The digital landscape has experienced a seismic shift with the recent sunset of the widely-used Google Universal Analytics (UA) in favor of Google Analytics 4 or GA4, introduced three years ago this month. As of July 1, Google stopped processing data through UA, creating a forced migration.

Marketers have had very strong reactions, complaining about the differences in the UI as well as features and functions that went away; some even held mock funerals. As businesses grapple with all this, users need to understand what this major change means for affiliate marketing and for data analytics in general. Ben Hardt, VP of business intelligence and innovation at X Agency, walks us through the implications of this new system from Google and the impact on marketers.

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Tailored Brands is leveraging AI technology to optimize inventory management for its events business (company photo)

Inventory management is a perennially difficult function to get right. Retailers are effectively placing continual bets on where, when and how much demand to plan for, with a direct impact on profit or loss. Add in an omnichannel business model, and the game gets even trickier.

Tailored Brands, an omnichannel menswear and formalwear retailer that includes Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, needed a way to anticipate customers’ evolving preferences for various style, color and size choices in its tuxedo rental business. To that end, the company was looking for a more advanced approach to optimizing its inventory planning and allocation. The company has recently been implementing digital tools to help customers choose wedding attire and ensure a proper fit.

Tailored Brands chose Invent Analytics, whose platform with automated decision-making capabilities helps retailers optimize inventory levels to maximize profitability. The company has been able to achieve higher forecast accuracy and more precise inventory planning for the unit, including optimized buying at style-size level, increasing product availability, sales and profit. It also substantially reduced stock-outs, improving overall customer satisfaction.

Scott Vifquain, CTO of Tailored Brands, and Gurhan Kok, founder of Invent Analytics, talk about how the AI-based technology was applied, and the results so far in our MCM CommerceChat podcast.

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It’s undeniable that GenAI is have a major impact across industries, especially since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT last November. But what does that mean in terms of dollars and cents? Research firm IHL Group has taken a stab at the collective impact of AI, GenAI and machine learning on the retail and restaurant sectors through 2029 in its new report: $1.5 trillion, with a “T.” Worldwide, IHL estimates, that figure is $9.2 trillion.

The firm has also ranked the top 7 firms across a variety of retail sectors in terms of their AI readiness and projected business impact. IHL president Greg Buzek breaks down the findings and discusses the factors that went into their rankings in our latest MCM CommerceChat podcast.

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With ecommerce returns close to a $1 trillion problem for retailers, companies continue to wrestle with ways to reduce the number of orders getting sent back. In many ways it’s a problem of their own making, with lenient policies and often free return shipping making it easy to do so, although that’s being dialed back. There’s also the scourge of “bracketing” in apparel: order multiple items, keep one and send the rest back.

Simone Theresa Peinkofer, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University, writes in Fortune that reverse logistics cost retailers roughly $816 billion in lost sales in 2022, nearly as much as the U.S. spent on public schools and almost twice the cost from just three years ago.

In this MCM CommerceChat podcast, Peinkofer shares insights from her research on retail supply chain management and fulfillment operations with a focus on returns management. Among other things, she discusses how retailers can use the returns experience as a way to build loyalty, and how more efficient returns management is becoming a higher priority for decision makers.

FYI: you may have noticed we’ve highlighted returns as a special focus for Q3, covering some of the innovative approaches to handling the ever-growing problem.

The post MCM CommerceChat: U.S. Spending on Returns Equals Public School Budget appeared first on Multichannel Merchant.

With contract talks between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at a standstill for over a week, and no new sessions scheduled, a noted research group is saying a strike could be “one of the costliest in at least a century,” Reuters reports. And the clock ticks toward midnight on July 31, now two and a half weeks away.

Can the two sides reach agreement in time? Should UPS meet the union’s demand for higher part-time worker pay, or leave its last offer on the table? Is there a joint realization that too much is at stake to allow a stoppage to happen? And if it comes to that unfortunate pass, how will other carriers pick up the slack?

We discuss all this with Gaston Curk, CEO of postal consolidator OSM Worldwide in our latest MCM CommerceChat podcast.

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Managing the costs of returns and leveraging them as an opportunity is critical for retailers.  Returns might be a significant expense, and while managing those costs is critical to maintaining profitability, retailers still need to provide a good customer experience.

