Amazon Opens Two Fulfillment Centers in Joliet
The American online retailer aims to expand its fulfillment center network to speed up its deliveries.
Amazon keeps increasing its US fulfillment centers, announcing on 27th May 2016 that it would set up its new center in Joilet, Ill. That would establish the second facility in the city whereas adding 2000 job opportunities to the region. The size of the newly developed facility wasn’t disclosed, but most of the online retailer’s centers can cover thousands of square feet, or be equivalent to the size of a large number of football fields.
The company uses those facilities as warehouses to keep its own inventory and for third-party sellers who are interested in selling items to company’s expected 50,000 Prime members. Prime memberships pay $99 on an annual basis to get everything from diapers to books to toilet paper sold to them in 48 hours or less.
The Seattle based organization stated the second center in the city would be used to ship and pack smaller shipments. Increasingly, these consignments are being shipped in few hours through the company’s service Prime Now, a part of the online trading platform operator’s aggressive approach for delivering items to customers as soon as possible.
The new facility could prove to be a central region for delivering items to the city of Chicago as it’s just 40 miles away from it. The web retailer keeps expanding its US fulfillment centers as its fulfillment operations for third-party merchants keeps growing. Now, outside merchants contribute to over 45% of total items sold on the organization’s marketplace, a 5% growth since Jan 2016.
That tells us that Amazon probably needs to develop more logistics and space for these items. A report from the last year has revealed that the company was running 104 facilities in the North American region as well as 69 fulfillment centers outside North America. In recent times, the organization announced plans for setting up a new center in the city of Kansas.
The company will not only establish its centers in Joilet, but it will also set up centers in East vale and Tracy that will provide over 1500 new full-time job opportunities. It stated the new centers will extend its presence in California to 9 fulfillment centers, approximately 14,000 full-time hourly associates and 9 million square feet of operations.
Presently, the company fulfills consumer orders at a number of fulfillment centers in the state. These include San Bernardino, Rialto, Redlands, Moreno Valley, Patterson and Tracy. The organization also runs sortation center operations in the cities of San Bernardino as well as Newark.The new centers will cover a space of 1 million square feet and will hire a large number of employees.
GoPro Drone Release Date Hangs In Uncertainty
The action camera maker has delayed the launch of the highly anticipated quadcopter.
The release date of long awaited GoPro first quadcopter drone has been extended and is loosely to be sometime around the holidays, the company announced on Thursday. Earlier, the expected launch was somewhere in June. Reportedly, the device’s launch has been barred due to some “fine-tuning.”
Although, making product right has to be the priority of any company but numerous delays are not favorable for the company who –last year –has lost around 80% of its market value. Once booming, the action camera maker’s business has suffered a massive slump lately. The company has been continuously making efforts to make up for the loss but its efforts are going in vain. Therefore, the action maker company is under immense pressure to launch a brilliant product in the market.
Even though the drone market is in its initial phase however it has been crowded with a large number of competent competitors. Although GoPro has modest and popular brand and firm retail distribution channels however chances of standing out in the market will narrow if the company fails to integrate innovations in the device.
At several occasions, GoPro’s Chief Executive Officer, Nick Woodman has expressed that the highly anticipated quadcopter, Karma, is accompanied with “revolutionary features” which will make it stand out. However, the details of the features have not been disclosed yet. The only thing known regarding the drones is supposedly arch-rival DJI –Chinese drone manufacturer. DJIs cameras don’t only have high-definition but they have features like auto-pilot which avoid the drones from collision.
Over the period, drone prices have fluctuated. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Erinn Murphy, the prices of the drones have gone from the high of $700-$900 to $400-$600, only in the current year.
Last week, GoPro posted its earnings which showed a huge decline in its sales. The same weakening results are expected from the company until it finally launches its new Hero camera lineup –which is also expected sometime in fall. Also, the delay in the launch of Karma shows that the company lacks the inventory of new products to launch and sell for next several months.
By the looks of it, by the end of the year, the San Mateo, Calif. firm will release its very first annual sales decline. Also, the company’s expenditure has been increasing at a fast pace in order to trigger sales and develop new products. In the forgone first quarter, operating expenses increased 28% year over year while the revenue fell down 49%. According to FaceSet, the analysts anticipate that the action camera maker is likely to lose money for at least the next couple of years.
At the market which closed on Friday, GoPro Inc. stock stood at a price of $10.46.
Alibaba To Expand Global Footprints To Australia
Alibaba will soon be making its way to Australia.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited is very much focused to grow and improve its international market presence in the coming times. The online retailer does dominate the domestic e-commerce market however being one of the biggest online shopping platforms for businesses and consumers it is not getting enough attention in the global markets. Alibaba recently came in news for expanding its global footprints to India and now the sources suggest that the biggest online shopping company of the world is all set to make its way to Australia in the upcoming months.
The Australian News reported that the Chinese tech giant quietly announced its plan regarding expanding services in the region. However analysts raised questions whether the presence of Alibaba Group will change the way how people shop in the region or how the industry will work. It is known that Alibaba is often referred as the Amazon of China. It is valued at a massive $197 billion (AUS$ 257 billion) and is a collection of e-commerce, cloud computing, media and payment assets. Furthermore, the group of companies that run under the Chinese e-commerce leader is accountable for 60 percent of all the Chinese online sales.
For that matter, Alibaba recently took over Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to become the world’s largest retailer. The company has easily made Jack Ma, the founder, the richest man in Asia. Jack Ma now has a net worth of $33.3 billion (AUS$ 43.6 billion).
Irrespective of not being more famous in the international market, most global consumers are familiar with Alibaba’s English language online marketplace for consumers known as Aliexpress. Australian customers do know about this platform as well which sells almost everything from apparel, fashion to electronics, kids’ toys and camping gears etc. The free shipping option along with really low prices when compare to other marketplaces have made it common amongst the online shopper however many believe that the online platforms have counterfeit goods in it.
An Australian shop owner Rudd who runs a Jessica’s suitcase which deals in mother and baby products was recently listed as a shop in Alibaba’s Tmall. Reportedly, the store made more than $100,000 in sales in its first month only.
Not only this but many Australian businessmen are doing business and running their own shops on Tmall. Australian customers can buy from any of Alibaba’s sites using Alipay vouchers purchased at Australia Post. Many do not know about the reach and influence of Alibaba and its businesses. The managing director of Think China, Benjamin Sun, said in a statement that its operations are more than just business and consumer shopping platforms.
He told the Australian News, “We need to understand the importance of this organization. Not only in e-commerce but also the media as well as payment solutions. If you decide to have a Chinese website, there is secure web hosting. At the moment, we know lots of sites wouldn’t load properly in China, where finding a reliable server is very important. AlibabaHost has a cheap solution that costs $100 a year.”
