Two things you should never do on an empty stomach: shop for groceries, and predict the future. In the case of the latter, that must be a guiding principle of the San Francisco Roundtable of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, which takes care to feed attendees before presenting its annual, much-anticipated predictions for the coming year and beyond.
Some of the biggest names in private equity are racing to set up shop in Southeast Asia, drawn by the region's rapid economic development and abundance of natural resources, according to The Boston Consulting Group's report, Private Equity in Southeast Asia: Increasing Success, Rising Competition.
In the run up to Christmas, UK retailers are frustrating shoppers with distinctly average customer service. Top UK merchants are failing to answer questions asked online or sent via email, according to the 2012 Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Study. The research found that just 48 percent of retailers could successfully answer basic questions sent via email, while websites could answer just over half (53 percent) of questions asked online.
As the holiday buying season continues to gather steam, the Consumer Fraud Center has warned about a fast-growing trend: the sale of goods at bargain-basement prices through so-called "daily deal" sites, which can mask the sale of counterfeit or illicit goods.
A guide has been published by Sourcing Journal Online and TradeCard to help supply chain executives in the apparel industry take advantage of sourcing locales in Latin America as they pursue strategic initiatives requiring faster turnaround and more reliable delivery of goods.
Matt Fates envisions a world where no one talks about Big Data anymore. Using the totality of an enterprise's data to make forward-looking business decisions, develop new products, and improve marketing efficiency will be so common that there won't be a name for it. But getting to that point, in his view, will involve a cultural shift; a change of consciousness.
Numerous countries have implemented laws and regulations that control the importation of products with encryption. Complying with each country's regulatory requirements is essential to doing business for multinational companies, but there are challenges associated with establishing a global process to meet country-unique requirements.
A whopping 94 percent of B2B purchasers surveyed in the 2012 hybris State of B2B E-Commerce study said suppliers need to create an online buying experience as simple as using a B2C website.