Supply Chain & Merchandising

Crowdsourced grocery delivery provider Instacart is expanding its same day and one-hour service to new markets after receiving $44 million in funding from some big name Silicon Valley investors.

Montreal – Raymark is releasing a new mobile retail store operations solution called Mosaic Inventory Management. The new solution complements the suite of Raymark Mosaic retail enterprise applications with tools for end-to-end management and optimization of inventory from a handheld device, including support for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Pitney Bowes has launched Mailstream On Demand — a tool designed to give small and midsize businesses an outsourced solution to better manage their transactional document design, production and delivery across physical and digital channels.

By Jeff Weidauer, VP of marketing and strategy, Vestcom International

Healthy is hip. That’s the message coming from most media outlets, as well as consumers in general. Overall interest among Americans in healthful meal options is at an all-time high. Yet, at the same time, some healthy-focused retailers are struggling. Whole Foods Market has seen its growth slowing and has issued lower target guidance to shareholders. Smaller companies like Fresh Market are even resorting to closing stores. What’s going on?

Colorado Springs, Colo. - Accellos, a provider of supply chain execution software solutions, has made its EDI solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX compatible with AX 2012 R3. Accellos is a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner and an active member of the Dynamics AX Council.

New Delhi, India – Wal-Mart Stores In. has reportedly opened an e-commerce site to serve the small retailers that shop at its members-only cash-and-carry stores in India. According to Bloomberg, Wal-Mart is piloting the site for small retailers located in the cities of Hyderabad and Lucknow, with full rollout across India planned in January 2015.

New York -- Instacart, the same-day grocery delivery service, has raised $44 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

The San Francisco startup currently operates in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and seven other U.S. cities. With its new funding, it Instacart expects to expand into 17 cities by the end of 2014.

St. Louis — Panera Bread Company has secured a five-year $100 million term loan from Bank of America, Wells Fargo and TD Bank. Proceeds from the loan will be used for general corporate purposes, including a range of growth initiatives such as the rollout of the Panera 2.0 in-store technology initiative.