Codeless Platforms has revealed that Meridian Farm Market, a Canadian-based retailer of meat and farm produce, has automated its sales orders and data transfers between SYSPRO, Shopify and its POS system using BPA Platform.

It's late October, which means  more and more stores are decorating for Christmas. 

Steve Julian:  Business analyst Mark Lacter, whatever happened to "better late than never?" 

Mark Lacter: Steve, retailers never want to sell late because it often means having to reduce the price. They're looking to start out as soon as possible - these last three months represent their biggest payday of the year. And here in California people do seem to be buying stuff - consumer spending has been up for 14 consecutive quarters, going back to the spring of 2009, and taxable sales are up almost 5 percent from the peak levels before the recession. Another good sign is Chapman University's index of consumer sentiment, which is at its highest level since the beginning of the recession in late 2007. All these indicators explain why the state economy is generally outpacing the rest of the nation.

Julian: There has to be a "but" in here someplace…

 Lacter: The "but" is that only 60 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn have been recovered, and the unemployment rate in many parts of the state, including L.A. County, is still at or above 10 percent, which isn't what you'd call a healthy economy. And that's why holiday shopping this year could end up being sort of hit and miss. Folks who have well-paying jobs and a bunch of their money in the stock market - and Southern California has its share of both - those folks will probably be spending good amounts. 

Julian: Are there geographic tell-tale signs?

Lacter: The closer to the coast you go, the more spending there's likely to be. But it's a different story if you're feeling vulnerable about your job or in the amount of savings you have in the bank. So you have retailers once again coming up with ways of reaching as many budget-conscious folks as possible, as early as possible. The most obvious move is opening their stores on Thanksgiving night - Macy's is the latest of the chains to get a head start on Black Friday (Target, Kohl's, Walmart and J.C. Penney will also be open). Another strategy is matching your prices with the prices on Amazon and other online retailers - also, retailers will use mobile apps and arrange in-store pickup of online purchases. All told, expect holiday sales to run 3 percent ahead of last year, with the L.A. area likely to be a bit higher. Decent, but not great.

 Julian: What's the message to consumers now: buy or not buy?

 Lacter: Well, we'll start with the good news - gasoline prices are at their lowest level since the beginning of the year, with an average gallon of regular in the L.A. area running $3.75, according to the Auto Club. And barring any refinery fires or international catastrophes, the numbers might keep falling into November and December, which could incentivize consumers to buy a little more at the shopping malls. Here's some more good news - the L.A. area has seen a huge drop in the number of homeowners who are underwater, which happens when the value of a property is less than the amount that's owed on the property. This of course was a big problem during the recession, but over the last year the median home values have gone up between 20 percent and 30 percent. 

 Julian: And if your equity is positive instead of negative, you'll probably feel more confident about spending. 

 Lacter: That's right. But there are also deterrents to spending - as has been reported, a few hundred thousand Californians lose their individual health care policies by the end of the year because their plans don't meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Policyholders will be stuck in many cases with a premium increase, possibly a big increase. Now it's possible that in the long run these folks will be better off with a more inclusive plan that results in lower out-of-pocket expenses. But it'a hard to ignore the sticker shock of having to shell out, say, $250 a month instead of $100.

 Julian: There goes the holiday list...

 Lacter: For those folks, yes. And even though L.A. consumers do a good job of separating their feelings about Washington with their desire to spend, the economy is bound to slow down a little. So Steve, just don't count on that $9,000 fur vest I was going to get you for Christmas. Sorry about that…

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

POP Gourmet Foods, Tukwila, WA—a manufacturer of high-end popcorn products, as well as chips and croutons—maintains an international customer base in mass merchandise, warehouse/club, specialty and traditional grocery, foodservice, airlines and hotels, among others.

Reliance's luxury beauty retail chain, Tira, opened its flagship store at Jio World Plaza in Mumbai. The store features 15 exclusive shop-in-shop boutiques of global beauty brands like Dior, Estée Lauder, and YSL. Customers can enjoy personalized shopping experiences, a beauty concierge service, and a café. The store also features a scent room with curated international fragrances.

