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Vertical Focus: Luxury Goods
Shedding Animal Materials Fur Good Dolce & Gabbana joins several other luxury fashion brands in banning fur from all future collections starting in 2022. It will continue to work with fur artisans in its supply chain to incorporate into its designs sustainable faux fur made from recycled materials, the fashion house says. The company has […]
Read MoreReady to Live on the Edge?
Driven by evolving communications networks, such as 5G, 25% of supply chain decisions will be made across intelligent edge ecosystems by 2025, a Gartner report predicts. Edge ecosystems transform operations by bringing decision-making close to the original source of information. They help bring data processing, communications, and storage together to create even workflows and streamline […]
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Direct-to-Consumer Gets Trendy
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce has changed the way people shop for everything from razors to sofas, to the point where retailers with more traditional supply chains are catching on. New e-commerce brands and traditional retailers alike can follow these five DTC trends in 2022 to stay competitive, says a Forbes report: 1. Traditional retailers go DTC. […]
Read MoreTop Supply Chain Disruptions in 2021
Supply chain disruptions increased 88% year over year in 2021, says data released by risk management platform Resilinc, with disruptions related to supply shortages increasing 452%, the largest increase across all event types. Although human health disruptions fell 68% year over year, 2021 saw the most factory fires ever recorded in a single year. The […]
Read MoreGlobal Shipping Costs Break Records
Today’s disruptions are even more significant than those during the financial crisis of 2008, says the Thomas Index Report. Prices for ocean freight shifted more than 72 percentage points over the course of the pandemic starting in 2020 to a peak in Q3 2021, when prices were more than 50% higher than average container shipping […]
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The Year of Capacity
All signs indicate that 2022 will be the year of capacity—not just for air, ocean, ground, and final-mile parcel, but also in terms of labor and the customer experience, SEKO executives stressed in a media call discussing Chinese New Year’s impact on the supply chain. Delays are simply routine now, and have steadily increased on […]
Read MoreWhere Do Consumer Loyalties Lie?
With 72% of consumers saying they will continue buying online via pickup or delivery, retailers need adequate local shipping processes as well as speedy delivery, says a recent report from SOTI. Highlights from the survey reveal: Shipping experience influences consumers’ purchase decisions: 56% of consumers find shipping time the most frustrating aspect of ordering goods […]
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FedEx Aims for Anti-Missile Lasers
In a new move for a carrier, FedEx has requested permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to equip a fleet of its Airbus A321-200 aircraft with an anti-missile laser system that disrupts heat-seeking missile tracking. FedEx referenced prior incidents in which attackers used portable air defense systems against civilian aircraft, such as Iran shooting down […]
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7 Biggest Robotics Predictions for 2022
In the past five years, robots have moved from a developing technology to an indispensable tool for many businesses. With their ability to predict market change or supply chain disruptions, automation programs are increasingly adopted across many industries, says a report from software company Meili Robots. This will continue to change the way business is […]
Read MoreGet into Outsourcing
Logistics outsourcing to third-party logistics (3PL) providers has been on the rise, and it won’t likely slow anytime soon, says a recent Gartner survey, with 66% of logistics leaders increasing their outsourcing budget in 2021 and 74% set to increase their budgets in the next two years. At the same time, nearly two-thirds of logistics […]
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