While 86 percent of consumers are satisfied with the overall experience of shopping online, e-tailers still have significant opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and their competitive position by making the process of returning or exchanging items easier, a new comScore study shows.

At least half of Fortune 500 companies don't bother to translate their online information, which is alarming given that 70 percent of people using the internet are not native English speakers, says a study from One Hour Translation.

U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico using surface transportation in March set a new monthly high mark, up 6.2 percent over March a year ago, and pushing the sum value over $85.8bn, the according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A simplified "Product of Canada and the USA" labeling system should apply to beef and pork as well as livestock raised, processed, and traded between Canada and the United States, says a study released by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian public policy think tank, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute of Washington, DC.

Recycled Energy Development (RED) has acquired the combined heat and power (CHP) projects at Dean Foods' facilities in City of Industry, Calif., and Franklin, Mass. Each project will produce approximately 2.0 megawatts of electricity and 4.5 MMBtu/hr of thermal energy from clean natural gas.

Global enterprises increasingly want consistent service wherever they operate in the world and that extends to services required to maintain buildings, says Michael Raphael of Jones Lang LaSalle, a leader in industrial real-estate management.

In a move it says will improve its supply chain efficiency, Pinnacle Foods Group LLC announced plans to consolidate its Vlasic pickle production into one plant in Imlay City, Michigan. The company's decision to focus on its branded Vlasic business and de-emphasize its lower-margin, un-branded pickle business was the catalyst for this consolidation.

U.S. factories produce about 75 percent of what the country consumes, but the right decisions by both business and political leaders could push that to 95 percent, say University of Michigan researchers.

The demand for vendor-managed inventory programs in warehouses behaves "as a pendulum swinging back and forth between supplier and retailer," says John Mayer, vice president of sales with Park City Group. Over the last six to 12 months, he says, it has swung back in the direction of favoring VMI. Mayer has seen particular interest in the technique in the grocery industry.

U.S. TRANSCOM Commanding General William Fraser III said maintaining a strong domestic maritime industry is critical to the defending the homeland, describing the sector as the "fourth arm of defense." The Air Force General's remarks came at a National Maritime Day celebration at the Washington Navy Yard.