F. Curtis Barry & Company’s Multichannel Operations & Fulfillment Blog

It has been seven weeks since BlueSky Brands shut down operations, stranding a number of catalog and e-commerce businesses. Now we’ve received an e-mail that the National Wildlife Federation sent to customers who have purchased items directly from the Federation.
Here’s what the e-mail said:
“There are still many opportunities to receive great wildlife and nature-themed merchandise […]

Press Release sent to us from IFSO
San Francisco, CA, March 4, 2008: Forerunner Systems Inc. announced the general release of IFSO 4.0. IF/SO® - The Inventory Forecaster, provides inventory forecasting and stock optimization solutions to the direct commerce industry, helping catalog and e-commerce companies improve customer fulfillment, reduce backorders and optimize the liquidation […]

OrderMotion continues its webinar series focused on preparing merchants for the busy holiday retail season and how to significantly grow their business
Boston, Massachusetts—August 16, 2007 — OrderMotion, Inc., the leading provider of on-demand, direct commerce solutions for small-to-medium-sized merchants announced the continuation of its popular “how-to” Webinar series that is helping merchants […]

By Tocky Lawrence
Any company choosing an e-commerce platform is faced with a bewildering number of choices. Determining which of these solutions best fits your needs is no longer as simple as having your local Internet provider develop a Web page with navigation and some type of shopping-cart functionality.
E-commerce solutions have evolved to include core functionality […]

Trends don’t always hang around for long—by definition they’re always changing. But right now, summer 2007, we can see some major industry trends that bear watching in the next few months.
1. Direct-to-customer online sales are approaching an average of 50% of total sales for multichannel merchants, but Internet customer retention rates are still significantly less […]

The percentage of online sales compared to in-store sales continues to rise, and multichannel retailers’ order management strategies need to keep pace. Those engaged in e-commerce have more options all the time. Here are ten possibilities to consider:
1. Internet customers expect faster delivery, and having multiple distribution points can provide improve delivery times.
2. Being closer […]

By Gary Conrad
Q: We would like to achieve world-class results in our operation, but our efforts seem consistently to fall short of our expectations. Can you suggest ways that, as a manager, I could improve the level of teamwork in our operation?
A: The solution could be as simple as improving the level of managerial effectiveness. […]

For U.S.-based multichannel businesses interested in attracting customers from overseas and maintaining the highest possible standards of customer service could do worse than host their Web site in languages other than English. Web site translation company MotionPoint helps clients do just that, offering human translation of Web pages so a business can run alternative-language pages […]

Produced by Mokrynskidirect
62% of all mailers surveyed reported April sales equal to or better than last year, and 54% reported sales equal to or better than plan for the month. 33% of all mailers had increased circulation in April 2007 vs. April 2006 and 46% kept circulation levels even with last year.
Apparel mailers reported 67% […]

Got a minute? Try taking this week’s USPS quiz. What “leaves Standard letter rates untouched, protects the Postal Service’s financial standing, allows USPS projected revenues to meet expected costs and does not reduce the contingency fund”? (The quote is from Dan Blair, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission.)
The correct answer is the PRC’s new proposal […]