3 Last-Mile Trends You Should Be Excited About.

This year, online retail sales will approach the $500 billion mark, reflecting another double digit increase in online sales growth and yet another knock at the door of carriers looking to solve "The Last Mile." Here are some trends and updates you'll find useful.

3 Reasons Why Retailers Should Pay More Attention to Their Backroom

Thanks to just-in-time inventory management practices, speed of delivery and readily available product distribution, the backroom of your typical retailer has steadily shrunk over the last decade.  This is true for clothiers, fast food, and most other retailers looking to maximize profits and utilize the space to effectively support front end marketing strategies.

China’s Economic Petri Dish: Why Alibaba Will Revolutionize “New Retail” and Become the World’s 5th Largest Economy by 2036

If you are Amazon, a major brick and mortar retailer or retail focused real estate developer, this post is your wake up call.  In 2012 Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba made an aggressive $16 million (100 million RMB) wager on the future of Chinese retail with Wang Jianlin, head of Dalian Wanda Group, a leading privately-held conglomerate (major retail developer) based in China.

LUXLOCK: The Internet of Product (IoP) and “The Barbell Effect” in Action.

Earlier this year, I made some predictions in Innovate or Die: 5 Omni-channel Strategies Amazon is Trying to Outrun.  As a part of those predictions, I talked a little bit about the "barbell effect" and how there would be a dichotomy between luxury/high-end, customized, boutique firms that offered a unique customer experience for a premium and hyper-local/convenience …

Case Study: Streamlining Church’s Chicken’s Deep Fried Supply Chain.

We often underestimate how important supply chain is to our daily lives. While it's not a surprise to supply chain managers, most consumers don't consider folks like Chris Ward, who are out there sourcing things like 80,000 cases of jalapenos for Church's Chicken so you can get peppers on the side with your combo meal.

Innovate or Die: 5 Omni-Channel Strategies You’ll see From Retailers in the Next 3 Years That Amazon’s Trying to Outrun.

While Amazon is a force to be reckoned with and their game changing innovations have raised the standard in omni-channel retail, it is only a matter of time before the large retailers close the gap and begin to stifle Amazon's current growth rate. Amazon hasn't won any prizes yet, and knows it.