Retail Supply Chain Solutions

Let the Cap Decide. Food waste is a global problem, and a lot of it starts at home with something as simple as confusion over date labels. Nearly 20% of the world's food never even reaches our plates. In the UK alone, we bin 9.5 million tonnes every year. Seventy percent of that comes straight from our homes. That's 4.5 million tonnes of perfectly good grub heading for landfill. Let that sink in. Date labels certainly aren't helping. "Best before" is just a guess at peak flavour. "Use by" is about safety. "Sell by" is for the store. No surprise that around 10% of food in the EU spoils too early. Bump Cap cuts through the confusion with a cap you can feel. Peel it back and a special gel activates, tracking time and temperature without ever touching the food. If the lid feels smooth, your meal is fresh. If it's bumpy, dig in now. Simple. No squinting at tiny print. No second guessing. And no barrier for those with visual impairments. Food waste drives around 10% of global emissions. One extra day of shelf life could save over 200 million tonnes of CO₂ every year. Most perishables are safe for at least two days longer than the label says. The industry knows it. Next on the menu is Bump Tag, built for meat, seafood and other chilled foods. A consumer trial and pilot are already underway, with early signs pointing to a 29% drop in avoidable waste. Even better, both Cap and Tag are fully recyclable. Mimica Lab worked with brands and recycling experts to make sure the tech never stands in the way of your recycling bin. We're shifting from packaging that just contains food to packaging that actively protects it. Turns out, a simple tactile cue might be the smartest freshness signal we've got. Thoughts on this innovation? What other packaging breakthroughs should be on our radar? Thoughts on Bump Cap and Tag? What other packaging breakthroughs should be on our radar? 📷 Mimica  --------------------- Kicking off #30WildPackagingWins. I'll be discussing sustainable packaging every day this month in the run-up to the Sustainable Packaging Summit  📅 When: 10th–12th November 2025 📍 Where: Utrecht, Netherlands If you're into new ideas, new materials, new formats, and the occasional curveball, follow along! Thinking of joining the summit? Use LISAC20 for 20% off tickets. Details in the comments. Hope to see you there! #SPS2025 #SustainablePackagingSummit

Amazon opens its logistics to Walmart, Shopify and SHEIN – quietly building the backbone of global e-commerce Amazon has expanded its Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service to support orders from Walmart, Shopify, and Shein. This marks a strategic step toward making Amazon’s logistics infrastructure available even to competing platforms. Until now, MCF supported marketplaces like Etsy, TikTok Shop, and Temu. The latest update means sellers can manage all their inventory centrally and fulfill across channels using Amazon’s network. The result: 19% fewer out-of-stock situations and 12% faster inventory turnover. From a European perspective, this signals Amazon’s ambition to become the default fulfilment layer for global commerce—regardless of where the sale happens. The update is part of a broader push: 1) Global Warehousing and Distribution will allow sellers to store goods in bulk near manufacturing hubs (China, Vietnam, India) and ship to destination markets on demand. 2) Amazon Global Logistics continues to expand with direct freight routes connecting Asia to key markets including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. For European brands and sellers, this could reshape the fulfilment landscape: - More efficient cross-border distribution - Better stock availability for marketplaces - A stronger case for channel-agnostic inventory planning Amazon (USA) leads US e-commerce with ~38% market share. Shopify (Canada) powers over 1.7 million merchants globally. Walmart (USA) is the second-largest US marketplace. Shein (China) is one of the fastest-growing fashion platforms, with significant traction in Europe. This move is less about marketplace competition—and more about building a logistics operating system for the future of commerce. #ecommerce #retailtech #logistics #supplychain #fulfillment #fmcg #marketplaces #omnichannel #digitalcommerce #inventorymanagement #warehousing #distribution #multichannel #retailstrategy #retailinnovation #shein #shopify #walmart #amazon #d2c #crossborder #globaltrade #europeanretail #europelogistics #ukretail #germany #france #italy #spain #usamarket #asiamarkets #retailinvesting #retailmedia #startups #canada #china #usa #europe #asia #northamerica

Grocery retail is a different beast from DTC. If your pack isn’t built for the shelf, you lose fast. We worked with Fomin to overhaul their packaging architecture. After proving themselves on Amazon, they scored a shot at Erewhon, but the original pack just wasn’t built for bricks-and-mortar. Key moves in the redesign 🌊 Brand blocking A bold top zone anchored by a new device we dubbed The Fomin Wave, uniting the range and commanding shelf presence. 🌊 Clear hierarchy The old pack had too many focal points. The new system nails both sub-category and scent navigation so shoppers find their product in a heartbeat. 🌊 Refined typography & colour Updated pairings capture the brand’s clean-wellness vibe while staying distinctive. Since launch, Fomin has rolled out new SKUs, new categories, and secured national US retail with their new packaging guidelines. What do you think of the upgrade?

