Supply Chain

Amazon Launchpad Creates Kickstarter Collection
August 1, 2016 at 11:17 am

Amazon Launchpad announced last week the creation of a Kickstarter Collection, featuring more than 300 Kickstarter products available for purchase on Amazon.com. Startups featured include Piper, Zivix, Prynt, MudWatt, among others. Consumers shopping the Kickstarter Collection can browse categories such as electronics, wireless accessories, home and kitchen, books, movies and TV, and toys and games,โ€ฆ

Birkenstock to Walk Away From Amazon
July 21, 2016 at 12:07 pm

Birkenstock will stop supplying products to Amazon in the U.S. and will no longer authorize third-party merchants to sell on the site.

Nordstrom Buys Stake in Software Firm
July 8, 2016 at 12:09 pm

Nordstrom made a bold move this week by acquiring a minority stake in supply chain software firm DS Co. The platform provides a cloud-based service that will make it easier for suppliers to directly ship orders placed through Nordstromโ€™s retail partners โ€” i.e., drop shipping. For example, if a customer purchases a shirt from Nordstromโ€™s website,โ€ฆ

Nordstrom Integrates Trunk Club's Operations, Cuts Jobs
June 30, 2016 at 12:25 pm

Trunk Club will close down its Goose Island, Ill., distribution center and work more closely with its parent company, Nordstrom, cutting 250 jobs in the process, the retailers said in a news release Tuesday. Trunk Club, which was acquired by Nordstrom in 2014, will begin shifting order fulfillment and distribution operations currently handled at its Gooseโ€ฆ

6 Realities of the Modern Retail Supply Chain
June 16, 2016 at 10:57 am

Retailers are dealing with changes in consumer habits and the explosive rise of e-commerce, which have transformed not only the small parcel economy, but the entire supply chain. Understanding the following six key supply chain realities will help improve efficiency, customer satisfaction and, ultimately, the bottom line. We're not slowing down: According to a Sealed Airโ€ฆ

In the News: Walgreens Ends Theranos Partnership
June 13, 2016 at 12:40 pm

Editorโ€™s Note: Welcome to our newest feature, Total Retail Reportโ€™s In the News section, where we will highlight and offer our take on the top retail-related news articles of the day. Please let us know what you think about this new feature by posting a comment below. Walgreens Ends Theranos Partnership Walgreens announced last week that itโ€ฆ

Target Charges Suppliers More to Help Offload Unsold Inventory
June 9, 2016 at 12:11 pm

Target  is asking many suppliers to take on up to an extra 3 percent to 5 percent of the cost of promotions and price cuts after slow sales so far this year. Retailers often use price discounts combined with promotions to sell slow-moving items and make room for newer products. Suppliers also have their own offers andโ€ฆ

Prepare Your Supply Chain for Predictive Analytics
June 1, 2016 at 10:57 am

The ability to collect and harness data is a key opportunity for retailers that want to truly enable a consumer-centric supply chain. According to a recent Boston Retail Partners study, 62 percent of retailers named customer identification and personalization of customer experience among their top three customer engagement priorities, more than any other initiative. However,โ€ฆ

Top Retailers Fall Short of Commitments to Overseas Workers
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 countryโ€™s poorest workers. But human rights groups say that three years later, those promises are still unfulfilled, and that safety, laborโ€ฆ

Forever 21 is Having Problems Paying the Bills
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 โ€” 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 payingโ€ฆ