It may seem like order fulfillment is an industry that virtually stands still, with changes implemented a few at a time on a small scale, tested, tweaked and then finally adopted industry-wide, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.
Product fulfillment is a hot topic this year, with FedEx, UPS and many others working hard to remake the face of packing and delivery.
FedEx Announces Relaunch of FedEx CrossBorder
International buying and selling has been difficult for various members of the supply chain for years.
There was a time when you had to be experienced and well-versed in the ins and out of the particular countries you were going to be doing business with in order to protect yourself from fraud, avoid regulatory hurdles and ensure your currency calculations were correct or face massive delays or losses.
FedEx CrossBorder aims to eliminate those hassle for customers in over 200 countries worldwide. Their seamless platform can accept over 80 currencies, providing 15 payment options and multiple delivery options depending on the receiving party’s location. It’s the newest in a series of steps over the last decade that have been geared at making the global economy a little easier to navigate for everyone involved.
Innovating the UPS Delivery Experience
UPS has been quietly expanding its big brown delivery fleet with little brown delivery drones, they announced in early May. Its partnership with drone startup Zipline will give UPS the tools to test and experiment with drones in the relative safety of an unlikely place: Rwanda.
As part of a partnership with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UPS has agreed to deliver much-needed blood for transfusions via drone throughout the difficult to access country. UPS even kicked in $800,000 of its own money to get the ball rolling. While the company is delivering blood to those in need, UPS can work out the kinks in drone delivery so that one day it can bring it to more developed, and regulated, countries with greater commercial potential.
Closer to home, UPS has also launched the Follow My Delivery program for MyChoice members. Certain UPS Air and UPS Worldwide Express packages now come complete with an automatically generated email link when they’re scanned into the UPS system for transport. Package recipients can use the link to follow their packages in real-time all the way to their front door. The feature is one UPS customers have long had on their wish lists. The company intends to expand the program to other packages over time. The Follow My Delivery program is the first-of-its-kind for direct to consumer shippers, but promises to revolutionize package delivery across the board.
There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in order fulfillment, but only time will tell which of these newest innovations will end up making the process simpler, faster and cheaper. Companies like UPS and FedEx are continuing to develop new technologies that will make your customers even happier, so keep an eye on industry news because the face of logistics is changing constantly.