Codeless Platforms has revealed that Meridian Farm Market, a Canadian-based retailer of meat and farm produce, has automated its sales orders and data transfers between SYSPRO, Shopify and its POS system using BPA Platform.

Artisan Partners, an investor in Japanese retail giant Seven & i Holdings, called on the company's special committee to consider a formal bidding process of competing takeover proposals to secure the highest offer. Seven & i received a buyout proposal from a member of its founding Ito family, it…

Amazon Haul was unveiled Wednesday in beta form, designed to compete with Chinese retailers Temu and Shein on sales of ultra-low price products.

Supply chain efficiencies are a must to offset price increase due to rising input costs and the inevitable increases in support prices

Retailers are asking the government to review the eligibility conditions for the second phase of its 10,000-baht handout to ensure the target groups are helped, in particular vulnerable groups affected by the economic slowdown.

A silent crisis of ‘serial returns’ is eroding retail profit margins as uncovered in the Annual Returns Benchmark Report 2024 conducted by returns specialists ZigZag, in partnership with Retail Economics.

In 2013, three best friends followed their passion to build a clothing company. Their journey took them in a whole new direction

At Aptos Engage 2018, all eyes were on the cloud, and omnichannel optimization

October 2024 was quite the celebration for the Indian car industry, with sales going through the roof for most car manufacturers thanks to both Dusshera and Diwali in the same month. Year-over-year sales rose by 32.38 per cent to 483,159 units

The retail major has already closed three stores and planning to shut down around 24 stores by the end of this month, the report stated.

Some of Britain's biggest retailers have warned the chancellor that last month's budget will stoke inflation in the economy and spark job losses as tax hikes add nearly £2.5bn to the industry's annual tax bill.

Companies that can figure out how to take advantage of new technologies for digital retail will outsmart and outpace competitors.

Any company of any size -- whether it is one employee working out of her basement or a multi-national company balancing millions in revenue -- must consider how digitization is affecting business as we know it.

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Tech startups can help optimize retailers' in-store operations and customer experiences, enabling them to keep up with competition from e-commerce companies. This category includes hardware and software such as sensors that track foot traffic, interactive tablets that boost customer engagement, and mobile point-of-sale applications.

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Visit the best Online Cheap Computer Retailers here and Save!

Bare Metal Software has released version 2.50a of BareTailPro. New features include: multiple file support using tabs; dramatically improved searching performance; visual notification of file changes; arbitrary highlighting colours; improved performance when viewing files over a network; improved user interface usability and responsiveness; and new regex features. A demo of BareTailPro is available for free download.

Bare Metal Software has released version 3.50a of BareTail. New features include: multiple file support using tabs; visual notification of file changes; arbitrary highlighting colours; and improved performance when viewing files over a network. BareTail is available for free download.

Inflation on the Rise: भारत में खुदरा मुद्रास्फीति में वृद्धि और औद्योगिक उत्पादन में मजबूत सुधार के बीच एनडीटीवी की साक्षी बजाज ने भविष्य में आने वाले समय और दीर्घ अवधि में भारत की अर्थव्यवस्था की स्थिति पर बात की.

Supply chain management practices are vital for success and survival in today's competitive Indian retail market. The advent of COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a digital disruption in retail supply chain management centred on efficient technology like blockchain in order to enhance supply chain performance. The present research aims to decipher the nature of associations between supply chain management practices, blockchain technology adoption and supply chain performance in retail firms. The research is based on primary survey of specific food and grocery retailers operating on a supermarket format stores in two Indian cities. The findings pointed towards the presence of significant and positive association of all the constructs with each other. Moreover, the mediating role of blockchain technology adoption was also revealed, i.e., it partially mediates the effects of supply chain management practices on supply chain performance.