We've all heard the old saying in advertising: "I know half of my advertising is working, I just don't know which half." For too long, that’s been the reality for many in automotive retail. We spend money on mass marketing to databases filled with dirty, outdated customer data. This leads to wasted ad spend, irrelevant messages, and a frustrating experience for our customers. We've learned that you don't need more leads. You need a cleaner process to get more out of the opportunities you already have. That's the power of a Customer Data Platform (CDP). Our journey with a CDP was about getting "unstuck" from old habits. The first critical step? Getting our data clean and establishing a single source of truth. We found that 52% of our customer data was dirty in some way, full of bad addresses, outdated phone numbers, and sold vehicles. By simply cleaning and enriching our data, our advertising started working more effectively almost instantly. Now, with our CDP, we're not just waiting for a lead form to show up. We’re engaging with customers in real time. We know when a shopper starts filling out a service scheduler or a trade-in form and abandons it. With this information, we can send a personalized, automated message to help them finish the process. The results from this single use case were immediate. This system is changing our business. We’ve seen our sold in timeframe rate jump to 30%, which is more than double the national average of 12.4%. By focusing on a better, cleaner process, March and April were two of the best months in our company's history...a feat that has never happened before. The goal is to control the experience, not just react to it. It's about moving from mass marketing to micro audiences, delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right person. What's the one "dirty data" problem that frustrates you the most? #wearerohrman

Does the #packaging structure in the video intrigue you? 🤔 An inconspicuous cardboard, with special cuts and folds in the middle, can securely hold the product in place without the need for additional materials. No plastic shells, no foam, no redundant fillers—yet it fulfills all its functions. Having worked in the packaging industry for a long time, I increasingly realize that truly great design is not about piling on materials, but about achieving more with less. 🛍️ There are several points about this solution that I particularly appreciate: ● Structural strength comes from design, not additional packaging costs ● The assembly method is simple, and no extra training is required for the customer ● #Recyclable and eco-friendly, without compromising user experience ● More importantly, it demonstrates the value of "engineering thinking" in the details Over the years of working on projects, I've come to believe more and more that technological #innovation doesn't always come from massive investment, but sometimes from small breakthroughs after repeatedly thinking through a problem.（source from Hexpand） #Packaging #PackagingDesign #CustomPackaging #Opack #BrandPackaging #Clothingpackaging #cosmeticspackaging #PackagingManufacturing #PackagingInnovation #SustainablePackaging #PaperPackaging #PackagingSolutions

⚠️ Car dealers 🚗 & OEMs risk losing their competitive edge without investing in digital solutions. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dYUTPEhk ➡️ As always, just my personal opinion. Please add yours & re-share the post. The automotive retail and aftermarket is undergoing a massive transformation—standing still is no longer an option! 👉 OEMs 🚗 are scaling back their agency model ambitions across different regions. Leading brands like Volkswagen are returning to a dealer-based model, while Stellantis, Ford Motor Company, and BMW Group have halted their rollouts. Polestar is also adjusting its retail approach. 👉 OEMs have expressed a strong focus on expanding aftersales and digital services throughout the entire vehicle and customer lifecycle. This shift could increase market pressure on non-captive service providers and dealer groups. 👉 Dealers 🏪 must diversify their business both horizontally and vertically to tap into new revenue streams. 👉 To remain competitive, digital solutions must connect the dots across multiple data sources. The key lies in digitization 💿, data integration, standardization, and automation. One challenge is the fragmented digital value chain, particularly at automotive retailers. Stakeholders 🚗 operate in siloed and poorly connected systems, leading to a suboptimal customer experience. 👉 Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) can serve as the technical backbone for the stakeholders in the automotive value chain, enabling targeted and improved customer communication throughout the entire lifecycle. 👉 An integrated CDP empowers OEMs, non-captives, and dealers by consolidating customer data from multiple sources 🤝 into a single, comprehensive view. This facilitates personalized communication across all touch points. 👉 Automation & AI 🤖 enable efficient personalization without compromising personal relationships. This strengthens long-term customer loyalty 🌟 and relationship management. 👉 Digital platforms have proven to increase revenue potential per customer. A study by Veact GmbH, one of Europe’s leading CDP providers, found that depending on the vehicle class, revenue per car could increase by 21% for mid-size models and up to 38% for compact-class models. Additionally, workshop productivity could improve by 12%. 👉 VEACT’s approach leverages multiple data sources—including invoices, vehicle details, and service histories—to build comprehensive customer profiles and identify the best target audiences for marketing campaigns. 👉 By creating 360-degree customer profiles, businesses can unlock new sales & service opportunities. 🚀 Is your automotive business ready to accelerate into the future? Let's discuss how a Customer Data Platform can fuel growth, enhance customer loyalty, and drive success in the evolving automotive landscape! 👇 #automotive #automotiveretail #aftermarket #digitaltransformation #OEM #dealership #innovation #VEACT #datamanagement #AI #automation #customerexperience #customerloyalty

