Cart.com Blog

SKU complexity at scale: how enterprise apparel brands keep picking accuracy above 99%

Joe Barth — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:02:40 GMT

A single T-shirt style offered in six sizes and four colors is 24 SKUs. Add a slim fit and a relaxed fit and you're at 48. Introduce a new colorway mid-season and the number climbs again. Multiply that across a catalog of 200 styles, and an apparel brand is routinely managing tens of thousands of active SKUs — each of which needs to be individually tracked, stored, located, picked, and verified before it ships.

From a storage unit to Sephora and Ulta: what ILIA Beauty learned about scaling fulfillment

Peter Curac-Dahl — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:03:21 GMT

In a recent Cart.com Thought Leadership Series webinar, Madeline Heartt, Senior Director of Sales Operations at ILIA Beauty, joined Cart.com's Chief Logistics Officer Joe Barth and CMO Jack Ulrich for an unfiltered conversation about what scaling fulfillment actually looks like from the inside.

Near-shoring vs. multi-node fulfillment: which strategy actually protects apparel margins in 2026?

Joe Barth — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:47:27 GMT

If you're a supply chain or operations leader at a large apparel brand right now, you've almost certainly had some version of this conversation: should we be sourcing closer to home, or do we need to rethink how we distribute what we're already sourcing?

How large apparel brands are restructuring fulfillment networks to absorb tariff shocks

Joe Barth — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:10:38 GMT

The math changed fast. What looked like a manageable landed cost in 2024 quietly became a margin crisis by early 2026 as a new round of reciprocal tariffs reshaped the economics of importing apparel from China and other major sourcing countries.

Webinar recap: IEEPA tariff updates

Cart.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:09:31 GMT

The complete guide to beauty and cosmetic fulfillment

Doug Shaffer — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:50:43 GMT

The beauty and cosmetics industry is booming, with global sales expected to exceed $703 billion by 2026.

As brands navigate this competitive market, seamless fulfillment is crucial in meeting customer expectations and maintaining a strong brand reputation. Unlike other industries, beauty products come with unique challenges like temperature sensitivity, strict regulations and a broad range of SKUs that require brands to implement fulfillment solutions explicitly tailored to the intricacies of the beauty sector.

In the following sections, we'll further explore these unique fulfillment challenges and discuss how the right strategy can fuel growth for your beauty and cosmetics brand.

CEO Omair Tariq on what the Supreme Court’s IEEPA tariff ruling means for retail brands and supply chains in 2026

Cart.com — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 23:19:32 GMT

This interview was originally published by Berns & Co.

A Complete Guide to Beauty & Cosmetic Fulfillment 2023 | Cart.com

tyler.lawson@cart.com (Tyler Lawson) — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:09:05 GMT

The beauty and personal care market amounts to a 105+ billion dollar industry. If you’re a beauty, skincare or cosmetic brand, big or small, then you surely know the challenges that come with shipping and fulfilling orders in this space. The unique nature of beauty products calls for various special considerations: expiry dates, special packaging, fragile containers, quality control measures, you name it!

If your brand is ready to streamline your fulfillment processes, this is the guide for you. Read on to learn more about the best ways to optimize your brand strategies.

Apparel returns management

tyler.lawson@cart.com (Tyler Lawson) — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:50:34 GMT

Apparel returns management is a critical operational challenge that directly impacts profitability and customer loyalty. With apparel return rates averaging 20-40% across the industry, brands face mounting pressure to transform returns from a costly burden into a strategic advantage. These percentages take a significant toll, even on businesses with an otherwise healthy financial bottom line, as the table below demonstrates:

Efficient apparel fulfillment: Scaling up while reducing costs

tyler.lawson@cart.com (Tyler Lawson) — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 20:49:07 GMT

Apparel brands face some of the most complex fulfillment challenges in retail: managing vast SKU variation across sizes and colors, adapting quickly to seasonal order volume surges (often 30–100%) and absorbing return rates averaging 24–30%. To maintain profitability and brand integrity, forward-thinking brands build fulfillment operations that deliver scalability, pinpoint accuracy and flawless experience.