CA Fulfillment Services Archives - Page 12 of 14 - Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics

March 25, 2020

UPS Coronavirus Service information

We have paraphrased and condensed the most recent communique we have received on UPS service during the coronavirus pandemic.

Customers are asking us a few key questions

• Can I count on UPS to deliver safely?

• How can UPS help my business?

• Is UPS supporting healthcare and pandemic response?

• Count on UPS to Keep Delivering – Get More Info Online.

UPS is Open for Business

UPS operations and The UPS Store® locations have been designated by the Governor’s offices in all 50 states as critical infrastructure, and we continue to pick up and deliver, even in restricted areas.

• No-touch No-sign Delivery: We’ve heard your concerns and changed how customers sign for packages to minimize contact.

• Delivering Safely

• UPS is taking measures to protect employees from exposure to coronavirus including enhanced cleaning and following WHO and CDC guidelines.

UPS is Ready to Help Your Business

• Talk to Us: Schedule a free 15-minute virtual consultation with our UPS small business team. Sign up for free on the UPS website.

• Take Control: View incoming and outgoing shipments at a glance, with UPS My Choice® for business.

• Stay Local: Pickup and drop off locations, including The UPS Store®, are still operating. The UPS Global Locator is being updated in real-time to reflect the nearest available active locations.

UPS is Helping the Healthcare Industry to Fight Coronavirus

• Drive-through Testing

• UPS is aiding the US government and healthcare customers in the battle against coronavirus. We’re mobilizing our air and ground networks to help.

• Humanitarian Relief

• We’ve provided $6 million in transportation, consulting, and cash to support coronavirus efforts.

Healthcare Customers

UPS provides extensive support to healthcare companies.

• Commercial labs

• Drive-through testing sites

• Pharmaceutical manufacturing & distribution

• Medical supply manufacturing & distribution

In Closing

From all of us at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics and Sprocket Express, we say stay safe and know we are working hard to keep your business moving.

March 23, 2020

USPS Continuity of Operations Update

The Postal Service has developed localized continuity of operations plans that are employed in the case of emergencies to help ensure that the nation’s postal system continues to function for the American people.

With a longstanding history of quickly adapting its operational plans to changing conditions, the Postal Service maintains steady communications with mailers during natural disasters or other events that require emergency responses and advises residential customers, business mailers, and international mailers with regard to postal facility disruptions that may impact delivery in an affected area via its USPS Service Alerts webpage at: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/.

In the event they are required, the activation of localized continuity of operations plans depends on the specific effects of an emergency in an impacted area. Due to the variance in possibilities and factors, it would be impossible to predict what the effect of such emergencies would be on a specific customers’ mailing prior to the event, but the planning enables us to continue or quickly reestablish mail operations in regions facing the impact of strong hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, etc., and they have been prepared to respond to pandemic-related circumstances as well.

As a result, we recommend that customers refer to USPS Service Alerts for service-disruption updates. Another key component of our communications portion of USPS contingency plans remains the Industry Alert.

For those business mailers who utilize the Business Service Network (BSN), we encourage them to continue to maintain the line of communication with their representative on changes to the postal system. If a customer or mailing partner needs to shut down its operations due to the current situation, they should contact their BSN contact, Sales contact, or their local Business Mail Entry contact to discuss their plans. These local contacts will notify the Districts, Area, and Headquarters of any needed assistance or broader impacts.

The Postal Service continues to use its existing processes for many of the more common impacts customers are concerned about. Some questions that have been raised are:

How is USPS handling mail for closed businesses?

Mail on the delivery route is returned to the Delivery unit and will be held for 10 days under current policies. Customers can request a temporary hold for their mail up to 30 days. Caller Box customers should contact their local office to discuss how they will be handling the pickup of this volume. Any high volume customer will be contacted to discuss pickup options as well.

How is USPS delivering mail under shelter in place declarations?

The Postal Service is classified as an essential government service operation, which allows us to continue operations.

How safe is the mail and mail transport equipment?

Current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidance continues to indicate there is no evidence the virus is spreading through the mail. According to WHO, the likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low, and the risk of catching the virus from a package that has been moved, traveled, and exposed to different conditions and temperatures is also low. This guidance remains true for mail transport equipment.

Is the USPS experiencing capacity issues due to reduced airline routes?

There are no domestic air capacity issues at this time. The Postal Service continues to work with International air carriers and contract air carriers to keep mail moving.

Industry and commercial customers can email questions or concerns about COVID-19 and the mail to industryfeedback@usps.gov with COVID-19 in the subject line. Mailers can also sign up for Industry Alerts at industryalert@usps.gov.

For more information, see the USPS Coronavirus Statement at about.usps.com/newsroom.

In Closing

From all of us at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics, we say stay safe and know we are working hard to keep your business moving.

March 20, 2020

Los Angeles, California Lockdown Does Not Affect Medallion

Medallion is open for business and working hard to stay safe.

Our Los Angeles warehouse and Boston warehouse are open and are able to receive incoming goods and ship out orders daily.

The Governor of California has ordered all citizens to stay at home except persons in critical infrastructure sectors which includes our business (Transportation). The City of LA and County of LA have implemented similar restrictions.

Medallion is exercising recommended procedures such as social distance, proper hygiene, no face to face contacts with clients or prospects, and operators of trucks bringing in product or picking up orders being shipped are not allowed into the warehouse etc.

We continue to business as usual and are working to minimize the impacts that the virus may have on your business by receiving and shipping your goods as usual.

At Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics, we are focused on serving you, our customers, and to keeping our staff and warehouses safe.

March 19, 2020

Coronavirus Survival Guide: Don’t Let Your Merchandise be Held Hostage by Amazon During the Pandemic, You Have Options

We’re all about solutions here at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics. The coronavirus pandemic demands that we think outside the box to keep businesses growing and homebound customers satisfied.