New research alert! Very excited to officially launch the Omdia Global Distributor 250. Taking over a year to research and with hundreds of analyst hours going into this definitive compilation of the largest and most powerful IT and Telco distributors that stretch across 193 countries and thousands of product and services categories. Special thanks to Sebastian Wilke and Noah Dantes for taking the lead, and the support by Peter Bryant, Rachel Brindley, and Alastair Edwards. Some interesting tidbits for your next cocktail party: --> The Omdia Global Distributor 250 earned $389.9 billion revenue and $34.8 billion in gross profit in 2025. --> The Top 15 distributors account for 72.9% of global distribution revenue: 1. TD SYNNEX 2. Ingram Micro 3. Arrow Electronics 4. Digital China 5. ALSO Group 6. Carahsoft 7. Synnex Group 聯強國際集團 8. Redington Limited 9. D&H Distributing 10. Exclusive Networks 11. DCC plc 12. Westcon-Comstor 13. Esprinet Group 14. AB S.A. 15. ScanSource --> The bottom 150 distributors account for 3.6% of the list’s revenue. --> Value-added services, regional expertise, and specialist offerings drive profit in a way scale simply does not, resulting in the Scale Distributors accounting for 69.4% of all revenue but just 55.7% of gross profit. --> EMEA is the region most reliant on distribution, both in value and scale. It accounted for 32.5% of all distribution revenue and had an average gross profit margin of 9.7%—both figures were the highest of all measured regions. --> Despite increased hyperscaler marketplace competition, distributors remain vital. The Distributor 250’s top line was 574.6% larger than the combined hyperscaler marketplace opportunity in 2025. Distributors are also orchestrating a growing percentage of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft marketplace activity and being financially rewarded for it. Omdia reports that over 50% of marketplace deals have partner funding today and distributors are playing a material role in this. As seen in the flywheel below, the future of distribution is a platform-centric, data-powered orchestration model where the distributor evolves from a traditional two-tier intermediary into the ecosystem hub for the entire partner economy. In this model, distributors sit at the center of a many-to-many network spanning vendors, CSPs, hyperscale marketplaces, MSPs, consultants, resellers, agents, service providers, SIs, ISVs, and ultimately the end customer, delivering value through AI-led automation, API integration, cloud/XaaS enablement, analytics-driven personalization, and end-to-end lifecycle management. Differentiation shifts from moving product to aggregating solutions, enabling co-sell and co-delivery across partners, embedding services and financing, and scaling multi-vendor outcomes through orchestration.

