Supply Chain
May 31, 2016 at 10:53 am
After more than 1,100 deaths exposed dangerous labor conditions in Bangladesh in 2013, brands like H&M, Wal-Mart and Gap were among the most powerful companies that pledged to improve the safety of some of the country’s poorest workers. But human rights groups say that three years later, those promises are still unfulfilled, and that safety, labor…
April 29, 2016 at 1:42 pm
Don and Jin Sook Chang, the billionaire owners of Forever 21, seemed to have it all in recent years — a happy marriage and one of the hottest retail chains in the country. Now both may be on the rocks. The fast-fashion retailer, which for years was busy opening ever-larger stores around the globe, is late paying…
April 21, 2016 at 11:38 am
When San Francisco resident Catherine Lelong recently received a delivery from Sam’s Club, she was confused: She didn’t remember having placed an order with the membership club. She was right. Lelong hadn’t placed an order from Sam’s Club, but she eventually realized that the bottle of detergent inside the box was something she had recently ordered…
April 21, 2016 at 9:24 am
Before the rise of e-commerce, the intricacies of a complex global supply chain were mostly hidden from the consumer. Products appeared on store shelves and in the pages of catalogs seemingly by magic; the very appearance of a mail-order package on a doorstep was considered impressive in and of itself. Not so today. With each…
April 19, 2016 at 10:11 am
Out-of-stock inventory continues to be a huge problem for retailers and suppliers alike. There’s nothing more frustrating for consumers than an empty shelf, and even just one instance of an out-of-stock item can have lasting consequences in terms of customer loyalty and lifetime value. Consider some recent findings from the Trading Partner Alliance consisting of…
March 30, 2016 at 12:05 pm
Total Retail Talks is Total Retail’s podcast channel, and it features interviews and insights with some of the leading minds in the retail industry. Please check out our podcast channel page for all episodes, show notes and additional information. Also, you can access Total Retail Talks episodes on iTunes and Stitcher. We hope you’ll join us! Jodie Fox, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Shoes…
March 17, 2016 at 11:00 am
Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus — stung by its first holiday sales decline since the Great Recession — is spreading the pain. Drowning in designer duds and accessories that it didn’t sell during the crucial shopping season, the department store chain, which also owns Bergdorf Goodman, has asked its vendors to take back merchandise or risk not…
March 15, 2016 at 10:09 am
Most Amazon.com shoppers love how the site immediately predicts shipping costs and delivery date for their purchases. As soon as shoppers click on a product, they see a message such as, “Want it Wednesday, Sept. 30 by 4 p.m.? Order in the next 11 minutes, six seconds.” What’s noteworthy is that Amazon does this up…
March 4, 2016 at 8:47 am
For a while now, retailers have been betting big on bits and bytes as they invest in retail technology. Overall, retailer IT spend was estimated at $60 billion in 2013. Although e-commerce platform spending gets much of the press, it’s only a small portion, $1.2 billion, of the overall retail tech budget. So where's the…
February 29, 2016 at 10:17 am
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. has made its private labels a key part of its strategy to capture market share and continue to improve its results. J.C. Penney shares are up 15.4 percent in Friday trading in the wake of its fourth-quarter earnings release on Thursday and management commentary on the higher-margin private label approach.
