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Fast shipping has become the new expectation by consumers when shopping online. McKinsey’s research shows that 90% of American consumers expect free 2 or 3 day shipping. But while free fast shipping is possibly beyond the budgets of many retailers, rapid order fulfillment certainly is not.

With services like PODS making it easy to set up alternative fulfillment center inside shipping containers — even temporarily during peak seasons — retailers have many options at their fingertips to localize and speed up fulfillment.

The ability to perform rapid order fulfillment (and do it well), is set to become a major differentiator among competitors in 2022.

Alternative payment methods have risen quickly in popularity over the past half a decade or so. Buy-now-pay-later services like Affirm, in particular, are beloved by debt-laden Millennials and Gen Zers. Forbes says that 41% and 36% of these generations respectively have or will utilize “BNPL” services in 2021.

By the start of 2022, shoppers will be expecting to see these options at checkout both online and in-store. Brands that aren’t offering alternative payment methods are likely to see a rise in abandoned purchases.

Is your online payment methods diverse enough and offered with your customers' needs in mind?

No other reason to post today than to celebrate the first official day of summer. No matter what it looks like outside where you are, here's to a summer we can get outside, see family and celebrate life and love together! Don't forget our high-risk friends and those with compromised immunity this year, though, by taking the right precautions and considerations.

Happy days are ahead!