Supply Chain

Grocery store Kroger and drug store Walgreens are teaming up. In an effort to cut supplier costs, the two companies want to start buying merchandise together, CNBC reported. The chain retailers will call this partnership the Retail Procurement Alliance, and will have them identifying overlap in products that they both are receiving so they can…

The speed at which the retail industry is evolving to navigate e-commerce and gig economy disruption is happening far faster than we could have predicted. Gone are the days when shoppers were battling for parking at the local mall to take advantage of a department store sale, or shuffling through the aisles to hunt down…

With the holiday retail season upon us, some brands are executing strategies to counter the effects of tariffs on certain Chinese imports, including price increases and the relocation of offshore production operations to tariff-free countries. These strategies may not be an ideal or sustainable response to the tariff increases, however, as the price increases may…

In episode 222 of Total Retail Talks, Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews Mike Del Pozzo, chief customer officer and senior vice president of sales at Frito-Lay North America, a leading PepsiCo snack foods brand. Listen in as Del Pozzo discusses the history of the 80-year-old brand, its distribution channels, and how shifting consumer behaviors has impacted…

When Amazon.com first introduced its “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA) program in 2006, it was impossible to know whether the online retailer fully recognized the growth prospects of the market it was walking into. Ironically, Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has joked about the difficulties of packing and shipping orders from his home-office during Amazon’s early years.…

Cyber risk in retail isn't a new concept. Retail is one of the most targeted industries when it comes to cyber attacks. In fact, over 50 percent of global retailers were breached in the last year. Given the sensitive customer data these organizations often possess (e.g., credit card information and personally identifiable information), it’s not…

Costco is teaming up with delivery startup Instacart to test free delivery of prescription drugs to its members. The pilot program is limited to California and Washington state, according to two people familiar, and includes delivery to a Costco member’s home or office. One Costco member who has used the service told CNBC that he…

Did you know the top three words fashion executives use to describe the industry are digital, optimistic, and fast? This was just one of many findings from Mckinsey’s State of Fashion 2019 report, and it makes perfect sense. The metabolism of the fashion industry keeps getting faster: mega brands associated with fast fashion can restock…

Rising consumer expectations for fast (and oftentimes free) order delivery have forced retailers and brands to adjust how their supply chains operate. Automation within the supply chain has become necessary to compete in today's speed-driven environment. Therefore, retailers are investing in technology systems and solutions, including robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, order and inventory management…

Products? Prices? Websites? There’s not a lot of difference, really. With so much the same today in business-to-consumer (B-to-C) e-commerce, what really makes the online customer loyal to a retailer? UPS posed this question to consumers worldwide as part of the 2019 Pulse of the Online Shopper study. Respondents made their feelings perfectly clear. Transparency…