America's 23 million small businesses should represent a giant market for big companies, particularly as small businesses leave the Great Recession in the rear-view mirror and look to invest in new equipment. One problem: Main Street doesn't seem to like large corporations much.
Google Inc. is wading into the morass of same-day delivery pilots and programs rapidly collecting in the Southland, competing with e-commerce giants such as Amazon.com Inc.
EBay Enterprise, an eBay Inc. company, and provider of omni-channel solutions, has announced the availability of a Ship-from-Store SaaS solution: an initiative that retailers can deploy within 99 days to most effectively leverage their physical store inventories while gaining advantages in margin and shipping cost. The company says eBay Enterprise was first to market with its holistic, integrated back-end technology that provides retailers with one comprehensive inventory system delivered at an unparalleled rate.
During the just-wrapped Christmas shopping season, e-tailers were more aggressive than ever before in offering discounts and other kinds of come-ons to customers ordering over the internet. But they paid a high price for that strategy.
Supporting the many different channels through which today's consumers shop for, purchase and return products presents tremendous challenges and opportunities for retailers, says Annibal Sodero, assistant professor at the Sam Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.
Department store Kohl's has completed its installation of a radio frequency identification solution to track garments in select categories at its stores, as well as distribution centers.