Think Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer? Think again. Alibaba, the leading online wholesale marketplace for domestic China trade among small businesses, has officially claimed the #1 spot with its IPO filing. Last year, the giant did $248 billion of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in its China retail marketplace, more than Amazon and eBay…
Archives for Industry News
On the Road: Out-of-Stocks are a Global Challenge
On a recent trip to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, I stopped by a Mercadona (I am definitely a grocery geek) one Saturday morning. This particular store was experiencing the same out-of-stock challenges we face in the US. The much-challenged yogurt aisle had a number of missing items, with gaping holes. Luckily, store personnel had product…
Walmart Expanding Pick-up Locations
Americans were the first to establish the “drive-thru” culture, so it’s only fitting that this model is finally expanding to the US grocery industry. Thus far, most retailers have attached pick-up locations to actual stores (except in the case of drive-thru only retailers), or built them in convenient locations. Walmart has begun testing this concept…
Getting Food Fast Instead of Eating Fast Food
Drive-thru grocery pick-up, or click-and-collect, is gaining ground in France. Before long, this model will likely gain ground in the US, as it is a reasonable last-mile delivery system for low population density areas of the US. These areas do not have enough households per square mile to justify daily home-delivery infrastructure. Plus, click-and-collect solves…
Pantry, Dash, Flow…What’s Next for Amazon?
UPDATE: We know what’s next- for now anyways. Check out #AmazonCart, another way Amazon is making it easier for consumers to purchase items with ease. A new partnership with Twitter lets consumers reply to tweets that feature an Amazon product link, using the hashtag #AmazonCart. The new partnership will use the hashtag reply as a signal to…
Groupon Basics to Compete with Club Channel
Groupon announced its newest service, Groupon Basics, last week. The service is moving into a crowded area, as it is designed to compete with Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, etc., plus Amazon’s new Pantry service. Basics offers 120 health, household, and personal care items for bulk purchase, and the company plans to expand to grocery categories in the…
Last Mile Delivery: Amazon Takes the Plunge
The Wall Street Journal reports Amazon is piloting last-mile delivery in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, likely incorporating learnings from Amazon’s established last mile delivery network in the UK. According to Jeff Bezos, this UK network was built because “commercial carriers couldn’t support our peak volumes.” This past Christmas season, Amazon experienced a similar problem with…
Collaboration: Is it Really Happening?
A recent article in Supply Chain Brain poses the question is collaboration really happening? We argue that it is, and that it is more than just collaborative forecasting. True end-to-end supply chain collaboration is about streamlining the whole supply chain from the factory to the store. This requires a level of sharing and transparency for which…
Food Prices on the Rise: How Do You Appeal to Cash Strapped Consumers?
Food prices have been rising this year. In the first two months of 2014, the food-at-home (groceries) consumer price index (CPI) increased more than it did in all of 2013, reports the USDA. March food prices rose 0.4% as droughts in parts of the US and Brazil undermined agricultural output. Since 1990, grocery store prices…