Tag Archives: Boston Courier

Prime Members Asking Why No Same-Day Delivery in Roxbury?

Boston skylineWith the way Amazon is stretching itself to cover the US with Same-Day Delivery, you wouldn’t consider that they may be an area that the retailer wouldn’t service.  Some cities that are not in close proximity in distance to major ones, you would understand why the service isn’t being offered there.  Yet, there is one city that Prime subscribers are very inquisitive regarding why same-day delivery isn’t in their town.

The Boston Globe reported how Amazon is offers same-day delivery in every Boston neighborhood except Roxbury.  One of the findings by Bloomberg compared US census data showing that minority neighborhoods in several cities have not been included to offer same-day delivery there.  It stated that Roxbury is 59% African-American and is the “most striking gap” found from the data.  Amazon’s service stretches from Boston city limits to many suburbs and nearby communities, but not Roxbury.

The article mentioned that Amazon told Bloomberg that Roxbury’s circumstance is “an anomaly”.  There are no demographics that play a role in deciding where it delivers same-day.  In fact, Amazon gave Mattapan as a example, which is 85% African-American, as well as nearby majority-minority communities like Lawrence and Chelsea.  This means there could be other factors weighing in on Amazon city selections.

“Yet in cities where most of those paying members are concentrated in predominantly white parts of town, a solely data-driven calculation that looks at numbers instead of people can reinforce long-entrenched inequality in access to retail services,” said the Bloomberg writers. Amazon spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a statement, “We will continue expanding our delivery capabilities and are adding more zip codes rapidly”.  Either way, it appears Roxbury Prime members want same-day delivery, and we will see if the city is added.

One of Amazon’s big electronic competitors, Best Buy, recently made headlines by announcing it will be expanding its’ current same-day delivery testing into 13 major metropolitan markets throughout the US.   Last year, Best Buy rolled out testing in San Francisco and its’ surrounding areas, in addition to Washington DC and New York.  Best Buy is the leader in consumer electronics, but the move to engage in same-day services is being driven in part due to Amazon.  With so much access by customers for convenience, as well as a dependable e-retailer like Amazon, it is clear that Best Buy had to meet customer demand and provide a fast delivery option as well.

Online retail is projected to reach $500 billion by 2018, as well as same-day delivery to climb to $987 million by 2019.  It makes sense why Amazon is moving at such as fast pace with same-day delivery and its’ competitors will have to get on board with the trendy service option, or get left behind..  A Same-Day Courier like 1-800 Courier is who retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and others are partnering with to implement a same-day delivery program that meets their online needs.  The Boston Courier has the ability to provide nationwide coverage, which large businesses are looking for.

Reference: 4.22.16, www.boston.com, Trefis Team, Adam Vaccaro and Allison Pohle, Amazon offers same-day delivery to every Boston neighborhood, except Roxbury

Nordstrom Forecasts 30% Online Growth, Yet How To Cut Delivery Costs

online shopping

online shopping

What makes online retail a gold mine is that it’s limited only by the innovation of the retailers themselves.  It is companies like Amazon that are showing others how to get it done, by maximizing their e-commerce potential.  Nordstrom is one department store leader that is looking to get a grasp on balancing online profit and the very costs of providing it.  Nordstrom Chief financial officer Mike Koppel talked about in a recent article regarding Nordstrom’s dilemma.  He stated if “anyone out there” who has figured it out, because “we have a lot of work to do.”

The report from the Internet Retailer via Bloomberg News stated that Nordstrom expect online sales to account for 30% of its’ business by 2020.  This shows that there will be some form of uptick for the retailer with shoppers desiring to shop online.  Online retail itself is set to reach $500 billion by 2018.  As time goes on and business trends begin to evolve, e-commerce is going to take a greater role in generate revenue for brick-and-mortar stores like Nordstrom.  The key moving beyond the obstacles in its way.

Koppel talked about in the article what Norstrom was facing and what was hurting the company’s bottom line.  The article stated, “He explained that the “old model”—big physical stores located mostly in malls—came with high fixed costs, but high leverage. In other words, you had to pour a lot of money into literal bricks and mortar to build stores and train staff, but once your sales reached a sort of break-even point, all the rest was gravy. In essence, the money from a banner sales year could flow straight down to the bottom line once those initial costs were paid for. And that became pretty easy to anticipate and plan against.

Enter the Internet, where the promise of high profits came from the theory that a retailer could sell stuff without having to pay for the overhead expenses of operating locations and hiring lots of labor. Not exactly”, Koppel said.What’s happening is online sales comes with low fixed costs, but the price tag has high variable costs.  This means that the more Nordstrom sells online, the more it spends on operating costs, such as pick, pack and deliver those goods.  And now, “business has been flattening in malls and growing in e-commerce, and so the two strong trends are impacting operating margins,” Koppel told analysts.  The great thing going for Nordstrom is that its’ customers who shop both online and in stores spend three to four times as much there than those who shop just one channel.  Nordstrom may be able to do what some other big name retailers have done, which is implement online store pick up and Same-Day Delivery.  Macy’s and Wal-Mart have all implement both services.

A Same-Day Courier like 1-800 Courier is a viable option to develop cost-effective, same-day service solutions that will attract online shoppers by meeting a demand for convenience.  Technology is driving online growth and the Boston Courier has the delivery expertise to take Nordstrom to the next level online.

Reference:  3.14.16, www.internetretailer.com, Bloomberg News, E-commerce eats into Nordstrom’s profits, and that’s OK