U.S. retail and consumer (R&C) total transaction value for 2013 surpassed $100bn for the first time since 2008, according to PwC's US retail and consumer deals insights 2013 Year in Review and 2014 Outlook report. Deals in the food and beverage sector and private equity investment in the apparel, footwear and accessories sector continued to drive activity in the R&C industry.

Kuehne & Nagel Inc. has signed an agency agreement with Commodity Forwarders Inc., a Los Angeles, Calif.-based freight forwarder of perishable items.

There is no argument today about the impact that retail/apparel and footwear have had on the passive UHF market. Estimates vary on apparel's share, but it hovers around 70 percent to 80 percent of the total UHF market. And that includes only about 2 percent of the apparel items sold. In our recent research of RFID use among retailers, the retailers indicated an interest in expanding their use of RFID in apparel. And the tag industry that supports retailers is forecasting numbers between 23 percent to 35 percent growth in apparel use, as well. More retailers will be tagging more items in the next few years.

UPS and other carriers raised their shipping rates in January, much to the chagrin of U.S. e-commerce retailers. Now, some industry observers believe Amazon may be the cause of the price hikes.

Challenge: Independent business units within a Fortune 500 CPG company pursued separate strategies for managing product distribution, resulting in a complex network of packaging and logistics suppliers and rising costs. The company wanted to streamline its supply chain by doing final packaging inside the distribution centers, and shipping the same amount of product from fewer, strategically located sites that carry the company's full line of products.

Challenge: A large manufacturer of candy products wanted to reduce costs and improve service for temperature-controlled deliveries from the company's East Coast manufacturing plant to Midwest and West Coast retailers. The company was using LTL carriers and experiencing poor reliability and customer service.

Challenge: A genesis of many different companies in the transportation industry, this 3PL did not have a cohesive freight management platform for their customers. The company needed a single platform that could offer robust functionality and meet customers' demands.

The Holoptica Group has opened an office in the United Kingdom.

You've heard about business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) retailing. So what is CSC -- consumer-to-consumer -- all about? Terry Esper, associate professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management at the University of Arkansas, explains.