Is Walmart Dropping Drop Shippers?

Is Walmart Dropping Drop Shippers?

September 29, 2018
Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.

Walmart is experimenting with its policies for online orders involving items that are drop shipped directly from the vendor to the customer.  Specifically, it is considering changes to products called “everyday consumables.”

In the past, Walmart would pay for UPS ground shipping to have the item shipped from the vendor directly to customers.  However, as the retail giant searches for increased profitability in the fourth quarter, it has dropped this policy on lower-priced items (items with a wholesale price of $28 or less).

Many vendors have seen their items on Walmart’s web site display as “out of stock,”  even when these items show as “in-stock” in internal Walmart databases.  This has resulted in zeroed sales from the Walmart web site for many vendors with lower-priced items in the everyday consumables category.

This post is based on the Talk Business & Politics article, Walmart.Com Tests New Fulfillment Protocol for Consumables, Some Vendors in Limbo, by Kim Souza, August 30, 2018. Image source: creativenature © 123RF.com.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why is Walmart changing its policies?

Guidance: This relates to the problem that many online retailers are facing—the last mile delivery.  Free shipping (for 2 Continue reading →

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Edible Bar Codes on Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner

Edible Bar Codes on Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner

September 29, 2018
Lisa M. Spencer

Soon you can aim your smart-phone at a piece of beef and have an app display the meat’s entire history, such as where it was raised, what it was fed, and when and where it was processed.

A new electronic etching procedure developed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers creates an invisible, edible barcode made of non-toxic silicon dioxide.  At first, tags will be embedded in the beef’s primary packaging only, but eventually even individual steaks could be tagged.

The technology will be launched first in Australia and China in the upcoming year.  Such measures will help protect branded names for beef as well as keep food supplies safer for consumers, using the new technology to avoid repeats of multiple past food fraud incidents.

This post is based on the Herald Scotland article, Rog Wood: Hi-tech ways to tell us where our food comes from , by Rog Wood, September 3, 2018; and the Telegraph article, Fake steaks to be exposed by invisible barcode scannable on smart-phones, by Henry Bodkin, August 13, 2018. Image source: Image Source/GIPhotoStock.

Discussion Questions:

1. How will the use of invisible barcodes make the supply chain for meat more transparent?

Guidance: In Continue reading →

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Coca-Cola Is Killing Zombies

Coca-Cola Is Killing Zombies

September 28, 2018
Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.

Is Coca-Cola hunting zombies?

Yes, but in this case a zombie is a product whose sales have not grown over the last three years.  Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey requests “zombie reviews” for each market using a guide that was developed for these reviews.

Already this year, Coca-Cola’s Middle East and North Africa business units have identified over 125 zombies that have been or will be removed by the end of the year.

This post is based on the Beverage Daily article, Coca-Cola Steps Up the Zombie Hunt: More Than 100 Products Identified For Elimination, by Rachel Arthur, August 13, 2018. Image source: Shutterstock / Gillian Entress.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why eliminate zombies?

Guidance: As the article states, removing zombies reduces complexity.  Resources that went to zombies could be diverted to “star” products or to introducing new products.  These resources cross the entire organization from the marketing department through the supply chain.  This reduction of complexity make it easier to efficiently run the entire supply chain.  Ideally, this will put the resources on the products that will produce the most revenues for the organization.

2. Any potential problems with killing the zombies?

Guidance Continue reading →

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