The consumer of the future will be more mobile, social and self-sufficient, willing to share details on themselves and their preferences in exchange for highly personalized relationships with their favorite stores, according to a new IBM consumer survey. The study also found that consumers' willingness to advocate for a particular retailer is becoming multifaceted, with consumers looking for a flawless experience, whether it's when they're researching, purchasing, or receiving delivery.

Demand uncertainty is far and away still the top concern of supply chain mangers, according to a survey by LifeWork Search, an employee recruitment firm. Eighteen percent felt inventory surplus was the top concern, 12 percent voted for inventory shortage, while 8 percent believe lead times are the top holiday concern, and 3 percent chose "other".

Flextronics will acquire Motorola Mobility's manufacturing operations in Tianjin, China, and will also assume the management and operation of its Jaguariuna, Brazil, facility. Employees and assets at both locations will transfer to Flextronics after the transaction closes.

Two industry groups have joined to fill the need for a globally harmonized approach to measure and communicate product lifecycles. The Consumer Goods Forum, a global network of more than 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders, has partnered with The Sustainability Consortium, which is dedicated to developing science and integrated tools to support informed decision making for product sustainability across the consumer goods industry.

Retail is in a dramatic transformative phase. Consumers' multichannel access and shopping make multi/merged channel fulfillment the focus for retail. No more relegating supply chain to the backwaters of retail management!

A new innovation study by Latitude, Next-Gen Retail: Mobile + Beyond, finds that smartphones and tablets are fundamentally changing how people think about shopping and, by extension, their everyday lives. The research reveals that mobile shopping makes people feel more relaxed, productive and informed, as well as more open-minded and receptive to discovering new things.

Knapp, an Austrian firm specializing in warehouse automation and logistics, has developed an RFID-based conveyor system for sorting and packing goods in a specified sequence. The solution ensures that items can be placed within boxes in the correct order"”for instance, with the heaviest products on the bottom"”and that packages can be loaded onto trucks in a particular sequence, so they can be unloaded easily at various stops along a delivery route. At present, the system is being installed at a warehouse operated by Olymp, a German manufacturer of men's shirts.

The experience of a Houston-area couple indicates that maddeningly frustrating experiences with online shopping continue, and to the detriment of retailers.

A whopping 94 percent of B2B purchasers surveyed in the 2012 hybris State of B2B E-Commerce study said suppliers need to create an online buying experience as simple as using a B2C website.

Heineken recently announced new sustainability targets, stating that it aims to reduce the amount of water used in the brewing process to 3.7 hectoliters (hl) of water per hectoliters of beer produced by 2020, compared to 5.1 hl in 2008 (approximately 98 gallons by 2020, compared to approximately 135 gallons in 2008).