How would it affect your ecommerce business if you had access to the same fulfillment and outbound logistics capabilities as companies like Amazon, Walmart, or Target? Amazon set the bar for ecommerce delivery regarding reliability, speed, and convenience, while Walmart and Target have spent billions building their own distribution networks for efficiency and speed.
The challenge for the rest of us is that only some brands possess the scale or resources to compete directly with these industry giants, often leaving a disconnect between consumer expectations and the real-life delivery experience.
That may be changing. A pair of large retailers—American Eagle Outfitters and Gap, Inc.—are growing and monetizing their logistics operations and democratizing access to enterprise-level fulfillment and logistics for brands that don’t have the resources to compete directly with Amazon, Walmart, and Target.
Quiet Platform, a subsidiary of American Eagle Outfitters, and GPS Platform Services, a part of Gap Inc., are creating and expanding partnerships with brands, shipping software providers, and last-mile carrier platforms to provide an alternative for omnichannel merchants and SMBs. The concept is simple—bring many brands into the same supply chain where they can achieve volume density that allows them to optimize efficiency, drive down costs, and compete on service level with the largest retailers.
Mike O’Brien has the full scoop on these efforts at Multi-Channel Merchant.
This strategy contradicts the traditional logistics operation, where a brand will manage its logistics network end-to-end. Vendors like Quiet Platform and GPS host inventory—often closer to the end customer than a brand’s central warehouse—and can manage technology integration, aggregate volume across brands for efficiency, and provide a more diversified carrier mix. The result is that omnichannel retailers and SMBs can “punch above their weight class,” gaining access to supply chain speed and sophistication they could never be able to attain on their own.
AxleHire is proud to partner with Quiet Platform to bring the cost and service-level benefits of enterprise-level expedited last-mile delivery capabilities to a growing list of clients. For more information, contact us.