Asset Finance & Automotive Digital Retail: AI, Tech & The Next Leap Over the past few months, I have seen firsthand, the finance and leasing industry, along with digital retail, is undergoing a seismic shift driven by AI, automation, and new ways of working. The future is being reshaped not just by technology but by how seamlessly it integrates into customer journeys, removing barriers and unlocking new value. AI-Powered Products: AI isn’t just about automation—it’s about intelligence embedded in every step of the process. From credit decisioning to contract servicing, AI is reducing friction, improving risk assessment, and personalizing customer interactions. Some key areas we at NETSOL Technologies Inc. are advancing include: ✅ AI-Driven Credit Decisioning: Moving beyond traditional risk scoring, we leverage alternative data and behavioral insights to make lending accessible to broader customer segments. ✅ Automated Contract & Document Generation: Streamlining approvals and compliance, reducing time-to-contract from days to minutes. ✅ Predictive Collections & Smart Rescheduling: Proactive AI-driven customer engagement that minimizes delinquencies while personalizing recovery options. ✅ AI-Powered Digital Retail Journeys: Personalized financing options, real-time approvals, and seamless asset purchase experiences—turning browsing into buying with minimal friction. Breaking Adoption Barriers: One of the biggest hurdles in AI adoption has been complexity and integration challenges. We’ve designed our AI-first products with: 🔹 API-First & Modular Architecture – Easy plug-and-play capabilities that let clients adopt AI use cases at their own pace. 🔹 Pre-Built Compliance & Security – Ensuring AI adoption meets global regulatory standards without additional effort. 🔹 Explainability & Trust in AI – Transparent decision-making models that regulators and end users can trust. What’s Next? Over the next 2-3 years, asset finance and automotive digital retail will see: 🚀 Embedded Finance Everywhere – Financing will be seamlessly integrated into digital marketplaces, removing traditional dealership and lender silos. 🚀 AI-Augmented Workforce – Teams will shift from manual processing to AI-assisted decision-making, improving speed and accuracy. 🚀 Shift from Ownership to Usership – Subscription and pay-per-use models will dominate, requiring highly flexible financing solutions. The time to prepare is now. AI and tech advancements are rewriting the rulebook for asset finance and digital retail. The next wave of transformation is not just about technology—it’s about delivering effortless experiences that make financing and asset ownership simpler, smarter, and more accessible. Let’s shape the future—one intelligent experience at a time. #AI #FinTech #AutoFinance #DigitalRetail #FutureOfWork #EmbeddedFinance #Transcend #AppexNow

The automotive industry is on the brink of a transformation, and at the heart of it is Agentic AI—AI that can think, act, and make decisions autonomously. Over the next 12 months, expect to see Salesforce AI Agents and other cutting-edge solutions redefining the way cars are sold, serviced, and marketed. How Will Agentic AI Reshape Automotive Retail? 🔹 Hyper-Personalised Customer Journeys Agentic AI will power next-gen digital sales assistants that engage customers proactively—recommending vehicles, financing options, and trade-in values based on real-time preferences, behaviors, and market trends. 🔹 Automated Lead Nurturing & Sales Acceleration Imagine an AI-powered sales concierge that autonomously follows up with potential buyers, answers queries, and schedules test drives—freeing up human teams to close deals rather than chase leads. 🔹 Intelligent Inventory & Pricing Optimisation AI agents will analyze supply chain data, regional demand, and competitor pricing to dynamically adjust inventory and pricing strategies—ensuring dealers stay ahead of the market. 🔹 Revolutionising Customer Support & Service From AI-driven chatbots handling service bookings to predictive maintenance alerts based on vehicle data, the aftersales experience will become more seamless and proactive than ever before. Why This Matters NOW The shift toward digital-first automotive retail is accelerating, and companies that leverage Agentic AI will gain a significant competitive edge. With Salesforce AI Agents, dealerships and OEMs can deploy intelligent, autonomous solutions that improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and revenue. The next 12 months will define who leads and who lags in the AI-driven retail revolution. 🚀 How do you see Agentic AI impacting automotive retail? #AI #AgenticAI #AutomotiveRetail #DigitalTransformation #SalesforceAI #AutoIndustry #FutureOfRetail #AIInnovation

New landscape, old questions: How global should #supplychains still be? Current trade developments are forcing us to rethink fundamental assumptions. As geopolitical and trade tensions rise, companies face a fundamental decision: retreat into regional safety or intelligent redesign of global networks? What I'm currently seeing in the market are three decisive response patterns: ➡️ From "Just-in-Time" to "Just-in-Case" – Companies are deliberately building strategic buffers. The question is no longer "How lean?" but "How #smart?" ➡️ From global to hybrid networks – #Nearshoring and friendshoring complement global structures. Diversification becomes the new standard. ➡️ From reactive to predictive – Data analytics and #AI enable anticipating disruptions rather than merely reacting to them. What becomes clear: The most resilient supply chains are not the shortest or the longest – but the most transparent. Companies that understand their supply chains down to the third and fourth tier can respond more flexibly to changes. My thesis: We are witnessing the transition from the "Efficiency Era" to the "Adaptability Era" of supply chain management. What are your experiences? Which strategies have proven to be future-ready in your supply chains?