Retail Supply Chain Insights Guest Contributors

81. 3 Keys To A Successful Omni-Channel Holiday 9/26/2017

    The importance of delivering high-quality customer experiences in today’s retail space is well-understood. The new challenge has become how to deliver that experience in a profitable way while also keeping up with rapidly-changing consumer expectations, fueled by online retailers.

82. Why Retailers Should Equip Their Temporary Holiday Workforce With Mobile Devices 9/25/2017

    The holiday season is quickly approaching. This means retailers need to start preparing for the influx of seasonal temporary workers required to get through the holidays.

83. Traceability: The Solution To Product Recalls 9/18/2017

    It seems product recalls are now the norm on a wide range of products from cellphones to ATVs, high heels, children’s clothing, and more.  In one week, the CPSC reported several recalls on its website: incorrect venting Nutrilife® hydrogen peroxide bottles cause fires or burns; By Gary Barraco, Director, Global Product Marketing, Amber Road

84. 4 Reasons You Need To Take Blockchain Seriously 9/5/2017

    Retailers are bombarded with so many new technologies it’s difficult to keep up. Each new tool or platform makes bold claims of transformative capabilities. By Sunny Lu, Co-founder & CEO, VeChain

85. 5 Ways To Enhance Your e-Commerce Inventory Management Process 8/22/2017

    With the surge in the e-commerce, the need to employ appropriate inventory management practices for e-commerce warehousing has increased tremendously. By Kevin Hill, Quality Scales Unlimited

86. How To Beat Amazon By Digitizing Your Supply Chain 8/17/2017

    If traditional retailers have not gotten the newsflash yet, here it is: Amazon is coming after your business. As demonstrated by Amazon’s intent to purchase Whole Foods, there is no stopping the e-commerce giant from using its vast resources to continue its pursuit of retail dominance. By Bernard Goor, vice president and industry evangelist, One Network Enterprises

87. Why The Distinction Between Online And Brick-And-Mortar Is Dead 8/9/2017

    A look at the future of retail in the wake of the Amazon-Whole Foods deal. By Heidi Dethloff, VP, Marketing, Digimarc Corporation

88. Discover The Full Value of Supply Chain Social Responsibility 8/1/2017

    Sustainability, carbon footprint reduction, and supply chain transparency have, over the last few years, merged and morphed into what is now being called corporate social responsibility (CSR). A 2015 CSR study found that more than 80% of participating consumers take CSR into account when deciding what to buy or where to shop. While some retailers’ CSR efforts are driven largely by pressures of legislation and public opinion, others are discovering additional benefits beyond compliance, such as improved brand image, wider access to investment capital and an enhanced ability to attract the right employee talent just to name a few.

89. Why Your Manual Put Wall Is Stunting Your Ecommerce Growth 8/1/2017

    Recently, we’ve been focusing on the explosion in e-commerce sales, which are growing at 3x the rate of total retail sales, per Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium. This trend is creating several new challenges for retailers — from order fulfillment to returns processing. One example can be seen by observing a typical online order comprising a: t-shirt, comic book, perfume, and pack of ball point pens. In a large fulfillment center, these items might literally be on opposite ends of the facility.

90. Robots In The DC: 3 Presales Considerations You Can't Ignore (Part 1 of 2) 8/1/2017

    Despite a recent report from DHL Trend Research stating that 80 percent of warehouses are still manually operated with no supporting automation, there are a few other trends that suggest things are about to change. First, the price of automated labor compared to human labor has fallen by up to 50 percent since 1990, per research from McKinsey Group, and the logistics industry as a whole is faced with a growing labor shortage crisis. Additionally, there’s been an influx of systems in recent years that augment human labor by reducing what laborers have to carry and the distances they have to travel to get the items that were ordered.