Supply Chain & Merchandising

Burlington, Mass. — Attune Consulting, a global solutions provider to the fashion and lifestyle industries, today has collaborated with SAP to co-develop the SAP Fashion Management application. SAP Fashion Management is a vertical wholesale, manufacturing, and retail solution designed to bring all business operations onto a single platform powered by SAP Hana to create cross-channel, integrated fashion companies.  

Attune's first customer implementation of SAP Fashion Management will begin in July with Tommy Hilfiger Europe.

With an 8.7% same store sales increase, the addition of 21 new stores, a burgeoning digital business and surging first quarter profits, Ulta Beauty demonstrated why it is one of the retail industry’s most compelling growth stories.

San Luis Obispo, Calif. — Shopatron, a provider of cloud-based distributed order management solutions, is releasing a free inventory visibility API. Shopatron Retailer Inventory Lookup is a cloud-based solution that offers enterprise-wide inventory visibility and also provides retailers with actionable analytics to improve in-store operations, stocking, merchandising and product marketing.

The solution enables retailers to instantly connect customers with local, available inventory.

Automotive service is one thing Amazon.com can’t offer online, but Pep Boys has figured out how to digitally enable its business to drive solid growth.

Bentonville, Ark. — In the wake of an accident involving a truck driver for Wal-Mart Stores on the New Jersey Turnpike on Saturday, June 7 that left comedian Tracy Morgan critically injured and killed one of Morgan’s associates, comedian James McNair, Wal-Mart Stores has released a fact sheet about its trucking safety guidelines, as well an official statement regarding the crash.

Palo Alto, Calif. — Endicia, a provider of e-commerce shipping technologies and services, has released a solution called "Pay-on-Use Returns" exclusively for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Unlike traditional USPS labels, Endicia's Pay-on-Use Returns shipping labels are not pre-paid.

Burlington, N.J. — Burlington Stores Inc. had an all-around strong first quarter of fiscal 2014 that included a better-than-expected net income of %11.77 million, up from a net loss of $5.56 million in year-ago period. The retailer expects to open 25 net new stores during the fiscal year, including the opening of one new store and closing of one existing store in the second quarter.

New York — Joel Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Walmart.com., has left  the online giant to assume the role of president at Five Below, which targets pre-teens and teens with trendy, extreme-value merchandise priced at $5 and below. Walmart has appointed Fernando Madeira, CEO of Walmart.com's Latin America unit, as the new head of Walmart.com. He will relocate from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to San Bruno, California, where Wal-Mart’s global e-commerce operation is based.