Online sales are a must for just about every traditional retailer today. But they can also be a drag on profits.

Vickie Shannon Allen, 49, started working at Amazon as a counter in a fulfillment warehouse at Haslet, Texas, in May 2017. At first, like many employees, Allen was excited by the idea of working for one of the fastest growing corporations in the world. That feeling dissipated quickly after a few months.

To a smaller merchant looking to sell its products over the internet, Amazon.com, with its massive network of warehouses and fulfillment resources, might seem like an irresistible partner. At what point, though, does Amazon become the competition?

For U.S. retailers, manufacturers, importers and exporters, warehouse space is at its tightest since 2000, when the first dot-com boom was driving strong consumer spending and imports from China were beginning to surge.

Challenge: A manufacturer of top-tier athletic apparel and footwear is also a supplier for its own retail and wholesale channels. As a global company, it lacked visibility into purchase orders and struggled with shipment tracking. This led to restrictions in the company’s ability to collaborate with a supplier base of several hundred vendors and factories — as well as limited end-to-end visibility.