The world is transitioning towards the digitalisation of everyday tasks significantly. The impact of digital literacy on technological usage is immense. The awareness and utilisation of the digital India schemes are needed to determine unorganised retailers' overall satisfaction with digitalisation and technological usage. The chief motive of this research is to assess and analyse digital literacy in terms of technology usage and the awareness cum utilisation level of the various digital India schemes proposed by the Government of India for unorganised retailers. The conceptual framework consists of the factors such as digital literacy and digital India schemes that determine the overall satisfaction of retailers with technology usage. The corresponding results of the study synthesised the impact of digital literacy, digital India schemes, and the awareness cum utilisation level of technology among unorganised retailers based on recommendations to enhance the performance of the unorganised retail sector.

Aim/Purpose: Two popular methods for encouraging active learning are Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Field Trips (VFTs). This exploratory case study examines college students’ perceptions of a prototype AR and VFT app as an active learning strategy. Background: AR allows students to learn as they physically explore a destination, while VFTs give students the opportunity to visit exciting destinations without leaving their homes. AR and VFTs promote active learning, which has been shown to increase college student success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses. The aim of the VFT app in this study is to provide college students in a STEM course with an interactive lesson on modeling information systems using diagrams. Methodology: This exploratory case study is intended to serve as a condensed case study performed with the prototype version of a VFT app before implementing a large-scale investigation of students’ perceptions of a more refined version of the app. The study employed a qualitative approach involving a survey with open-ended questions to gather college students’ perceptions of learning with a VFT. The data were analyzed using inductive coding. The participants are students at a mid-sized, urban, public university. Contribution: This exploratory case study serves as a proof-of-concept and starting point for other faculty who may be interested in developing their own AR and VFT apps to engage students in active learning. Releasing the app to a common Open Educational Resources (OER) repository will give other faculty easy access to re-use the app and build upon it to create their own virtual field trips. OER are learning materials that are freely available for students and faculty to download and use in their coursework. Findings: Students overwhelmingly perceived the VFT app helped them learn about the subject that was presented, citing the visual nature of the app, the real-life scenarios presented in the app, and the app’s ease of use as reasons why. The majority (over 89%) also agreed that the app motivated them to learn more about the subject, mainly due to the app’s real-life scenarios, and over 83% of students cited at least one benefit to learning with the app, such as the navigation/location features, the easy-to-use interface, and the real-world scenarios. Recommendations for Practitioners: The pedagogical implications of this study are that faculty should adopt VFTs as an active learning strategy, particularly in STEM college courses, based on the students’ positive perceptions of learning, motivation, and benefits of VFTs. Recommendations for Researchers: Researchers can expand on this exploratory case study by conducting a larger-scale study of the VFT app employed in the case study, or by developing their own VFT app based on the one in this study, to capture a broader group of students’ perceptions of VFTs as an active learning strategy. Impact on Society: The broad impact of this research on society is encouraging the adoption of VFTs as an active learning strategy since active learning strategies are shown to increase college students’ success and engagement. Future Research: Future research will be conducted in subsequent terms to gather additional data on students’ perceptions of the VFT app, as well as their perceptions of the relationship between learning and the VFT technology. Further research is also needed to survey faculty on their perceptions of how engaging with the app impacts student learning, particularly in regards to the VFT technology within the app.

