OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

SPS Commerce Inc., a provider of cloud-based retail supply chain management solutions, is recognizing the need for back-end unification of supply chain and store.

SPS has acquired ToolBox Solutions, a Toronto-based provider of POS analytics and category management services to retailers and CPG suppliers in North America.

Staples is continuing to build on its assortment of small business services with an expanded technology assistance offering.

Staples Tech Services now offers a next day guarantee. The suite of offerings includes PC services. Select Staples stores also offer small businesses mobile phone and tablet repairs. The new guarantee from Staples Tech Services includes PC set-up, data transfer, software upgrades, virus removal and more.

With the retail industry continuing to face abundant legislative challenges, the Retail Industry Leaders Association has made two key hires to bolster lobbying efforts during what promises to be a year of highly contentious presidential politics.

Retailers seeking to make the holiday return process as pleasant as possible need to offer a few specific features.

According to a new post-holiday study of 500 adult U.S. consumers from location-based mobile platform provider Retale, 24% of those surveyed stated that they are likely to return or exchange at least one of the presents that they received this holiday season.

Lists are a good way to start a debate, depending on who is included or left off, and that is sure to be the case with a newly released compilation of the 25 individuals the National Retail Federation Foundation has included on the 2016’s List of People Shaping Retail’s Future.

With the major selling holidays now behind us, retailers are preparing to handle the onslaught of returns that began on Dec. 26 and continue well into the first few weeks of the New Year.

In fact, according to the National Retail Federation’s “2014 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry,” the amount of holiday merchandise returned to stores last year amounted to $68.9 billion.

Rebecca Flick has joined Hancock Fabrics, a struggling operator of 260 stores, as CFO after spending 14 years early in her finance career with the Home Depot.

Flick was named CFO effective Jan. 4, to fill a position that had been held on an interim basis since August 2015 by O. Pierce Crockett, Hankcock’s divisional VP and controller. Crockett stepped in to lead the finance group after James Brown resigned as CFO after holding the post for less than two years.