As the weather starts to warm, trees start to blossom, and patio furniture re-emerges from the garage, home improvement stores across the country prepare for a springtime peak in demand—and a strong remodeling market. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies Leading Indicator for Remodeling...
As ecommerce sales growth accelerates, companies must implement technology for distribution operations that are expected to be “always-on” and available to customers. This was among the key findings in the recently released 2016 MHI Annual Industry Report on technology’s impact throughout the supply chain. The findings, which are...
In distribution operations, efficiency is king as companies shipping items directly to consumers must meet an ever-increasing set of consumer expectations for on-time delivery. According to Voxware research, 62% customers who do not receive their orders purchased online or over the phone within 2 days of the...
As customer expectations rise and the pace of commerce accelerates, companies can no longer rely on the outdated paper checklist to manage tasks in the supply chain. To remain competitive, companies must modernize the supply chain with technology that improves accuracy and efficiency across the...
What Do Consumers Think When Buying Groceries? For many years, consumers made food-purchasing decisions based on a set of traditional drivers that include taste, price, and convenience. While a limited group of consumers also considered a set of evolving drivers that include safety, health and wellness,...
How To Deal with Shipping Costs for Retailers Today’s retailers face a dilemma: shipping costs continue to rise as consumer interest in paying them decreases. For the first time in 3 years, the United States Postal Service announced an across the board hike in shipping rates...
Online retailers enjoyed significant growth this holiday season with a 20% year over year increase in ecommerce sales during the period between Black Friday and Christmas. Not only was this growth significant, but it also outpaced earlier estimates by over 6 percentage points. In the face of significant sales growth,...
In the wake of ever-increasing online sales, returns have risen to such a high level that UPS has dubbed January 6th “National Returns Day” in honor of the 1 million packages the logistics company expected to process on that day alone. According to projections, the company predicted a...
Learn How Walmart's Mobile App Gets Millions of Visit In 2013, Wal-Mart counted 18 million visits to its mobile shopping app. Now, only two years later, the mega retailer is projecting that mobile visits will explode to 210 million. This increase reflects a broader trend of...
According to new research, a convenient and inexpensive return process can sway customers to shop with a particular retailer over others. A survey released by JDA found that 88% of respondents said that they consider the ease of returns in purchasing decisions. This figure is almost as...
