The Year’s Biggest Hits: Top 10 Blogs of 2019

Top 10 Flexe Blog Posts from 2019

1.) Reinventing Warehousing and Fulfillment with an On-Demand Model

The internet and eCommerce “placed the world’s inventory at our fingertips.” But, the logistics solutions that support the movement of goods—whether that’s to a store shelf or your front door—have been slower to evolve. We explore how new offerings like on-demand warehousing and other digital logistics platforms have democratized the supply chain, including:

• The traditional supply chain model and how the internet disrupted it
• What’s at stake for retailers and brands if they don’t adapt operations to meet the demands of today’s consumers
• How on-demand warehousing brings structural flexibility to warehousing and fulfillment

2.) Top 3 Logistics Challenges for Retailers and Brands and How to Solve Them

eCommerce has been on the rise for more than a decade, but the logistics infrastructure required to support it hasn’t kept up—especially around fixed assets like warehousing and fulfillment centers. This has resulted in some significant logistics challenges including:

• The inability to meet customers’ ever-increasing expectations
• Fractured information and lack of insight across key buying channels
• The basic ability to respond to supply chain disruptions quickly and efficiently

3.) The Right Delivery Promise: How Many Locations Do You Need in Your Fulfillment Network?

Thanks to Amazon’s move to standard Prime one-day shipping, there’s an arms race amongst retailers to create the most competitive delivery promise. But what does it actually take to offer fast, affordable shipping? The right fulfillment network. Determining what that means for your business starts with knowing your demand pattern and identifying the optimal locations for fulfillment centers. At Flexe, we perform network analyses for our customers, which includes:

• Analyzing your current distribution strategy, where your orders are coming from, and variances in product SKUs across regions
• Determining how many additional fulfillment centers you need and where they should be positioned to meet varying delivery promises
• How much you could save in reduced last-mile transportation costs and time

4.) On-Demand Warehousing 101: Top 10 Locations for Warehousing & eCommerce Fulfillment

In the second installment of our on-demand warehousing 101 series we explored where the most popular and strategic locations to have warehousing and fulfillment centers are, including:

• A list of the top 10+ warehousing and fulfillment locations and why they’re popular
• How on-demand warehousing opens up capacity in those competitive markets
• A high-level outline of the costs of on-demand warehousing

5.) Rethinking the Supply Chain: 3 Startup CEOs Talk Data, Dynamics, and the Future

Flexe’s Co-Founder and CEO, Karl Siebrecht, participated in a panel at Slalom’s Supply Chain Innovation for Business Growth Summit in Seattle titled, “Rethinking the Supply Chain.” He was joined on stage with Alloy Co-Founder and CEO, Joel Beal, and Convoy’s Co-Founder and CEO, Dan Lewis. They discussed:

• The challenges of getting data unified across siloed organizations
• Change management and culture within startups
• Different supply chain innovations that forward-looking businesses are using to succeed

6.) Modernizing eCommerce Logistics: From Start-Ups to the Fortune 1000

And this one continues in popularity: At the 2018 CSCMP EDGE Conference, Karl Siebrecht, Co-Founder & CEO of Flexe presented during the panel, “Modernizing eCommerce Logistics: From Start-Ups to the Fortune 1000.” He was joined by Larry Hotz, Director of Marketing at Woodfield Distribution, and Justin Schuhardt, Senior Director of Supply Chain M&A at Walmart. The panel includes:

• How Walmart complements its distribution networks with inventory overflow and fulfillment from Flexe
• How Cargo uses Flexe for fulfillment and ongoing replenishment to its customers
• How Woodfield Distribution, a pharmaceutical logistics service provider, manages Flexe projects alongside its own business

7.) On-Demand Warehousing 101: What Is On-Demand Warehousing?

Interested in knowing more about on-demand warehousing? In the first installment of our on-demand warehousing 101 series, we answer the questions:

• What is on-demand warehousing?
• What makes it so effective?
• How do retailers and brands actually use it?

8.) 3 Ways Retailers Can Avoid Selling Through Amazon

Amazon isn’t the right fit for every shipper; You risk losing brand control, some of your profits, and, potentially, customers. We outline three ways retailers can avoid using the eCommerce giant including:

• Using new logistics technologies to enhance your delivery capabilities
• Build brand equity and trust to attract and maintain customers
• Sell across multiple sales channels including partnering with other retailers, social selling, and even peer-to-peer selling

9.) Move Fast and Don’t Break Things: Q&A with Flexe CEO

An interview with Flexe Co-Founder and CEO, Karl Siebrecht, on the Leaders in Supply Chain podcast, hosted by Radu Palamariu. In the interview, Karl discusses:

• How on-demand warehousing is the AWS of logistics
• Some of the challenges and rewards of creating the on-demand warehousing category
• What greatness means at Flexe and how it permeates throughout our mission, vision, and the people that make up Flexe

10.) 4 Supply Chain Secrets to Drive Customer Satisfaction

Four customer-centric supply chain strategies that will help drive sales by keeping your customers top of mind including:

• Improving on-time delivery
• Using technology to enhance visibility
• Increasing speed-to-delivery with on-demand fulfillment
• Satisfying customer demand with an agile inventory strategy

Other notable Flexe news from 2019:

• Flexe raised $43 million in Series B funding
• We added two prominent executives to the Flexe team: Deirdre Runnette, former Zulily Senior Vice President and General Counsel, as Chief People Officer and General Counsel; and David Glick, Amazon logistics technology Vice President, as Chief Technology Officer.
• Flexe was named on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America

We hope you had a fantastic 2019 and that you’ll come back for more retail and supply chain content in 2020!