Supply Chain & Merchandising

Retailers already knew they had work to do to better meet online shoppers’ expectations, just maybe not as much as revealed by new research from IBM.

Brian Cornell, CEO and chairman of Target Corp., used the company’s A Bullseye View blog to discuss Target’s decision to shutter its operations in Canada.

Does this decision mean that Target is declaring bankruptcy?

Overshadowed by Target’s bombshell announcement to exit Canada, the retailer said U.S. sales – and profits – were much better than expected during the holidays.

The favorable combination of increased traffic and stronger than expected digital sales enabled the company to produce a 3% same store sales increase during November and December versus an earlier forecast which called for 2% growth.

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy ads early as the beginning of February 2015. According to the Wall Street Journal, RadioShack is currently in talks with several private equity firms about possibly buying its assets out of bankruptcy.

London - Mothercare plc intends to create faster and more convenient omnichannel fulfillment options to its customers using supply chain commerce solutions from Manhattan Associates. The Manhattan solutions will enable Mothercare to make store stock available for online sales and support more efficient customer processes to speed up delivery options through express click and collect services and ship from store.

St. Louis -- Ikea plans to install solar energy panels on its 380,000-sq-ft. St. Louis store, due to open in fall 2015. Panel installation will begin this spring, with completion before the store’s opening, making the project the largest rooftop solar array in the State of Missouri.

The store’s 259,000-sq.-ft. solar array will consist of a 1.28-MW system, built with 4,085 panels, and will produce approximately 1,780,000 kWh of electricity annually for the store, the equivalent to reducing 1,227 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Etsy, an e-marketplace that specializes in crafts and other artsy items, plans to hold an initial public offering as soon as this quarter, according to Bloomberg.

The decade-old company may seek to raise about $300 million, Bloomberg says, and is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Two technology trends stood out above all others at this week’s NRF Annual Convention. First, retailers are becoming aware that omnichannel inventory transparency is the back-end platform supporting the front-end seamless customer experience they have been building the past few years. Being able to see all inventory across all channels in real time is the key to enabling omnichannel processes such as shipping and fulfilling from store, centrally managing orders from multiple sales channels, providing “endless aisle” access to full inventory.