If you are a retailer looking to reduce your carbon footprint and shipping costs there is an additional tried & true model to use.

-> Move inventory in bulk
-> Store product closer to buyers.

Moving inventory in bulk and storing product closer to buyers is called "forward warehousing". The metrics are simple.

Shipping costs have a rough correlation to distance and carbon to get the products to the location. If you use jet fuel its an expensive air shipment. If you ship a long way by ground its a cheaper ground parcel shipment. If you move inventory by freight or container the economies of scale for the movement of the product is the greatest and its typically the least price.

Plug into a global warehouse network; move your best selling inventory closer to buyers by freighting product to your geographically dispersed warehouse. When you sell to a buyer, the shipping price will be less because the individual product has less distance to go. So it gets there cheaper and faster.

Shipwire ecommerce order fulfillment operates a network of warehouses in the U.S., Canada and the UK.

Check out our Shipping savings calculator and see how much you can save on domestic and international shipping using this model. http://www.shipwire.com/pricing click "Calculate Savings".

The more you save on shipping...the lower your real carbon footprint.

Nate
Shipwire order fulfillment
http://www.shipwire.com
shipping blog
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