Earlier this week Quidsi, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, announced a new program called Familyhood Plus that bears a close resemblance to its parent company’s Prime offering. Quidsi, which translates to “what if” in Latin, is an umbrella company that sits atop numerous popular web brands such as Soap.com for health, beauty and household essentials; Wag.com, [...]
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Over the past two months the so called ‘Omnichannel’ effect has been tightening its grip on the UK retail industry. The consumer electronics retail sector seems to have come off worst and as I have a keen interest in the High Tech sector here at GXS I thought it would be worth taking a few [...]
Read More» I continue to be surprised by at how many companies are still not requiring Advanced Shipment Notices (ASNs) from their suppliers. Advanced shipment notices provide details on the timing, contents and packaging of forthcoming deliveries. Although ASNs have been around for decades the benefits of these EDI documents are still not widely understood. In this [...]
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For retailers, meeting customer demand no longer relies on how much free space is in your back room. Online shopping has helped retailers open up their channels and satisfy even the pickiest of consumers. Now, you can carry the most popular products as well as those green glitter wedges that may only appeal to 1 [...]
Read More» Tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year in the US – Black Friday. However, a more appropriate description of the day might be “Dark Friday” or “Red Friday” given the wave of violence that has emerged in recent years. In fact, the first references to “Black Friday” were not very positive. In 1966 [...]
Read More» Today we announced several exciting enhancements to GXS Catalogue, the industry-leading SaaS solution that enables retailers and suppliers to synchronize over 550 product data attributes including price, color, size, style and GTIN. With over 140 million unique retail items, the industry’s largest database of product information plays a pivotal role in helping merchandise suppliers and [...]
Read More» Over the holidays I read Tony Hseih’s excellent book Delivering Happiness. Tony, of course, is the CEO of the fast growing on-line footwear retailer Zappos.com. The book has been widely read and discussed. For most people the key takeaway is the lessons learned about Zappos strong corporate culture and excellence in customer service. However, there [...]
Read More» The New York Times reported that last week Groupon raised nearly $1B in venture capital from large institutional investors including Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley. Rumors that the company is on a fast-track for a potential $15B IPO are circulating as well. There has been a frenzy of media coverage over Groupon lately [...]
Read More» In my last post, I discussed how supply chain visibility could be greatly improved if inventory could simply check-in to various locations much as a mobile phone user does on Foursquare. While the RFID technology for such a model does exist, efforts to justify a business case to deploy the necessary IT infrastructure have largely [...]
Read More» Most parents are probably familiar with some version of the saying that I adapted for this post. Though never levied against me by my own offspring (under threat of severe punishment, I’m sure), I’ve heard it often enough as part of the social banter between kids on the school campus and around town. Children ages 9-12 have [...]
Read More» In an earlier post I outlined seven key challenges with sharing POS data between retailers and suppliers. Variations in the network protocols, file formats and data fields complicate information sharing efforts acting as barriers to enhanced collaboration. Given the technology challenges outlined above the universal agreement on the benefits of demand driven approaches, why then [...]
Read More» Throughout the 1990s and early part of this century a variety of new store formats were introduced to the retail industry. In addition to the long-standing grocery, drug and mass merchant channels, rapid expansion of new club, dollar and specialty retail chains occurred. The new formats, seeking a differentiated merchandise mix to draw consumers to [...]
Read More» In a post earlier this month I discussed the topic of deductions and chargebacks in the retail supply chain. Billions of dollars of waste and inefficiency are created annually from the inability to comply with retailer guidelines for carrier routing, shipment labeling, product packaging, item ticketing and EDI transmissions. With significant margin pressure on both [...]
Read More» Challenges to the retail supply chain have followed closely throughout the year as consumer spending is a key barometer of the broader economy. The combination of skyrocketing commodity costs and continued bargain hunting by consumers are exerting unusual price and margin pressures on retailers. Currently, everyone is eagerly anticipating the results of August sales as [...]
Read More» Wal-Mart continues to find ways to seek and destroy sources of Supply Chain Risk. In a recent development, they want to take the driver’s seat, gain greater control over exogenous factors and achieve further cost reductions by controlling all transportation activities. In February 2010, Wal-Mart announced a new “Supply Chain Reliability Program”. This initiative was [...]
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