Holiday celebrations have only just begun, but the shopping season started months ago as brands and retailers attempted to lengthen the traditional eight-week window. They launched Black Friday sales before Halloween, hoping shoppers would place online orders sooner and avoid a deluge of bottlenecks

In the logistics industry, warehouse and distribution-center safety compliance is key to avoiding unplanned downtime and costly lawsuits.Consider the recent exposure of Amazon’s rising injury rates. While the industry giant boasts unfettered growth even throughout the months spent in lockdown,

Workforce management in manufacturing, or any other business sector across the supply chain, is a juggling act for business leaders and human-resources professionals.Now more than ever, worksites are carefully and simultaneously managing scheduling shifts, and helping to ensure worker safety by trac

The last six months have been a true test to retailers’ approach to contingency planning, with unprecedented decisions to make regarding inventory and fulfillment. Blindsided by the pandemonium of lockdown back in spring — when orders are usually placed for the holiday season — U.S

A glance at the e-commerce world suggests that it’s expecting an exciting season.Deloitte claims that while the general retail sector will only see slight growth, online sales will grow by up to 35% in comparison with last year. And with 73% of consumers saying their overall holiday spending w

The onset of the coronavirus epidemic has accelerated the supply-chain digital transformation that has languished on businesses’ “to-do” list for years. Chaos from the coronavirus has made clear that procurement and supply-chain practices need to get smarter. COVID-19 has exposed b

For a child growing up in Northern Italy, Christmas arrived in a stream of festive decorations, hearty meals, church masses, and festivals. But the opening of my town’s Christmas markets, with their extravagant handmade toys and amazing home-prepared sweets, was the moment all kids were waitin

What does agile methodology have to do with warehouse management system (WMS) implementations? Isn’t it an approach used for deploying smaller capabilities in areas like e-commerce and digital marketing?That was the prevalent thinking more than a decade ago. Current market dynamics are more ab

Supply-chain cybersecurity attacks aren’t new, but they’re far from being under control.A recent study from Resilience 360 found that there were nearly 300 cybersecurity incidents impacting supply-chain entities in 2019. With the average business sharing data with more than 500 third par

As the economic fallout from COVID-19 continues to impact manufacturers and their suppliers around the world, many companies are facing significant financial headwinds.Companies suffering such difficulties will often look for ways to extract additional value from, or push costs down to, their supply

China is losing its luster as a place for cheap, reliable manufacturing of high-technology goods. But what other country can match it in both price and scale? The answer might be India.Despite a population of nearly 1.4 billion, including a well-educated and trained workforce, India hasn’t bee

Meal-kit delivery services, already on a steady growth curve prior to this year, have seen sales explode with the coming of COVID-19. Now they’re scurrying to keep pace with demand — and hang on to their customers.Prior to the pandemic, the industry was looking at a bright future. In 201

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, operational practices are continuing to evolve for essential businesses like manufacturing facilities, construction sites and utility maintenance departments. What hasn’t changed is these businesses’ dependence on contract work — 51% of compani

Retailers are gearing up for a holiday season unlike any before. Nearly half of U.S. adults say they are more interested in shopping online for the holidays compared to last year, signaling to retailers that they need to reconfigure their operations to support an increased e-commerce demand.The inte

For more than five years, the logistics industry has struggled with employee shortages. Now, on the front lines of the pandemic crisis, logistics employers are scrambling even more to meet demand and manage overhead, in an unpredictable and intensely competitive hiring environment.One approach to hi

Supply chains are a crucial aspect of any business, but they’re not as simple as they used to be. As trading has become increasingly global, modern supply chains have been encompassing an ever growing network of third parties across the globe, each with differing business policies and procedur

The 2020 peak holiday shopping season promises to break all records for order volumes, especially for e-commerce. The outlook has brought renewed focus on the supply-chain resources needed to accommodate the spike in demand.The warehousing industry faces a unique challenge, driven by the hockey-stic

During COVID-19, we’ve all come to realize that workers on the front lines — those who manufacture products, load airplanes, transport goods and install equipment — are essential to keeping our economy and supply chains moving.Companies are deploying apps for tracking tasks and ord

The Amazon juggernaut is thriving in the coronavirus age. But, like all other departments, its public relations department has certainly had to work overtime. Recent feuds with employees have stained the company’s image and, as a result, automation looks more attractive to it than ever before.

The COVID-19 pandemic threw the world for a loop. Virtually overnight, everything about the way businesses operated changed. Now, as they come to terms with new operating environments, many are looking for ways to deliver a good employee and customer experience, while improving safety and reducing c