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism of the front/back-office structure affecting new service development (NSD) performance and examine the role of knowledge transfer in the relationship between front/back-office structure and NSD. Background: The separation of front and back-office has become the prevailing trend of the organizational transformation of modern service enterprises in the digital era. Yet, the influence of front and back-office separation dealing with new service development has not been widely researched. Methodology: Building on the internal social capital perspective, a multivariate regression analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of front/back-office structure on the NSD performance through knowledge transfer as an intermediate variable. The data was collected through a survey questionnaire from 198 project-level officers in the commercial banking industry of China. Contribution: This study advances the understanding of front/back-office structure’s influence mechanism on new service development activity. It reveals that knowledge transfer plays a critical role in bridging the impact of front and back-office separation to NSD performance under the trend of digitalization of service organizations. Findings: This study verified the positive effects of front/back-office social capital on NSD performance. Moreover, knowledge transfer predicted the variation in NSD performance and fully mediated the effect of front/back-office social capital on NSD performance. Recommendations for Practitioners: Service organizations should optimize knowledge transfer by promoting the social capital between front and back-office to overcome the negative effect organizational separation brings to NSD. Service and other organizations could explore developing an internal social network management platform, by which the internal social network could be visualized and dynamically managed. Recommendation for Researchers: The introduction of information and communications technology not only divides the organization into front and back-office, but also reduces the face-to-face customer contact. The impacts of new forms of customer contact to new service development and knowledge transfer between customer and service organizations call for further research. Along with the digital servitization, some manufacturing organizations also separate front and back-offices. The current model can be applied and assessed further in manufacturing and other service sectors. Impact on Society: The conclusion of this study guides us to pay attention to the construction of social capital inside organizations with front/back-office structure and implicates introducing and developing sociotechnical theory in front/back-office issue undergoing technological revolution. Future Research: As this study is based on the retail banking industry, similar studies are called upon in other service sectors to identify differences and draw more general conclusions. In addition, as the front and back-offices are being replaced increasingly by information technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), it is necessary to advance the research on front/back-office research with a new theoretical perspective, such as sociotechnical theory.

Aim/Purpose: Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the current study investigated social commerce functions as an innovative retailing technological support by selecting the three most appropriate features for the Chinese online shopping environment with respective value co-creation intentions. Background: Social commerce is the customers’ online shopping touchpoint in the latest retail era, which serves as a corporate technological tool to extend specific customer services. Although social commerce is a relatively novel platform, limited theoretical attention was provided to determine retailers’ approaches in employing relevant functions to improve consumer experience and value co-creation. Methodology: A questionnaire was distributed to Chinese customers, with 408 valid questionnaires being returned and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Contribution: The current study investigated the new retail concept and value co-creation from the consumer’s perspective by developing a theoretical model encompassing new retail traits and consumer value, which contributed to an alternative theoretical understanding of value creation, marketing, and consumer behaviour in the new retail business model. Findings: The results demonstrated that value co-creation intention was determined by customer experience, hedonic experience, and trust. Simultaneously, the three factors were significantly influenced by interactivity, personalisation, and sociability features. Specifically, customers’ perceptions of the new retail idea and the consumer co-creation value were examined. Resultantly, this study constructed a model bridging new retail characteristics with consumer value. Recommendations for Practitioners: Nonetheless, past new retail management practice studies mainly focused on superficial happiness in the process of human-computer interaction, which engendered a computer system design solely satisfying consumers’ sensory stimulation and experience while neglecting consumers’ hidden value demands. As such, a shift from the subjective perspective to the realisation perspective is required to express and further understand the actual meaning and depth of consumer happiness. Recommendation for Researchers: New retailers could incorporate social characteristics on social commerce platforms to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies while increasing user trust to generate higher profitability. Impact on Society: The new retail enterprises should prioritise consumers’ acquisition of happiness meaning and deep experience through self-realisation, cognitive improvement, identity identification, and other aspects of consumer experiences and purchase processes. By accurately revealing and matching consumers’ fundamental perspectives, new retailers could continuously satisfy consumer requirements in optimally obtaining happiness. Future Research: Future comparative studies could be conducted on diverse companies within the same industry for comprehensive findings. Moreover, other underlying factors with significant influences, such as social convenience, group cognitive ability, individual family environment, and other external stimuli were not included in the present study examinations.

Unmanned stores are one of the latest conceptual developments in retail and have received much attention, especially in the context of COVID-19-related social restrictions and the associated changes in consumer behaviour. The concept considers the latest technological developments and promises to offer various benefits to consumers and retailers based on artificial intelligence and automation. Using a German sample, this paper aims to evaluate consumers' acceptance of and intention to use the most prominent innovative solutions in unmanned stores. A modified technology acceptance model (TAM) as a theoretical framework was applied to the study. The results of the structural equation modelling make two contributions to the existing literature: First, the acceptance criteria for unmanned stores have not been analysed previously. Second, the modified TAM could be confirmed in this study. We provide empirical evidence suggesting that significant numbers of consumers accept unmanned stores, especially if the stores are strategically located and when individuals have a high innovation affinity.

