fulfillment, you have a lot to choose from.  When it comes to others, it’s a different story. For instance, with parcel carriers your company is pretty well locked into working with UPS, FedEx, DHL or the USPS.

But thankfully that doesn’t mean you have to be equally locked into using these carriers’ published rates. We recently caught up with Amware

If you’re reading this shortly before your annual Thanksgiving feast, keep your antacids handy, because the country’s largest package carriers have begun rolling out their annual parcel shipping increases, and boy are they cause for heartburn.     

Earlier this year, we shared our list of common but essential parcel industry terms that often get overlooked, especially when it comes to your company’s bottom line. 

This week, we’d like to continue that discussion by spotlighting several terms and names that are equally important – especially if you’re a growth-minded company that wants to break into the international fulfillment and global e-commerce market, which

Raise your hand if you ever went to a birthday party and watched the guest of honor unwrap a huge box only to discover that it held a very small reward – one that was reached only after unwrapping a series of other large boxes. 

It was the ten-year-old’s version of comedy gold.

Overpackaging still happens today in eCommerce packaging, only it’s not restricted to kids’ gifts.  And in many cases, people find it annoying

Each year, the world’s most popular dictionaries make headlines when they announce their latest additions.  (And in case you’re curious, some of this year’s winners included hangry and mansplaining.)

It’s a huge reminder that our day-to-day vocabularies are constantly evolving – and that it’s always a good idea for everyone to be on the same page about what a commonly used expression means.

With apologies to Noah Webster,

There are many industries that are chock full of competition.  Unfortunately for your business, parcel delivery isn’t one of them. 

Much like Henry Ford was glad to sell people a car in any color “as long as it was black,” your company is free to use any eCommerce delivery option you want – as long it involves UPS, FedEx, DHL or the USPS. 

Once upon a time, most people would have thought twice before ordering furniture, a piece of exercise equipment, or a kitchen appliance online.  Today, such heavy freight orders are commonplace. 

For example, according to a survey conducted by AlixPartners in 2016, 88% of consumers are willing to purchase an appliance online – a vast increase over the comparatively lower 62% that were open to it in 2012.  Meanwhile