Today's shippers are done talking about collaborative freight solutions and are ready to allocate resources to design and implement programs that can scale, says Ben Cubitt, senior vice president for consulting and engineering of Transplace. He describes the role that 3PLs can play in such projects.

With almost 28 percent unemployment and a lingering recession that's wiped out one-fourth of their country's economic output, it makes sense that Greek consumers plan to trim their Christmas spending by 12.8 percent this year. What's more surprising is that the average Greek budget for holiday gifts, food, and drink is €451 ($608)"”more than the €399 average in Germany, the country that has borne much of the cost of a Greek bailout.

Despite the shortest shopping season since 2002, Adobe Systems predicts record growth for online sales on Thanksgiving with $1.1bn and Black Friday with $1.6bn, increases of 21 and 17 percent, respectively.

Plastic bags that can stop bread and cheese from going moldy after just a few days have been developed by scientists. The technology, which uses chemicals that prevent bacteria and fungi from growing, allows food to last for longer.