Some years back, I heard a story about the McDonald’s in Williston, ND (home of the somewhat recent oil boom). The manager would drop by the oil workers’ camp in the AM to pick up dinner orders, then drop them […]
The Atlantic definitely grabbed my attention with this headline. The article is all about how websites (and even vending machines) are using dynamic pricing to capture as much of the price/demand curve as possible. | learn more
Brad Stone (author of The Everything Store) details the battleground that these two giants are going to fight over. Wal-Mart has made major investments, but what happens next? | learn more
“Flexe finds spare warehouse space for e-commerce merchants, including mattress seller Casper, and is set to offer overnight delivery all over the U.S.” | learn more
Managing inventory efficiently is a challenge that each retailer (and wholesaler) must figure out how to work through. Managing a broad assortment of inventory gets really hard for a team of humans. Otto has applied AI to automatically order over […]
Last week we learned about 3D knitting enabling real-time creation of clothing. This week Amazon makes the news with its patent around on-demand clothing manufacturing. From the patent: “By aggregating orders from various geographic locations and coordinating apparel assembly processes […]
What do brands like Adidas, Uniqlo, and Ministry of Supply see in their crystal balls? While 3D printing is still stuck making products that feel like plastic, 3D knitting can create custom textiles on-demand. Uniqlo has a line of 3D […]
Consider the legacy model of apparel: Months-long design followed by manufacturing to build up inventory, topped off with a markdown cadence at at the end of the cycle. Repeat seasonally. Much about retail apparel has started to change… consider Zara […]
Shortly after Marc Lore earned publicity for rapid-fire acquisitions as the head of e-commerce at Wal-Mart, Jeff Bezos declares they’re going to shut down the sites they bought from Lore in 2011 – diapers.com and others. The stated reason is […]
Amazon and Wal-Mart are in a price war in grocery and CPG, with the latter renewing its drive for “Everyday Low Prices” to double down on its successful discount retailing strategy. Amazon’s pricing algorithm is following them down. Brands are […]