Insights About E-Commerce

One Columbus recently released a unique report about e-commerce fulfillment. It’s the first in what will be an ongoing series of profiles on industries that are important to the Columbus Region.

Covering topics local and global, the e-commerce profile contains information from a range of government and industry data sources, as well as insights directly from Columbus Region companies working in fulfillment.

Some highlights from the profile:

• The e-commerce arms of clothing retailers in the U.S. are keeping pace in sales growth with pure e-commerce companies.
• Local fulfillment operations surveyed tend to source from vendors within the Columbus Region for packaging, human resources and administrative services, and marketing and branding. But, they source from outside the Region and Ohio for manufacturing, back office and call centers, and various IT services – especially analytics.
• Among publicly traded companies with a local fulfillment presence that share their e-commerce sales (or direct-to-consumer) data, Abercrombie & Fitch had the highest percentage jump in e-commerce sales in the most recent financial quarter over the same quarter last year. 1-800-Flowers (Cheryl & Co.) and Restoration Hardware lead the pack in the e-commerce share of overall sales.

If you have feedback about the e-commerce fulfillment profile or you’d like to suggest an industry for a future report, we want to hear from you. Our next industry profile will cover automotive supply chain. If you are a Columbus Region business that’s in the automotive industry and you’d like to participate, please let us know.

–Kenny McDonald

One Columbus Update

• Congratulations to Sally Hughes, president and CEO of Caster Connection, for receiving NAWBO’s Columbus Visionary Award.
• The Columbus Region June Economic Update is available. The report shows the Region’s unemployment rate is at 4.0 percent, lower than both the Ohio and U.S. rates.