In observance of Memorial Day, the D-D Daily will not be publishing on Monday, May 26. We will resume publishing on Tuesday, May 27. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

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The D&D Daily respects your time & doesn't filter retail's reality
 

The Big Looming Question When Target Opened All Those Stores
'What's with all the empty shelves?'... A Computer Glitch & A 3PL
"One of the Greatest Supply Chain Disasters in Canadian History"

Only a year ago, Target was touting its first store openings in Canada. Then Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel told investors he was pleased with how his workers and systems were handling the launch. But things were already going awry, said the sources, who worked at two of Target's three distribution hubs and spoke on condition of anonymity. Goods were coming into the warehouses faster than they were going out, in part because the barcodes on many items did not match what was in the computer system. As shipments stacked up, Target flew in dozens of red-shirted staff from the United States to shore up the operation, the sources said. Target, which is due to report its quarterly financial results on Wednesday, has said little about what went wrong with its Canadian supply chain. But on Tuesday it fired Tony Fisher, the president of its operation there, and replaced him with Mark Schindele, a veteran U.S. executive with deep experience in managing supply chains. Target's launch into Canada, its first international venture, was code-named Project Bacon, an apparently playful reference to Canadian bacon sold in U.S. supermarkets. Instead of a slow province-by-province rollout, the retailer clinched a big real estate deal, locking itself into a rapid, coast-to-coast launch that later magnified supply chain problems. The company said in February it had "dramatically reduced" congestion in the supply chain but did not give details. Asked to comment on the sources' depiction of overflowing warehouses, Target said it did not discuss vendor relationships. Target does much of its own distribution in the United States, but it hired Eleven Points Logistics, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Genco, to run its three warehouses in Canada. As goods arrived at the warehouses, workers found errors, 12 shirts per box when the computer system expected 24, for example, the two former Eleven Points employees said. It is not clear whether these errors were caused by Target's buyers entering bad data, vendors making mistakes, some glitch in Eleven Points' warehouse computer system or all three. The inconsistencies between goods and computer records caused a chain reaction of delays. Problem shipments needed to be unpacked and cataloged, a time-consuming process. They piled up instead of going out to stores, taking over large parts of the massive warehouses, on a scale the sources said they had never seen at previous jobs. Finding the source of this type of error can require a long and complex audit, said Marc Wulfraat, president of logistics consulting firm MWPVL International, who has analyzed and written about Target's supply chain. "The Target Canada story will go down in the history books as one of the great supply chain disasters of Canadian history," he said, pointing to the Canadian operation's $941 million loss before interest and taxes last year. (Source businessinsider.com)

November is the new Black Friday in Canada - fundamentally altering the look & feel of shopping in Canada - Canadian retailers are fighting back  November is the new black — Black Friday that is — compared to December when it comes to retail sales growth in Canada, a new report says. Over the last couple years, Canadian retailers have been offering more and more late November discounts in an effort to reduce the flow of Canadians’ spending money south of the border on Black Friday sales that traditionally kick off the U.S. holiday spending season. While many Canadians are still attracted to the Black Friday spectacle, similar discounting at Canadian retailers has proven extremely popular lately, the report note. November now accounts for 8.7 per cent of full-year retail sales in Canada, compared to less than 8.2 per cent a decade ago, Colliers found. “Shoppers are driving this boat. Retail sales are just being made earlier, and the shift is $20 to $25 billion from December into November across Canada. (Source thestar.com)

Knockoffs from China sting small Canadian shop
In Canada, the retail value of copycat product seizures in 2012 reached $38.1-million, up from $7.7-million in 2005, according to the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, a coalition that fights counterfeiting, fraud and copyright piracy. (Source theglobeandmail.com)

Sears Canada selling 15% stake in Quebec shopping centre for $33.5M

Tim Hortons Launches Mobile Payments

Canadians pay 30% more for gas than Americans - another example of higher prices in Canada

Petcetera to close all 18 stores

RCMP in Edmonton seeking suspect in violent robbery 

Niagara Regional Police investigating an Armed Robbery at a Dollar Value Store in Niagara Falls, CN 
 

Scams expected to hit customers hard after eBay data breach
E-commerce website eBay is the newest big corporation with a data breach to shake off. Between February and March, a reported 145 million eBay customers’ names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, home addresses and birth dates were compromised, but their financial data remained reportedly safe. Hackers figured out eBay employee credentials, which helped them gain access to the eBay database. Just because credit card information wasn’t stolen, doesn’t mean it isn’t as serious as, say, the Target Corp. breach from last December. Phishing attacks, or scams, are just that. Now, hackers with compromised information will be on the hunt to gain even more. That means, in most cases, bank account numbers. (Source bizjournals.com)

Making data-driven decisions with your POS
Your Point of Sale (POS) system contains a wealth of information about what's working for (and against) your business' success.  For example, your POS data can capture information about your inventory, cash on hand and sales, so you can optimize your processes for maximum cash flow and profitability. POS data can also determine if your staffing levels are appropriate, based on sales and customer demand. Additionally, POS data on a customer's past purchase history can help your teams direct customers toward the products that are most likely to fit their preferences. (Source retailcustomerexperience.com)

On-demand Webinar: Data analytics is crucial to reducing retail loss

Half of security pros fail to secure data, according to research
 

Moss Bros considers showrooming-type store - An e-commerce store?
Moss Bros is working on plans that could see it open showrooming-type stores with limited stock but access to the retailer's digital platforms. Formalwear retailer Moss Bros is working on a strategy that could see the company open digitally-focused stores providing its customers with access to its online ranges and click & collect services. Although there are no firm plans by the company to open a store of this nature, its investigation into new formats comes at a time when many retailers across the UK are looking at ways to combat showrooming, where customers compare prices in-store using their mobile phones. Research released this week by mobile firm EE found that almost half of British consumers regularly practice showrooming to check prices in-store. "We're at a very, very early stage of looking at what could be done, what types of technology could be used, what other people are doing – and really beginning to think through what something like this would look like," Sansom told Essential Retail. (Source essentialretail.com)

Retailers rely on vendors to address m-commerce security
As mobile technology evolves and more consumers shop on mobile devices, merchants turn to vendors to help them secure mobile payments and prevent security breaches. At long last,consumers can pay for their mobile commerce purchases with only the swipe of a finger. Using fingerprint-based identification, biometric technology allows for the ultimate in mobile checkout and, because fingerprints are unique, mobile commerce security. EBay Inc.’s PayPal recently began enabling consumers with the new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone to pay at any e-retailer that accepts PayPal on its mobile commerce web site with just the swipe of a finger. With retailers needing to manage mobile sites and mobile shopping apps in addition to desktop web sites, there are more properties to keep secure, and retailers are turning to vendors to provide additional layers of security. (Source internetretailer.com)

Study: One-in-four e-commerce purchases have inadequate shipping

E-commerce accounts for all the Q1 growth at Gap
 

Job Opening

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National Account Mgr

Confidential

Northeast

Downing & Downing

Dir of Loss Prevention

Confidential

Philadelphia, PA

Downing & Downing

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4 Tips for Seasoned Professionals: How to Reinvent Yourself for a Second Career  You don't have to be in the start of your career to reinvent yourself. Professionals can do just this, and all it takes are four steps. Challenge yourself in your career and stay fulfilled in whatever you do. (Translate your skills)

8 Things Great Leaders Say in Times of Tumultuous Change  Change is bound to happen, whether it be good or bad, and there's only so much you can do to prepare for it. The rest comes down to how you lead your team through the change. Here are some things good leaders should say to your team to get them ready. (Use names)