• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Q&A | Retailers Confront the Need to Innovate

Q&A | Retailers Confront the Need to Innovate

December 10, 2018
Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

The retail industry finds itself in a state of constant innovation, and the Retail Industry Leaders Association needs to respond in kind. Jess Dankert, RILA's vice president of supply chain, tells what the organization is doing to keep pace with change.

Q: Summarize for me some recent innovations in retail supply chains.

Dankert: There’s a lot going on the retail space. Change is being driven by customers. Their expectations for speed are increasing, and retailers are responding by amping up their operations. They’re getting faster and more responsive, using a lot of new technology as well in making changes in business processes.

Q: How are retailers dealing with the challenge of last-mile delivery, given urban congestion and the increasing need to deliver directly to homes and businesses?

Dankert: It's a huge topic of conversation. You see retailers leveraging their physical brick and mortar locations as distribution hubs. Sometimes they’re co-owning space with other retailers to serve customers in urban areas. They’re looking at solutions like lockers, with partnerships that you probably wouldn't have seen before. They’re trying a lot of different ideas to see what will work.

Q: What’s your membership telling that they want from you in terms of education and programs that address these concerns?

Dankert: We’re helping to share thought leadership among retailers as well as with solution providers and academics. We're looking for success stories, benchmarking from among our members, and sharing their common challenges and learnings. We’ve also amped up our focus on research, and have released several new reports, including one on shopping styles.

Q: How important is education these days, and what are you doing to facilitate it?

Dankert: It's huge, but it's not the kind of education that you might historically think of, involving going to classes and taking a stagnant approach. It's an ongoing process of continuing education. It's about staying abreast of new trends and learning from solution providers.

Q: What can you do to help policymakers understand the complexities of larger geopolitical issues, trade problems, and a possible trade war?

Dankert: RILA has been doing a lot of work on the trade front. We’ve been trying to educate lawmakers and the Administration on what goes into the retail supply chain, and how things like tariffs and trade affect what consumers are buying day to day.

Q: What are the big changes that you expect RILA to undergo in response to its members?

Dankert: We have a huge focus on innovation, whether it's incremental or transformative. Last year we launched our Center for Innovation, which is helping retailers find some of those answers, and be exposed to new experiences and solutions for serving the customer.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Education & Professional Development Apparel Consumer Packaged Goods E-Commerce/Omni-Channel Food & Beverage Retail
KEYWORDS Apparel consumer packaged goods E-Commerce/Omni-Channel Education & Professional Development Food and Beverage Retail retail supply chains
  • Related Articles

    In the New World of Returns, Retailers Need to Dig into the Data

    Retailers Must Innovate - But Much Faster and More Efficiently Than the Competition

    Q&A: How Retailers Are Facing an Evolving Secondary Sales Market

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

Podcast | The Supply Chain Workforce of the Future Is Already Here

More from this author

Wake up to live
“Supply Chains in Crisis”
updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • INTERIOR OF A CHICKEN FARM, WITH WHITE CHICKENS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

    Worst Avian Flu in U.S. History Is Hitting Poultry

    Food & Beverage
  • TWO FINGERS MANIPULATE WOODEN LETTER BLOCKS TO TURN FROM SHOWING THE WORD RECOVERY TO RESILIENCE

    Five Challenges to Supply Chain Resilience in 2023

    Supply Chain Visibility
  • A PERSON HOLDS UP A TABLET COMPUTER IN A WAREHOUSE, SUPER-IMPOSED BY A GRAPHIC SHOWING A COMPLEX WEB OF SUPPLY CHAIN ELEMENTS

    Three Post-Pandemic Actions for Repairing Global Supply Chains

    Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
  • A MAN IN A SUIT SHAKES HANDS WITH A WOMAN IN A HARD HAT, NEXT TO A STACK OF CONTAINERS

    Three Procurement Technology Evolutions for 2023

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • The blank stare of a child's eye who is standing behind what appears to be a wooden frame

    The Alarming Continued Rise of Modern Slavery in Supply Chains: How Procurement Can Help Reverse the Trend

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM

Digital Edition

Scb nov 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

  • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

  • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

  • Expanding Apparel Brand Scales Seamlessly with E-Commerce Technology

  • How a Global LSP Scaled its Security Program and Won More Business

Visit Our Sponsors

Orderful Yang Ming Alithya
Barcoding Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics
CoEnterprise Data Capture Deposco
E2open GAINSystems Generix
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated IFM
Infor Inmar Keelvar
Kinaxis Korber Lean Solutions Group 2H
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Logility
LogistiVIEW Lucas Systems MCA Connect
MPO Nvidia Old Dominion
OpenText ORTEC Overhaul
Parsyl PMMI QIMA
Redwood Logistics Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash Saddle Creek Logistics
Schneider Dedicated Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD
Shipwell Tecsys TGW Systems
Thomson Reuters Tive Trailer Bridge
Vecna Robotics Verity
Verusen
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2023 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing