The Game (Won’t) Stop, Mmm … Union Rings, Bezos News ????⛴

Front and Center

The Game (Won’t) Stop

Since taking the reins of the prolific video game distributor back in January, Ryan Cohen, co-founder of online pet food company Chewy Inc, has made quick work of fast-tracking GameStop’s e-commerce capabilities. The company announced Monday that it will expand its fulfillment network with a 700,000 sq-ft facility on, you guessed it, the moon. Jk close though, it’s in York, Pennsylvania

‍"This facility is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2021 and will support e-commerce and fulfillment needs," the company said in a news release. "The Company expects its fulfillment center in York, Pennsylvania will position it to grow product offerings and expedite shipping across the east coast."

New Player Has Entered Chat

Beyond building out its fulfillment network, Cohen has ousted the former C-suite and ushered in a new team of current and former Amazon employees to support the transformation. Despite the recent stock market saga that captured the hearts of many Reddit users, the GameStop brand remains strong in the video game space, and this switch could further bolster the companies earnings. In fact, GameStop recently reported that its global e-commerce sales surged 175%, representing 34% of net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.

The New Age of Brick-and-Mortar

Even before the pandemic, it seemed that physical brick-and-mortar retail stores were a thing of the past and soon to be outdated. The yearlong lockdowns may have expedited things a bit, but the reality was/is that retailers were scrambling to find a way to utilize their large real estate footprint.

Retail Tycoon IRL

Stores like GamStop are uniquely positioned to turn their retail stores in micro-distribution centers for fast and inexpensive local delivery. And other brands are starting to do the same, as ShipHero COO Maggie Barnett explains in an interview with Vogue Business.

"Some of our large beauty and fashion brands have a prolific real estate footprint, so they want to leverage that — even if people aren't necessarily visiting those stores at 100 percent capacity," Barnett says.

Check out the full article here.

Back of the Packet

Mmm … Union Rings

On Wednesday, Trump-era rules were nullified that made it more difficult for a gig worker to be classified as an employee under federal law. When a gig worker is classified as an employee, they are covered by federal minimum-wage and overtime laws. It also means that these workers are better positioned to organize into labor unions -- and creating union jobs has been a top priority for the Biden administration.

Ebay-bay

The eCommerce platform is looking into cryptocurrency as a payment option, as well as exploring the realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). And they say eBay is shady ????

Bezos News

Jeff Bezos is building a gigantic luxury yacht that's expected to be one of the best in the world - and he's adding a 'support yacht' with its own helipad. We get it, he’s single now. Bill Gates plans to get girls in attendance by pinging their newly implanted 4G chips in their arm. Moving on.

Belgium Invades France

By moving a 200 year old boulder by about 7.5 feet, a farmer in Belgium accidentally re-routed the country’s border with France -- the stones were placed to mark the border after an 1820 treaty. Belgian authorities light-heartedly warn that the farmer may face criminal charges if he doesn’t return the slaaaaaaaaab.

ShipHero News

!Trigger Warning! E-commerce Case Study With Anger ????

ShipHero Case Study is back y’all and this time… it’s written with Anger! Jordi Anger that is, Cofounder Of E-commerce Xpress, an upstart 3PL that serves small to medium-sized businesses in South Queensland, Australie. All aboard the E-commerce Xpress!

‍“From memory, it would take about 4 of my staff about 4-5hrs to completely fulfill 200 orders. The week we went live with Shiphero we did the same amount in about 2 hours -- as of right now, even less.” Jordi Anger, CoFounder of E-commerce Xpress.

Calculating Your Shipping Costs

Shipping costs have a huge impact on your bottom line. Learning how to properly calculate shipping costs and find the best shipping discounts to help your margins and improve the customer experience. Stop overpaying for shipping today, with our latest blog post: Shipping Costs: Calculators, Discounts & More.