But the landscape is shifting quickly.  While industry behemoths like Walmart leverage gig workers to provide yet another avenue, most smaller retailers are examining scaling back their reverse logistics to manage costs.  Industry innovation has resulted in a plethora of new choices for smaller and mid-sized retailers and their customers.

There is certainly a massive environmental impact of returns; a recent vendor study estimated returns waste sent to landfills had nearly doubled to approximately 9.5 billion pounds, not to mention carbon dioxide emissions – so how should retailers, if at all, communicate the environmental impact?

Multichannel Merchant sat down with Glenn Hayes, Managing Director of Worldwide Logistics’ UK operation for this latest episode of MCM’s CommerceChat.

In this episode, we discuss:

About Our Guest

Glenn Hayes, Managing Director UK at Worldwide Logistics Group, has over a decade of experience implementing holistic logistics and warehouse strategies for diverse clients across global markets. Hayes’ specializations span from forward logistics – including FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) – to reverse logistics, optimizing product returns and enhancing customer satisfaction. His distinct blend of expertise and dedication positions him as an influential figure in the supply chain and logistics sector, particularly within the European fashion industry.

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The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Market Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act, aka INFORM Act, was approved by Congress in December 2022 and goes into effect June 27. It’s meant to help stem the massive tide of stolen or counterfeit goods sold from ecommerce marketplaces, injecting a level of transparency and accountability.

The Buy Safe Coalition, which includes RILA (Retail Industry Leaders Association), estimated in 2021 that $54 billion was in lost annually from the sale of fraudulent goods online. You can imagine it’s gone up since. Even Amazon, long cited as a source of counterfeit traffic, has been working hard to clamp down, creating a coalition, hiring former federal prosecutors and filing lawsuits.

Under the INFORM Act, the Federal Trade Commission can impose a fine of $46,517 for a first-time violation, while they and state attorneys general can impose injunctions and pursue civil actions against marketplace operators that violate the act, up to and including shutting them down.

In general, the onus is on operators to ensure that their sellers are on the level. They must collect and verify information such as bank account number, contact information, tax ID number and working phone and email address from high-volume sellers. This is defined as those earning $5,000 or more or selling 200+ “new” items for any 12-month period within the last two years.

Alexandra Megaris, an advertising and marketing partner with the Washington, DC law firm of Venable LLP, handles cases before the FTC on behalf of ecommerce sellers. She joins our MCM CommerceChat podcast to provide some clarity and context on the ramifications of the INFORM Act.

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Secondhand clothing has come a long way since the days of the community thrift store as quick-acting brands have positioned themselves to capture some of the $100B global recommerce market.  Multichannel Merchant caught up with Bernardine Wu, executive managing director, and Richard Siefert, consultant, from OSF Digital to talk about the results of their Brand Resale Index, how REI works to deliver a fantastic resale experience, why some brands falter when it comes to fully supporting their resale efforts, and how you can help get the ball rolling with launching your brand’s resale program.

The Brand Resale Index was designed to evaluate leading practice adoption across 40 brands across the fashion/apparel, outdoor, footwear, and luxury verticals.  Brands were assessed on 147 criteria across brand positioning, commerce, and trade-in experiences, and an assessment on how the brand’s resale business model potentially contributes to environmental sustainability benefits.  Readers interested in recommence and viewing more results from the study can find the report here.

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A new global study by IBM found that 61% of consumer goods and retail leaders are purposefully aligning their sustainability and operational goals, with 77% of the respondents agreeing that sustainability investments will accelerate business growth.

The study, titled “Redesigning Brand Values: Purpose and Profit Converge in Core Operations,” highlights success stories from Levi Strauss, Pandora, Reckitt, Unilever and Walmart.

Luq Niazi, global managing partner and Industries and Global Consumer Industry leader at IBM Consulting, shared insights from the report in this MCM CommerceChat podcast. He explains how companies are allocating resources for sustainability, and advises how to communicate efforts to your customers without greenwashing. We also discuss AI technologies for sustainable efficiency, and how Walmart is using blockchain to reach the holy grail of supply chain transparency. You can access the full report here.

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