Amazon is talking about stopping the shipping of all products other than high-demand items that are pandemic-related. This shipping freeze has left etailers and ecommerce store owners struggling to deal with an unexpected business stoppage. Amazon has sent out notices that it would not ship products, other than high demand pandemic-related items, until after April 5^th. What if that delay is extended? Are you prepared to tell buyers you cannot ship to them for weeks?

During the outbreak in China, 46 million people were on lockdown starting on January 23^rd. Many are still on lockdown today. In the US, we are at the start of our outbreak, and cannot even imagine what will happen next or what the business impacts will be. Planning ahead for the worst case scenario may be the best case scenario for your business.

Before the pandemic, over 4.7 million people (3.4% of the population) routinely worked from home. Now, with many offices requiring workers to stay home due the community spread of the virus, the number of teleworking employees has skyrocketed. This situation has presented an unusual and major opportunity for savvy etailers and ecommerce sellers. But, what if you can’t get your items fulfilled and delivered through FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) to leverage sales to these new shoppers?

To solve the Amazon shipping freeze, we have developed a special program called FBM (Fulfillment by Medallion). The FBM program allows you to ship product to both or either of our East Coast or West Coast warehouses, and gets you back shipping goods to customers the day after we receive your products. This redundancy with FBA lets you be proactive to the current business and virus situation. And, FBM allows you to leverage sales to homebound workers; who may be shopping to pass the time, or who are buying items for family members to stay entertained with while home from school.

Here’s how our FBM (Fulfillment by Medallion) program works:

Ship your goods, or a selection of goods, to our East Coast or West Coast warehouses or to both.
Our special dedicated FBM On-Boarding Team fast tracks processing and works with you to implement your ordering and shipping fast. We can start shipping orders the day after we receive your products in our warehouse.
There are no long term contracts and you can even get a formal and affordable price quote today.
Get back in business – shipping to homebound and internet-connected potential customers in one day after receipt of your products in our facility. Don’t miss a beat and make your sales projections this quarter, even with communities and workers on lockdown.

After the threat is over, we think you’ll stay a Medallion FBM customer due to our affordable pricing and can-do attitude. Don’t let your business merchandise be held hostage by Amazon; you have an affordable option – FBM (Fulfillment by Medallion).

Give us a call today and let us show you how we can get you back in business fast.

March 11, 2020March 3, 2020

How the New gTLD Domain Names Will Impact You and Your Brand

If you’ve ever heard the term TLD, it may seem like just one of the myriad of mysterious acronyms that populate tech-speak. You might be surprised to learn that it’s actually something you likely use every day in one way or another. In addition, recent developments could make it even more relevant to your company or business.

TLD stands for top-level domain, which is the extension to the right of the dot in an Internet address. They’re further subdivided into gTLDs, which are generic domains such as .com or .gov. Currently there are only 21 gTLDs in use, but that number is about to explode. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (iCANN) has begun approving new gTLDs for the first time since 2004.

What makes this expansion potentially game-changing is that these new gTLDs include specific terms that relate directly to businesses, cultures, hobbies and other interests. Some of the domains included in the list are .career, .casino, .book and .fashion. In addition, alphabets such as Cyrillic, Arabic and Chinese will be introduced into the naming system in an effort to increase Internet use around the world.

iCANN began accepting applications for the new gTLDs in January 2013. By September nearly 1,800 of these applications had passed the initial evaluation. Prominent retailers Amazon, Wal-Mart have applied for their own brand names as well as other domains (.grocery for Wal-Mart, .book for Amazon) that pertain to certain aspects of their business. The first approved domains are expected to roll out early this year.

While control of a branded gTLD has an obvious benefit, the hefty $185,000 application fee that goes along with it will probably keep all but major companies from pursuing those domains. The real action will undoubtedly come from purchase of addresses with generic domain names such as the aforementioned .grocery and .book. These will be available through online registries such as GoDaddy that currently provide the service for addresses with .com, .biz and other established gTLDs.

One potential benefit of these domains is using them to make a website more user-friendly by sending customers directly to their area of interest. For example, Amazon could use the address Kindle.book to steer people to their online e-reader store without forcing them to navigate the Amazon.com site.

Another scenario is demonstrated by the plans of BuySeasons Inc. They’re attempting to buy several domains with a .party extension to use with their e-commerce sites. Customers can be led to different areas of the party-planning process via Invitations.party, Photos.party and other descriptive addresses.

Use of the new gTLDs clearly serve a proactive function of helping your customers find you more easily. There’s also a defensive purpose of claiming an address to keep your competitors from taking advantage of it. Other businesses, particularly large retailers, will also find themselves in the position of scooping up addresses that may mislead shoppers or reflect poorly on their service or brand.

Search engine giants Google and Microsoft have been vague on the question of if and how their algorithms will change in response to the new gTLDs. However, experts believe that these domains can’t help but make addresses more relevant to customer queries. This is another aspect that makes control of the domains important. If, for instance, the holder of the .makeup domain allows use only by cosmetics companies, it preserves integrity of these addresses in consumer searches.

There are a couple of ways you can prepare for your own potential use of gTLDs. If you have a trademark, you can register it with iCANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse. This gives you priority during a gTLD’s so-called “sunrise period”. When a domain related to your trademark becomes available, you have a 30- to 60-day time frame in order to purchase or bid on it. You may also pre-register for your desired domains with online registries that are likely to be selling them.

As with any change or innovation in online marketing, the jury will be out on the full benefits of gTLDs until they’ve been in use for a while. But it’s vital that you consider the implications for your business and position yourself to use this development in your company’s best interest.