Articles
Retail Logistics
Beyond the Rack: Retail Supply Chain Strategies That Work
In the challenging retail sector, supply chain efficiency can be the difference between succeeding and just barely hanging on. From weaving together disparate systems into a single information flow, to ensuring products appear effortlessly on shelves, to fulfilling online orders with lightning speed, here’s how thriving retailers rack and roll.
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The New Retail Equation: Better, Not Bigger?
In this new retail landscape, companies that innovate and adapt by refining their operational models to be more agile and responsive will be best positioned to thrive.
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Reverse Logistics: Curing the Holiday Returns Hangover
Consumers tend to over-indulge during holiday shopping—and that means lots of returns once the buzz wears off. Instead of antacids and ice packs, retailers find the remedy in smart reverse logistics strategies and solutions.
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Rethinking Retail Strategies
As a result of retail’s rapid change, retailers need to review existing strategies to fully leverage forward-thinking practices and technology. Identifying those opportunities contributes greatly to revenue, profit improvement, and customer satisfaction.
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The Fast Fashion Fallout: The Circular Economy and the Future of Sustainability in the Fashion Industry
It’s no secret the fashion industry is a top contributor to global textile waste. Every year, millions of tons of textiles are incinerated or placed in landfills where they take hundreds of years to decompose. Fortunately, there is hope as sustainability becomes a priority among young consumers.
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Back-to-School Report Card
With increased demand for electronics boosting consumer spending, retailers are gearing up for a packed back-to-school shopping season. So far the 2023 cycle is earning high marks:
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5 Trends to Watch As We Sail Into Peak Season
As shippers approach what is historically retail peak season, understanding the evolving ocean market will be critical to maintaining a resilient supply chain for the long term. Here are five key trends to watch as the ocean market evolves.
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Managing the Return Trip
Glance around any airport and it immediately becomes apparent that travel is back in full swing. Chalk it up to pent-up demand but people are either hauling out long-stored luggage or buying new bags and setting off on much delayed journeys. The time was ripe for Samsonite—the world’s best-known and largest travel luggage company—to innovate and enhance their customer experience.
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Embracing the System
Ramesh Murthy is executive vice president and chief supply chain officer with Bob’s Discount Furniture, a rapidly growing omnichannel furniture retailer, with 164 stores across 24 states.
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How to Combat Fraudulent Losses
Retail and ecommerce is experiencing a massive digital transformation, and with this comes an increase in bad actors who embrace innovation and take advantage of the latest digital fraud practices as well.
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A Direct Hit
As retail businesses explore all their supply chain options, many find that direct-to-consumer (DTC) models may be the right approach. In fact, two-thirds of North American organizations say their investment in the DTC delivery model has increased since early 2020, according to a new Deposco report, The Rise of Direct-to-Consumer in North America. Respondents from […]
Read MoreSpecialty Retail Hits the Mark
What makes a successful retailer? To answer that question, Manhattan Associates, in partnership with Google Cloud and Zebra Technologies, examined data insight from real purchases, returns, and customer journeys across digital and physical channels to create The Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail, a report conducted by Incisiv. The benchmark assesses retailers across 11 specialty […]
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Embracing the Opportunity in Returns
With the explosive growth of online shopping in recent years, largely fueled by the pandemic, returns are on the rise and have become a logistics headache for retailers, carriers, and consumers. The long-term impacts of this increased demand, and the resulting strain on retailers and supply chains, will largely depend on how retailers respond.
Read MoreIncreasing E-Commerce Efficiencies Block by Block
Consumer expectations continue to stack up, and pressures on e-tailers are mounting. Here’s how companies are building efficiencies and constructing e-fulfillment strategies.
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GOOD QUESTION: What’s your biggest supply chain takeaway from peak season?
With peak season 2022 in the rear view, readers and industry insiders reveal key lessons and insights.
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Retailers Come Closer to Home
E-commerce companies are reworking the twists and turns in their distribution networks to get closer to their customers and speed delivery times by shortening the last mile.
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Automation: From Benefit to Necessity
Even prior to the pandemic, consumers were demanding. Since the rise of e-commerce, end users expect the ability to order what they want, when they want it, via the channels they want. Brands are adapting to this demand by offering curbside pickup, third-party delivery services, direct-from-social media purchasing, and a variety of other channels to cater to different consumer preferences.
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Turning the Tide on Turnover
The pandemic’s effect on inventory turnover was significant, but more recent data suggests that the situation may be improving for e-commerce brands.
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Logistics Technology: The Unsung Hero of Convenience Commerce
As consumers embraced online ordering during the pandemic, e-commerce sales ballooned from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020—a 43% jump—according to a recent Census Bureau retail survey. Although online sales have cooled since the initial pandemic-driven fervor, consumers continue to drive convenience commerce, with e-commerce sales increasing 6.7% in Q1 2022. More than 20% of consumer spending from January to March occurred online.
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