The Forum for Private Business, a British small business lobbying group, recently sought to publicly shame GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) after the drugmaker told suppliers it would pay invoices only once a month, rather than on a rolling basis as they come due.
Reducing supply chain barriers could increase global GDP and world trade much more than reducing all import tariffs, according to a new report released by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Bain & Company and the World Bank.
Back in the fall, Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski said his company would consider further expansion of its ship-from-store initiatives after it evaluates its 2012 holiday sales figures. The chain already expanded the project to more than 290 stores before the holiday season began.
Tokyo-based retailer BEAMS Co. Ltd. has incorporated radio frequency identification technology at five B:MING Life Stores that it recently opened in Japan. The stores are employing RFID technology for both tracking inventory and improving efficiency at the point of sale.
In one of the biggest flops of the dot-com era, Webvan went bust less than two years after its $375m initial public offering in 1999. That's because it built a warehouse and distribution system for products that are already available within three miles of most consumers, says Rich Tarrant, CEO of MyWebGrocer.
Luxury shoppers are more likely to use mobile channels when shopping but are slightly less satisfied with e-commerce overall, according to the Luxury E-Retail Satisfaction Index released by customer experience analytics firm ForeSee.
Putting Albertsons back together again won't be as easy as it looks. The grocery chain was split in 2006 between Supervalu and private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, with both chains using the same logo in different geographic regions. But on January 10, the two owners decided to reunite what will now be a 650-store chain in a complicated deal that leaves only one thing very clear: These money managers aren't thinking about IT when it comes to reassembling the chain.
As retailers are still trying to work through their new-found infatuation with the idea of same-day deliveries, it's quickly becoming a love-hate relationship. Beyond Amazon's discovery that shoppers loved the concept of same-day but ended up not using it, it now seems that some U.K. retailers are willing to very heavily subsidize same-day delivery charges.
Symphony EYC, a player in retail and distribution improvement software formerly known as Aldata, announced that its second U.S. holiday shopping survey has determined that in the United States shoppers want to use their mobile phones to make shopping easier, more personalized, and to have more control over inventory, but that purchasing groceries with a mobile is still in its infancy.
Chain restaurants, battered by value-hungry customers and rising commodity prices, are showing little appetite for significant menu price increases, according to a new survey of industry executives conducted by SpenDifference, a supply chain co-op that helps restaurants save money.