Distribution

As online merchants firm up their holiday operations, they may have to rule out using Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA).   Amazon.com is restricting new merchant access to its warehouses during the busy holiday shopping season as a means of ensuring it has the capacity needed to quickly receive, store and ship merchandise to its Prime membership customers, reported Internet Retailer.  

By the holidays, customers of J Sainsbury Plc will be able to take advantage of more mobile capabilities.   Leveraging its acquisition of the Home Retail Group, which closed last month, Sainsbury will begin adding Argos branches or click-and-collect distribution points inside almost all of its stores, according to a recent Bloomberg article.  

With its recent acquisition of Jet.com, a commitment to growing its online grocery business with a convenient grocery pick-up option and an extensive investment against delivering a seamless digital shopping experience, Walmart is once again flipping the script on what it means to compete for America's shopping dollar.   The company's investment in grocery pick-up services represents the cover of that new script - and Walmart is expanding that service to 600 stores this year and 500 stores next year.  

It’s shaping up as a busy fall for Ross Stores.   The retailer is opening 25 Ross Dress for Less ("Ross") stores and nine dd's Discounts stores across 16 different states in September and October.   The new locations round out the company's expansion plans to add approximately 90 locations in 2016.  

Walmart has gone into high gear in its fight to challenge Amazon.   The chain is on track to double the number of warehouses dedicated to online sales to 10 by the end of 2016, according to a report on nbcnews.com.    

The fire is out, but its effects will linger.   Gap Inc. on Thursday reported a 3% decline in same-store sales for September, and said it expects the fire that occurred at the end of August at its distribution center in Fishkill, New York, will negatively impact its October comp-sales by approximately 3 percentage points and also have a negative impact on its comp-sales results in its fourth quarter.   

The Home Depot to modernize with next-gen handheld devices in DCs

For The Home Depot, supply chain efficiency is about getting product from vendor partners down to store level, or directly onto the front porch of its shoppers — all without increasing overhead costs.

With an eye on modernization, the retailer is leveraging its mobile device management platform to ease its upcoming transition to a new fleet of ruggedized handhelds across its supply chain.

Walmart gave a lackluster profit outlook for next year, and said it will slow new store openings as it invests in remodels and digital initiatives.

Walmart gave a lackluster profit outlook for next year, and said it will slow new store openings as it invests in remodels and digital initiatives.  

Simplicity is the name of the game for Giant Eagle’s new transportation endeavors.    It’s first step in this quest was to add a new transportation management system — a single platform designed to manage inbound and outbound transportation systems. Processes that were originally controlled by five systems are now streamlined through one core infrastructure. This new consolidated platform is also only piece within a much larger project: building a next-generation supply chain.