Retailers in the United States are taking a huge risk by underestimating the buying power of the over-50 generation, according to a report by the Fung Business Intelligence Centre.
Ripples of anxiety are likely to be coursing through internet retailers this month. That's because two events - the introduction of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the U.S. Senate and an opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy - made it more likely than it has been in 50 years that they will have to collect taxes in states where they don't have a physical presence. If that happens, out-of-state retailers would be compelled to collect sales and use taxes in almost 10,000 state tax jurisdictions that, according to the Tax Foundation, exist across the United States.
The internet already plays an indispensable role in the everyday life of billions. Yet the surface is only being scratched. The potential to bring new and more advantages to individuals around the world, and to benefit billions more people as they gain access, has few limits. Many of these benefits could have their biggest impact in emerging markets; unfortunately, these are the countries in which internet penetration and use often lag.
President Obama announced nearly $500m in public-private investment to strengthen American manufacturing by investing in cutting-edge technologies through a new, textiles-focused manufacturing institute competition led by the Department of Defense, and by sharpening the capabilities of small manufacturers through Manufacturing Extension Partnership competitions in 12 states. The White House, as detailed in a new report, is also launching a Supply Chain Innovation Initiative focused on building public-private partnerships to strengthen the small U.S. manufacturers that anchor the nation's supply chains.
Barcoding Inc. has launched Supply Chain Architecture by Barcoding, a dedicated practice for the identification, formulation and management of "perfect order" fulfillment processes.
A decade or so ago, companies in industrial manufacturing and other process industries did not need to focus on resource productivity. If they gave any attention to the topic, it was to undertake small, incremental measures with the hope of generating marginal improvements. That period is over. Today, there is no debate: resource productivity must be among the top priorities - if not the top priority - of industrial manufacturers around the world.
Mobility is a hot topic these days. Regardless of industry or profession, a mobile application or ecosystem is in development to serve it. The supply chain is no different. In fact, given its very manual and distributed nature, the supply chain is better suited to mobile application deployment than most business processes. For distribution and fulfillment services, where most of the activities take place away from the desktop, the extension of business processes to mobile applications just makes sense. Most CEOs today are looking to the supply chain for competitive advantage (think Amazon's drones), so the time is right for supply chain managers to begin the process of introducing mobile into their processes.
Worldwide public Wi-Fi hotspot deployments reached a total of 5.69 million in 2014, and will grow at a CAGR of 11.2 percent between 2015 and 2020. This includes public Wi-Fi hotspots deployed by mobile and fixed-line carriers as well as third-party Wi-Fi service providers. ABI Research expects the number of worldwide carrier Wi-Fi hotspots will reach 13.3 million in 2020.
Of all the issues the Obama administration is grappling with, a modest redesign of what food labels say about sweeteners might not have seemed among the more controversial. But ever since First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the plan last year, a lobbying frenzy has ensued.