Significant work in service domain has focused on customer journey within e-service delivery system process (e-SDSP). Few studies have focused on process-centric approach to customer journey during delivery of e-services. This study aims to investigate the performance assessment of three online retailers (alternatives) using perceived service process during different stages of e-SDSP as a criterion for decision-making. TOPSIS is used in this paper to rate and evaluate multiple online retailers. Based on perceived service process as the criterion, results show that online retailer-2 outperforms other two online retailers. This study is one of the first to rate online retailers by utilising customer-perceived service process (latent variables) as a decision-making criterion throughout e-SDSP. The finding suggests that perceived searching process is the most essential criterion for decision-making, followed by the perceived after-sales service process, the perceived agreement process, and the perceived fulfilment process. Implications, limitations, and future scope are also discussed.

Soaring vegetable prices undermine expectations for a dovish approach in the upcoming monetary policy meeting

In response to growing customer demand, stores of all stripes are bringing out their festive collections weeks before the Nov. 1 start of the holiday shopping season.

The post Eggnog before Thanksgiving? Shoppers eager for a new season scramble retail calendars appeared first on Boston.com.

Are you ready to step into a retail space where style meets acoustic excellence? Welcome to the remarkable transformation of Dardano’s shoe store in Broomfield, Colorado, where Altispace laminate beams, illuminated beams and wooden ceiling clouds have mitigated sound reverberation issues and revolutionized the shopping experience.

Washington – Large facilities that store and sell chemicals may no longer be exempt from OSHA’s Process Safety Management Standard, the agency announced July 22 in a revised interpretation of its rules.

Washington – OSHA failed to follow federal rulemaking requirements when it used a memorandum to announce a revised definition of retail facilities exempt from the Process Safety Management Standard, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled.

Washington – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has denied OSHA’s petitions for a rehearing and rehearing en banc of the court’s ruling that the agency failed to follow federal rulemaking requirements when it used a memorandum to announce a revised definition of retail facilities exempt from the Process Safety Management Standard.

East Lansing, MI – Do you find shopping therapeutic after a tense day at work? It may be rooted to your occupation. Service workers who are verbally abused by customers are more likely to indulge in stress-related shopping sprees, according to a recent study from Michigan State University.

Retail workers experienced a combined injury and illness rate higher than the construction industry in 2016. Experts say top-down commitment is needed to prevent a work environment that values inventory over safety.

Washington — NIOSH has published its National Occupational Research Agenda for Wholesale and Retail Trade, as well as its NORA for Traumatic Injury Prevention – both intended to spotlight the research, information and actions most needed to prevent occupational injuries and illnesses.

New York — Retail employees injured on the job miss an average of 24 days of work as a result, according to recent report from AmTrust Financial Services Inc., an insurance provider for small businesses.

Washington — In an effort to protect retail employees from exposure to COVID-19, OSHA has issued a safety alert.

Washington — To help protect retail pharmacy workers from exposure to COVID-19, OSHA has issued a safety alert.

Washington — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidance intended to help employers in the retail and service industries protect workers from violence that may occur when they ask customers or co-workers to comply with store policies aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Portland, ME — A new online training course launched by the University of Southern Maine’s Cutler Institute focuses on protecting retail workers from exposure to COVID-19.

Tampa, FL — COVID-19 mortality rates among adults with lower levels of education who worked in the labor, service and retail industries were nearly five times higher than other groups in 2020, results of a new study by the University of South Florida show.

Morgantown, WV — Researchers at West Virginia University are working on a project that uses robots to help reduce slips and falls in retail workplaces.

Ann Arbor, MI — Most paper receipts at large retailers contain chemicals with possible links to hormone disruption and other adverse health effects, results of a recent study show.

Boca Raton, FL — Retail workers “are being asked to do too much,” and many are “leaving or throwing up their hands,” says a researcher from Florida Atlantic University.