Rich Hanna stands amid a seemingly unending series of long gray metal shelves loaded with a random assortment of items, including trash barrels, stacks of Kibbles 'n Bits dog food, a stuffed-animal chipmunk sealed in a plastic bag, an LED-glowing underwater stool for a pool and a 35-pound tube of Safe Paw Ice Melter. That's just the start."You wanna see unique? This is a kegerator for a home brewer," Hanna says, proudly showing off a large, red Rubbermaid cooler that's been modded with a beer tap in the front and cooling coils inside.Hanna, the tall, unflappably upbeat general manager of Amazon's fulfillment center in Fall River, Massachusetts, is giving me a tour of the 1.2 million-square-foot building (that's 26 football fields, in case you were curious) to show me all the big and bulky items Amazon keeps there. Since the warehouse opened, in September 2016, it's become the temporary home of a life-size Yeti statue, kayaks, a hot tub and a 70-pound bean bag."Suspensions, … [Read more...] about Inside an Amazon warehouse that ships your supersized purchases
Amazon inventory management
10 Tips for Selling Products Online
Start the Countdown A user-friendly and secure website is key to drawing in and keeping loyal customers. OlegSirenko/iStock/Thinkstock Congratulations! You've finally realized your dream and launched that online store. Whether you're selling trinkets, tchotchkes, tea towels or tools, it's been a long road getting to this point. Obtaining funding, buying inventory, designing the site, buying ads, spreading the word — all that's behind you now. The hard work is done, and today you're just going to sit back, relax and watch the orders roll in. Well, not so fast. You might have done a bang-up job on that site, but are you sure you're providing an absolutely seamless experience? Are the "right people" finding you? Even if you've succeeded in your efforts to drive traffic, your viewers might not be making purchases. It could be that they're not interested, or maybe oversights or glitches are making the site hard to navigate. It could be because your URL is hard to … [Read more...] about 10 Tips for Selling Products Online
On Amazon’s Time
At the beating heart of Amazon’s unstoppable ecommerce expansion is a very basic promise: jobs. When a Fulfillment Center opens, the expectation is that anywhere from 1,000 to 2,200 positions will become available overnight, each providing 40 hours of work per week at a minimum. In reality, the labor hours Amazon needs to power its brutally efficient supply chain appear to be far fewer. To reduce overhead but continue to sop up performance-based incentives from the local governments it operates in, Amazon has become increasingly reliant on a work scheduling scheme that often coerces workers into leaving their shifts early or turns them away at the door without notice. I spoke to 13 of the company’s current and former warehouse workers based in nearly as many states, all of whom were granted anonymity for fear of retaliation. According to their testimonies, the sign that Amazon’s expanding empire may not have the labor needs to support the employment numbers it dangles … [Read more...] about On Amazon’s Time
Sure, Amazon’s Changed Shopping, But Retailers Can Still Compete
Amazon launched a local website for Australia on Dec. 5, 2017, one more step on its march to world domination. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images In his 1997 letter to the first Amazon shareholders, CEO Jeff Bezos laid out the three-word business philosophy that could soon make the online giant the first $1 trillion company in history: "obsess over customers." That simple, customer-centric credo has driven a string of innovations unmatched in American retail: Amazon posted some of the first customer reviews next to its products (1995)1-Click (1997) eliminated the need for Amazon customers to re-enter billing information with every purchaseAmazon Prime (2005), a free-shipping loyalty program, has ballooned to become Amazon's all-encompassing shopping and entertainment ecosystemAmazon Kindle (2007) basically created the downloadable ebook device market and continues to dominate itAmazon Echo (2015), a smart home gadget dismissed as a gimmick, became the top-selling item on Amazon.com for … [Read more...] about Sure, Amazon’s Changed Shopping, But Retailers Can Still Compete
Know Before You Amazon Go That Your Privacy Will Be Low
Shoppers scan the Amazon Go app on their mobile devices as they enter the Amazon Go store on Jan. 22, 2018, in Seattle. Stephen Brashear/Getty Images On Dec. 5, 2016, Amazon uploaded a video to YouTube unveiling the company's vision of a new type of grocery store called Amazon Go. Shoppers would hold up a smartphone to a scanner before walking in. Once inside, they could wander around and pick up whichever items they wanted to purchase. Cameras and other sensors would detect each item the shoppers picked up. They'd even note when someone replaced an item on a shelf. To complete the transaction, the shopper would just have to walk out the door. An automated system would then charge their purchases to their Amazon accounts. There'd be no cashiers, no lines and no more scanning. All just grab and go. After more than a year of tests, which included solving some tricky problems, Amazon officially opened the first of these grocery stores to the public. The company has been quiet about … [Read more...] about Know Before You Amazon Go That Your Privacy Will Be Low