Retail customer expectations continues to rise as technology evolves. As soon as a retail customer drives into the parking lot of a store, the clock begins to tick. Who is this customer? What did they buy the last time they were in the store? What have they looked at online before entering the store? How can the retailer keep them in the store ten minutes longer than their previous visit? A variety of technologies are trying to help answer these questions and more. Let’s take a look:
- A 2015 survey by Cisco, stated that up to 73% of shoppers…
In the very near future, that humming noise you are hearing in the warehouse will not be the air conditioning motor, but rather a fleet of drones cruising around taking inventory. We have reached a time when drone usage within the warehouse is being adopted by several major retailers as increased e-commerce demand is forcing companies to keep pace. The average amount of time it takes a Walmart employee to manually check inventory in a warehouse is one month. It will take a drone one day to complete the same duties. This significant cost savings will allow Walmart…
What was the most significant trend to impact the retail supply chain in 2016?
The most significant trend in 2016 was the continued shift of volume from brick and mortar to e-commerce. This issue is here to stay and we need to continue to help design and support flexible solutions for our customers. In our March blog we spoke about how brick and mortar stores were evolving and the shift to e-commerce was accelerating. The 2016 holiday shopping season was further proof as the growth of…
No, it’s not a new super hero movie or this season’s hottest toy, but rather what industry insiders are calling the busy online shopping period after Thanksgiving when shoppers can expect to find the best deals from their favorite retailers. More specifically, Cyber Five is the week-long shopping holiday defined as the five consecutive days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday which includes Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Super Sunday.
The combination of growing online sales as well as mobile friendly shopping sites means that consumers…
The robots are coming! The robots are coming! We aren’t talking about Robocop or even the loveable “Wall-E”. These new-age robots are headed directly to the warehouse. There has been subtle usage of robots in the warehouse for years, but Amazon’s purchase of Kiva set the stage for the current landscape of robotics within the warehouse.
There are a number of advantages to warehouse robots:
- Robots have the capability to work 24×7 without a break.
- The maintenance cost is relatively low, particularly in…
The general definition for “The Internet of Things” (IoT) is the concept of connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to other devices). This includes everything from cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. Within the supply chain space, what does this mean? The IoT emergence will allow supply chains to intelligently connecting people, processes, data, and so forth via devices and sensors. This will allow things to come to life in numerous… 
Nike was one of the first companies to breakthrough in the “modern” footwear industry by using the now famous slogan “Just Do It” and selecting Saturday mornings as the universal day of the week when new Air Jordan shoes were released. Since that time, the footwear industry has continued to evolve and has embraced several trends as companies battle to stay ahead of the curve. Let’s examine a few of these: