Supply Chains | Digital Commerce 360

7 key takeaways from NRF’s Big Show

Mary Meisenzahl — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 22:07:29 +0000

This week, the National Retail Federation (NRF) brought together 40,000 attendees from more than 100 countries and 6,200 brands in New York City. Professionals from across the industry discussed the latest in technology, strategy, marketing and more.

Digital Commerce 360 was at the Javits Center for all three days of NRF’s Big Show to find the most important ecommerce stories. These were the most important takeaways from the event.

Top NRF Big Show takeaways

1. Unified commerce

Retailers across the show indicated that they’re not considering in-store and online sales as separate, siloed channels anymore. Increasingly, the same customer is shopping both ways.

“Everybody needs to think like an omnichannel retailer” if they want to be successful, said Michelle Gass, incoming Levi’s CEO. Retailers discussed creating consistent experiences across whatever channels a consumer uses to shop. For example, at Lowe’s, self-checkout uses the same technology as lowes.com, says Seemantini Godbole, chief digital and information officer.

Lowe’s ranks No. 12 in the 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000. The Top 1000 is a ranking of North America’s leading retailers by online sales. Levi’s is No. 192.

2. Every retailer needs an AI strategy

Artificial intelligence (AI) was the No. 1 topic of discussion at NRF’s Big Show. Every session had at least a brief mention of the technology that’s promising to revolutionize retail, with special attention on the possibilities of generative AI. Salesforce released a lineup of new generative AI tools for retailers and consumers who shop with them. The technology will work using Salesforce’s recently announced Einstein 1 platform. And the excitement around AI goes beyond just talk about future applications. Executives from e.l.f. Beauty (No. 950 in the Top 1000), Tractor Supply (No. 99), Saks (No. 28) and other retailers explained how they’re already using AI at the conference.

3. Data rules everything

AI was the buzzword, but all the most interesting applications are only as good as the quality of data fed into them. That’s the premise behind FedEx’s announcement of fdx, its new commerce platform for online retailers. The shipping carrier said it can help retailers track and manage demand, conversion, returns, and fulfillment based on insights from the 15 million packages it delivers each day.

High-quality data is key for other buzzy AI applications, like personalization and demand forecasting, Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, told attendees in a keynote during the first day of the show.

4. Physical presence for online retailers

Online retailers see the appeal of stores and physical locations. Chewy (No. 13) has plans to open its first physical locations this year in Florida, CEO Sumit Singh said. The planned openings are clinics, rather than stores, to grow within the $40 billion pet-health industry. However, they’ll also provide an opportunity to upsell other pet products when owners bring their animals in, he said.

Gen Z in particular shows a preference for stores, vice president of strategy at Aptos Retail Nikki Baird said. Reformation (No. 354) CEO Hali Borenstein noted younger consumers are more likely to visit the chain’s stores, too.

5. Sustainability is something to consider

Sustainability remains a consideration for retailers, especially when they’re trying to appeal to younger consumers. Two retailers addressed its specific importance in session during the Big Show. Under Armour (No. 97) CEO Stephanie Linnartz discussed the brand’s efforts to appeal to women in Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

“They care about sustainability,” she said. That’s why Under Armour is working on replacing spandex with a more eco-friendly recyclable material.

Reformation’s Borenstein said the retailer passed up opportunities for athleisure growth during the pandemic because it couldn’t produce products sustainably and quickly enough. The decision paid off, she said. It made Reformation’s claims to sustainability come off as more authentic, she said.

6. DTC strategy is shifting

Direct-to-consumer retailers are finding their footing after the market became more crowded during the pandemic. The market is much more volatile and demand is harder to forecast now, Bombas CEO Dave Heath said in a session for DTC leaders. Bombas and Ritual are both finding the sweet spot of retail stores’ sales versus DTC sales, the executives said. For Bombas, that’s around 15% wholesale. Ritual, meanwhile, is seeing success in Whole Foods, meeting consumers who are willing to pay a premium for high-quality ingredients, CEO Katerina Schneider said. It also started selling on Amazon in 2022, which functions as a “giant search engine” where new customers find them, she said.

7. Retailers can’t ignore Shein and Temu

U.S. retailers would be wise to pay attention to the rapid growth of two low-cost competitors from China: Shein and Temu, says Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at the Publicis Group. Coresight Research CEO Deborah Weinswig noted Shein’s advantages in supply chain and its on-demand production model in outpacing U.S. retailers. The model allows it to nearly perfectly match supply to demand, creating less waste and improving margins over competitors, she said.

Shein is No. 2 in Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of ecommerce retailers in Asia. Temu, which Pinduoduo owns, launched in 2022 and isn’t yet reflected in rankings. Pinduoduo operates an app-only marketplace for Chinese consumers. Because it doesn’t operate an ecommerce website, it is not included in Digital Commerce 360’s Asia Database.

Catch up on Digital Commerce 360’s daily recaps from the 2024 NRF Big Show:

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A spend management vendor beefs up its executive team with new hires

Mark Brohan — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 19:13:51 +0000

A well-known developer of applications and services for procurement and e-procurement management is adding executive hires. The new members of Jaggaer‘s senior management team will focus on customer relationships and marketing. The company counts 10 million suppliers operating across its spend management network and hosts more than 8,000 product catalogs.

New executive hires include chief customer office

The first of Jaggaer’s new executive hires is Troy Meyers, who will serve as its new chief customer officer. For the past seven years, Meyers has managed customer initiatives at B2B information technology and software-as-a-service companies including Azalea Health and Intradiem in Atlanta.

Meyers has an MBA in MIS and ecommerce from Georgia State University and a BS in computer engineering from the University of Louisville.

Jaggaer’s new CMO

Jaggaer appointed the second of its two executive hires, Eva Skidmore, as chief marketing officer. Skidmore will oversee the global marketing organization and focus on driving customer demand, Jaggaer says.

She joins Jaggaer from Salesforce, where she served as CMO public sector and vice president of field marketing for public sector, education and nonprofit. Prior to her time at Salesforce, Skidmore held marketing and channel roles at Socrata, Oracle (RightNow) and Microsoft.

Skidmore holds a degree in international relations from Tufts University and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Jaggaer, based in Morrisville, NC, says it has a base of 17,000 customers.

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Under Armour CEO highlights key focus areas — and personnel — for growth

Abbas Haleem — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 17:40:13 +0000

As Stephanie Linnartz enters the final months of her first year as president and CEO at Under Armour Inc., she is focused on the brand’s foundation. For Linnartz, that means emphasizing retail basics such as product design, supply chain management, merchandising and technology.

Linnartz joined Under Armour in February 2023 and is the company’s first female CEO. In a one-on-one interview with Digital Commerce 360 at Under Armour’s Michigan Avenue store in Chicago, she explained where she wants to take the 27-year-old sportswear company — and the personnel leading the way.

Under Armour is No. 97 in the Top 1000. The Digital Commerce 360 database ranks North America’s leading online retailers by their web sales.

Four priorities for Under Armour personnel

1. Product design

As is typical of the apparel industry, sales success starts with product design.

“We sell footwear, accessories and apparel,” Linnartz told Digital Commerce 360. “I think what we’re doing in the short term, for men and for women, is trying to lean more into things that are sports style in terms of expanding the aperture for where Under Armour can appeal to consumers.”

And designing new products takes time. Linnartz said she thinks the lead time and “product engine” can be anywhere from 15 to 18 months.

In September, Under Armour hired fashion industry veteran John Varvatos as its chief design officer. Varvatos previously designed for brands including, among others: Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Converse. He created the boxer brief at Calvin Klein and the laceless sneaker for Converse. Converse falls under parent company Nike Inc., No. 9 in the Top 1000. Ralph Lauren Corp. ranks No. 78 in the Top 1000. Calvin Klein falls under parent company PVH Corp., which ranks No. 129.

“Think about the fact he needs to design things, so we need to source them, manufacture, ship them,” Linnartz said. “There’s that lead time to have a lot more new product that’s more sports sales.”

In the interim, she said, Under Armour is marketing differently, especially to women, a demographic the brand wants to appeal to increasingly. Currently, more than 75% of Under Armour sales are to men, Linnartz shared.

2. Supply chain management

And as the brand seeks to develop new products, it needs to also focus on sourcing materials for them.

“You have to get the right product at the right place at the right time at the right price,” Linnartz told Digital Commerce 360. “That’s all end-to-end planning and supply chain and logistics. We are pretty good there, but we could always get better, so we’re going to continue to build out our supply chain capabilities.”

Under Armour recently hired Shawn Curran, adding a chief supply chain officer to its C-suite. Curran spent more than 30 years at Gap Inc. (No. 20 in the Top 1000), where he most recently served as Old Navy’s chief operating officer. He had also served as head of global supply chain across all seven Gap Inc. brands.

“He’s a supply chain expert,” Linnartz said. “He’s actually an expert across all of retail … but he’s also a supply chain expert, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution and logistics.”

3. Merchandising

Linnartz said ecommerce represents less than 20% of Under Armour’s global revenue, but about 40% of the brand’s direct-to-consumer business.

“I have a real vision for where I want to take the website and app, and we have a lot of work to do,” Linnartz said. “We have a lot of work to do to improve not only the functionality but how we sell our merchandise on the site, too.”

She told Digital Commerce 360 that Under Armour will “double down” on its merchandising efforts “over the next couple years.” That’s one of the main reasons Under Armour hired James Dausch, she said. He joined the brand in July as chief consumer officer.

Dausch previously worked with Linnartz at Marriott International, where he was most recently the chief product officer. Linnartz was president at Marriott International prior to joining Under Armour, and she said Dausch “has the capabilities both on the functionality and on the tech sides.”

“You could have the world’s most functional website, but if what you have on it isn’t beautiful and popular and selling well, and you’re not merchandising it well, it doesn’t matter,” Linnartz told Digital Commerce 360.

4. Technology

“Every company’s a tech company,” Linnartz said. By that, she said, she means that technology should not be seen as separate from the rest of a brand’s operation. She said a chief technology officer “should report directly to the CEO so that tech has a seat at the senior table.”

Among the personnel at the table is Danny Miles, Under Armour’s chief technology officer, who started with the brand in May 2021. Linnartz said she “elevated him” to report directly to her.

“Some of the things we’re doing around automation and robotics in the supply chain are quite interesting from a technology standpoint,” Linnartz said.

She added that Under Armour is rolling out a point-of-sale system across the country that allows consumers to sign up for UA Rewards, the brand’s loyalty program. In the retailer’s 2024 fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023, Under Armour reported that UA Rewards had surpassed 1 million members in its first few months.

Editors note: Be sure to read the first part of our interview with Under Armour CEO Stephanie Linnartz, where she explains how she wants to grow Under Armour’s ecommerce business.

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Challenged procurement pros want automation and AI

Paul Demery — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 15:00:54 +0000

Following a period of cutting costs and supply chain disruption, procurement teams want more help from digital technology — and sooner rather than later.

Companies across various industries plan to increase procurement technology spending next year to improve their efficiency and agility in managing procurement across their global supply chains, Amazon Business says in its 2024 State of Procurement Report, released this week.

The report, featuring data and analysis from an international survey of over 3,000 procurement professionals, notes that 98% of respondents said they were planning investments over the next few years in analytics and insights tools, automation, and artificial intelligence.

“Following a year of focusing on reducing costs, procurement leaders are now planning to use the funds they saved to invest in approaches to optimize their procurement processes and allow them to operate more strategically, with the efficiency and complexity of procurement listed as the top challenge they’re currently facing,” Amazon says.

“We are entering a new era of smart business buying where senior leaders are understanding the impact procurement can have on efficiency and overall company success,” says Alexandre Gagnon, vice president of Amazon Business Worldwide.

Amazon says the report compiled and analyzes insights from 3,108 procurement professionals at organizations involved in government, financial services, hospitality and food service, health care services, manufacturing, medical and pharma, retail, technology, and telecom industries. Survey respondents represented the United States, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.

Aster Angagaw, vice president, head of public, commercial and strategic sector, Amazon Business

Aster Angagaw, Amazon Business vice president and head of the public, commercial and strategic sector, says procurement professionals are zeroing in on several critical areas, including speed in procuring products and agility in dealing with sudden needs to find new products, sources and shipping routes.

She notes that many companies have a procurement processing system set a certain way and following a particular process. When unexpected changes occur, she adds, “your ability to respond quickly and flexibly becomes really challenging.”

But she asserts that with business analytics and other AI-powered technology applications, procurement pros can more quickly identify product sources and manage expedited deliveries.

“This whole idea of smart business buying is being able to use the digital automation, digital transformation, AI and machine learning to create this opportunity for efficiency, flexibility and agility,” Angagaw says.

She adds that AI and other new technology applications can help procurement managers fulfill corporate goals of procuring products from a diverse group of suppliers known for following sustainable, environmentally friendly, and good governance practices.

But the study found that while 81% of respondents said their companies have mandates for purchasing from certified sellers, including, sustainable, local, or minority-owned businesses, 85% said they needed help finding such suppliers.

The study noted the following percentages of respondents using technology applications:

62% – Procurement analytics or reporting tools.
54% – Automation of manual procurement processes.
51% – Digital or online invoices.
47% – AI-driven optimization of purchasing decisions.
41% – Voice technology.

The study also noted the following percentages of respondents identifying their top areas for investment:

36% – Technology or tools to be more efficient.
35% – Mitigating procurement risks amid economic or geopolitical challenges.
33% – Setting or meeting goals for ESG of buying from certain types of suppliers.
30% – Decentralizing purchasing so buyers can purchase more easily for their teams.
29% – Integrating more closely with other parts of an organization.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Manufacturers make AI the heart of digital transformation

Jim Daly — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 22:00:14 +0000

A rapid rise in the adoption of artificial intelligence by manufacturing companies coincides with a growing trend of re-shoring some operations that U.S. manufacturers had sent overseas, according to new survey results from B2B marketplace provider Xometry Inc.

Xometry’s fourth-quarter American Manufacturing Resilience survey, which polled more than 150 chief executive officers of manufacturing firms of all sizes, found that 76% of respondents had successfully re-shored some or all their operations or were in the process of doing so. That figure is well above the 48% of CEO respondents who said they were re-shoring in the third quarter, and 35% in the second quarter.

The latest survey found that 83% of manufacturing leaders say the health of American manufacturing depends on re-shoring, and that AI and re-shoring go “hand-in-hand,” Xometry CEO Randy Altschuler said in a statement.

Reconsidering supply chains

Although American labor costs more than labor in Asia or Mexico, manufacturers are coming to believe that more localized supply chains are less prone to disruptions than far-flung ones. Bill Cronin, chief revenue officer at North Bethesda, Md.-based Xometry, tells Digital Commerce 360 that the “post-COVID CEO” is overly concerned about potential supply chain disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and the geopolitical risks of global sourcing. Examples of geopolitical risk sources abound, especially recent U.S.-China tensions and now the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

“Companies are looking at those different options — ‘how can I get this done in the U.S.,’ ‘how can I get this done in North America?’” Cronin says.

With AI, manufacturers can get better reads on their supply risks and options, according to Cronin.

“They are now trained and better prepared,” he says. “It helps them to be more efficient in how they’re prepared to manage any disruption that comes up.”

Some 76% of respondents said they use AI for supply-chain management, more than for any other business function. Next were procurement, cited by 71% of the CEOs; quality control, 47%, and automation, 37%.

“These are areas that are ripe for innovation,” Cronin says. “It’s also about the ability to modernize.” He adds: “it’s amazing what they [manufacturing executives] are able to look at.”

The survey was done by research firm John Zogby Strategies and cobranded by Xometry and the business publication Forbes.

Other uses for AI

In other findings, AI is driving positive responses. Among CEOs who reported they had deployed AI, 67% said they had received a “significant” return on their investments. Some 31% said they expected it will take time to see a strong return but were confident they will. The survey did not ask how much each company had spent on AI technology.

Xometry uses AI to give prospective buyers instant price quotes on its B2B marketplace. As of Sept. 30, Xometry’s marketplace had 52,467 active buyers, up 43% from a year earlier, and 7,415 active paying suppliers, down 2%. The company has developed its AI systems in-house, but on Nov. 9, Xometry announced it will deploy Vertex AI technology from Google’s Google Cloud unit to accelerate further development of its auto-quote methods and models. The goal is to eliminate the time-consuming back-and-forth exchange of pictures, price lists, and paper-based documentation as buyers and sellers negotiate prospective sales, including those involving custom manufacturers.

“For us, it is driving greater efficiency in custom manufacturing and the industrial marketplace,” says Cronin.

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Amazon’s software-as-a-service strategy set to drive new growth

Abbas Haleem — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:10:06 +0000

“This is the story arc of AWS’ success,” said Brendan Witcher, vice president and principal analyst at research firm Forrester. He was referring to Amazon Web Services and how it contributes to the merchant’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) strategy, which has led to new growth opportunities for the region’s top ecommerce retailer.

It’s No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database, which ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV.

“We already have made these investments, technologies,” Witcher said, speaking from Amazon’s perspective. “How do we create incremental revenue by applying those sunk costs to new opportunities for others to take advantage of those costs where we can benefit in a financial way? This has been part of Amazon’s strategy for quite a while.”

Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, spoke about different SaaS initiatives on a recent earnings call with investors for its fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023.

Amazon’s fastest-growing sectors are ads and seller services, said James Risley, research data manager and senior analyst at Digital Commerce 360.

It shows that “while Amazon’s online stores are still growing well, its third-party sellers are the real growth leaders for the company,” Risley said. “Online stores only grew 2.0% in the first half of the year, though, and grew 7.0% in Q3, so the momentum is strong for first-party sales as Amazon potentially shifts its focus ahead of government pressure and a more savvy consumer who prefers direct relationships with sellers.”

Supply Chain by Amazon changes the fulfillment game

Two key Amazon software-as-a-service programs Jassy addressed were Supply Chain by Amazon and a growing generative AI initiative. New Amazon generative AI technology gives merchants the ability to create web pages and product imagery “with nearly endless flexibility,” calling it, along with Supply Chain by Amazon and AWS “the democratization of technology.”

Jassy said the company has seen “very positive early response from sellers to Supply Chain by Amazon.”

Supply Chain by Amazon is a fully automated set of services in which the mass merchant handles:

Inventory pickup
Shipping
Customs clearance
Ground transportation
Inventory storage
Replenishment

Amazon has been making “huge investments” in supply chain for more than a decade, Witcher said. The idea was that Amazon would eventually reach scale and those investments would pay off, he added.

“I think you’re starting to see that now, particularly because they’re starting to outsource delivery as a service,” Witcher said.

Amazon already has the infrastructure in place, so these are sunk costs, he said.

Amazon software as a service (SaaS) can change the game for third-party sellers

“Generative AI developments should be given more weight than Amazon let on,” Witcher said. “Using this innovative technology really gives Amazon the operational efficiencies in inventory planning and route planning that they need to realize the ROI of all these investments they made in supply chain.”

Witcher said AWS was the proof of concept that Amazon can create incremental revenue from its existing services and offerings. He said Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) “clearly” works for a lot of sellers.

“Now, Amazon’s removing the pain points of being a small-business seller,” Witcher said. “Nobody gets into the retail business saying, ‘I can’t wait to build web pages’ or do photoshoots. That’s not why they get into selling products. They want to sell products. Amazon understands this, and so they’re using this in a way to make it easier for third-party sellers to have that Amazon relationship and make more reasons to say why they should have the Amazon relationship. I think that’s really what this comes right down to.”

Generative AI technology and the Amazon ecosystem

Witcher said Amazon understands that mom-and-pop shops and small companies don’t necessarily have the time or skill set to generate web pages and product imagery.

“The ability to use generative AI just helps those sellers,” Witcher said. “There’s a compounding effect to this, which is: The easier it is for me to build websites, the easier it is for me to upload product pages. Then, it’s easier for me to sell on Amazon. Well, if I’m already selling on Amazon, then it’s easier for me to give Amazon my supply chain, pay for them to do my supply chain, pay for them to have Amazon Pay on my website. It just bakes you deeper into the ecosystem of Amazon as you start to find value in the things Amazon offers.”

He added that this is “certainly a differentiator” for Amazon compared with other marketplaces. However, he said, he expects other retailers to follow suit.

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MyTradeZone.com launches for B2B networking and lead generation

Paul Demery — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 21:46:58 +0000

Bachir Kassir has spent over 20 years in the ecommerce technology industry, having founded the WebJaguar ecommerce platform before selling it to manufacturing and supply chain technology vendor QAD Inc. in late 2021. Now, Kassir’s out with MyTradeZone.com, which he founded and describes as a B2B-dedicated social network stocked with business tools for developing revenue-generating business relationships with trading partners.

Bachir Kassir, founder, MyTradeZone.com

“We know that 40% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on trade shows and that over 95% of marketers use social media content in their campaigns,” he says in his promotional material, adding: “So why is there no social network specifically dedicated to B2B trade?”

That’s where MyTradeZone fills the gap in B2B commerce, he adds.

“On MyTradeZone, each business can both market its products/services and source what it needs, all within the same platform,” he says.

Kassir notes that he founded and launched the site quietly several years ago, building a base of about 50,000 users through word-of-mouth.

A toolset with CRM and email marketing

But he recently publicized MyTradeZone’s official launch in a press release and is considering taking on investment partners to spur growth. He adds that he expects the site to begin generating revenue in the first quarter of next year.

MyTradeZone.com provides built-in features ranging from site search, product listings, and online video chats to email marketing and CRM software applications to help buyers and sellers find and build business relationships with particular types of trading partners.

It offers limited access to these features at no charge under its basic membership plan. Premium plans will provide the same features and higher site search rankings for monthly fees from $20 to $50 based on the volume of activity.

In addition, the top premium plan will let participants earn fees from online ads placed on the social network site. MyTradeZone will take a cut of those ad fees.

MyTradeZone.com does not operate as a conventional ecommerce marketplace hosting product and services sales transactions among participating buyers and sellers, who complete those transactions outside the networking site. But it will let users monetize business communities, such as by setting up industry organizations and charging membership fees through the Stripe online payments system. In that case, MyTradeZone will charge a fee based on a percentage of the membership fees.

Kassir says MyTradeZone has been gaining about 100 members daily — a figure he wants to grow to about 1,000.

To get there, he says he’ll continue to invest in “lots of business tools” available to members and offer premium membership deals to trade shows, business networking groups and trade associations. He adds that while he has mostly self-funded MyTradeZone, he may consider outside investors.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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SAP banks on GenAI for spend management and supplier sourcing

Paul Demery — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 21:05:56 +0000

SAP SE is taking a significant step into generative AI to help companies get more value from managing spending and supply chains.

The move is timely. It puts the global software company into a broad market push to help businesses facing supply chain challenges capitalize on AI advantages in procurement and supply chain activities. SAP provides widely used business operations software.

“GenAI is being embraced and adopted at a rapid scale, including in procurement,” says Jeffrey Rajamani, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. He covers procurement and sourcing technology and strategy. “It’s good to see that SAP has joined the bandwagon in bringing GenAI innovations in spend management. Sourcing and procurement functions in organizations are being disrupted, as the C-suite is tasking them with more strategic imperatives.”

SAP announced at its Connect Live event in Vienna, Austria, this week that it will soon make available procurement software applications embedded with GenAI to help procurement professionals.

The new SAP GenAI applications will help to:

More quickly build comprehensive product categories through SAP Ariba Category Management.
Improve spend management to identify cost-saving opportunities and more efficient purchasing practices through the SAP Spend Control Tower application.
Expedite how they assess the risk of dealing with new suppliers through SAP Ariba Sourcing, SAP Ariba Contracts and SAP Ariba Buying software as AI helps to uncover suppliers’ reputations related to product quality and delivery service.
More quickly identify new suppliers that meet their purchasing requirements related to product specifications and other criteria through SAP Ariba Sourcing. SAP recently integrated Ariba Sourcing with Scoutbee Discovery, an AI-powered supplier search application.

Christian Klein, CEO, SAP SE

Last month, SAP announced its release of Joule, a natural-language, generative AI tool it describes as a GenAI copilot. SAP will embed it into its applications for:

Supply chains
Procurement
Customer experience
Human resources
Finance

SAP says Joule is designed for “quickly sorting through and contextualizing data from multiple systems to surface smarter insights.”

Joule has almost 300 million enterprise users around the world working regularly with cloud solutions from SAP, says SAP CEO Christian Klein.

And it “has the power to redefine the way businesses — and the people who power them — work,” Klein says.

SAP has room to grow with AI applications

When it launched Joule, SAP noted how a company might use it to check the cause of a sales decline.

“Imagine, for example, a manufacturer asking Joule for help understanding sales performance better. Joule can identify underperforming regions, link to other data sets to reveal a supply chain issue, and automatically connect to the supply chain system to offer potential fixes for the manufacturer’s review.”

Rajamani says SAP is off to a good start with AI-powered send management, which Forrester refers to as “supplier value management” or SVM. But he suggests it has room to grow with AI.

“While SAP seems to have addressed the supplier discovery, spend analytics, risk management and expense management parts of SVM, there are other areas where I think the demand for AI/GenAI has exploded exponentially: contract life cycle management and procure-to-pay,” he says. “It would be good for SAP to think through these important components, too, such as a GenAI bot to negotiate contracts.” (Procure-to-pay software manages and records commerce activity from the point a buyer begins the procurement process through payment.)

SAP conducted its Connect Live event Oct. 9 to 11. It did not immediately return a request for additional comments about its AI plans.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits names a VP of omnichannel

Paul Demery — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 17:22:30 +0000

Family-owned Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is out to gain market share by enhancing its collaboration with buyers and trading partners through digital and offline channels.

It took a significant step in that direction yesterday in announcing several appointments to key positions including vice presidents in ecommerce and omnichannel development, customer and supplier relations, and national retail sales.

“These teams continue to evolve under the National Accounts umbrella, enabling Southern Glazer’s to remain the strategic thought partner to grow these categories and gain market share,” Southern Glazer’s said in statement.

Southern Glazer omnichannel development

Robyne Eldridge, vice president, omnichannel development, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

Robyne Eldridge is the new vice president for omnichannel development. In addition, she will continue to lead digital B2C operations, development of ecommerce business priorities, and supplier integration.

Included among her duties is leading “B2C deliverables for digital-first eCommerce Business Priorities development,” the company says, adding: “The B2C Omnichannel team creates targeted goals to grow ecommerce sales and share for our suppliers. Digital allows us to support suppliers’ brick-and-mortar program priorities and also amplify support with digital-only opportunities.”

“Robyne oversees a team of B2C omnichannel ecommerce sales directors that work closely with our national accounts teams to find ways to grow sales and share for our suppliers at our most ecommerce enabled national accounts,” a spokeswoman says. “Robyne also oversees a new digital Center of Excellence to provide digital insights in this fast-evolving space and also support the integration of omnichannel capabilities throughout the 100+ person national accounts organization.”

Eldridge joined Southern Glazer’s in December 2019 and most recently served as vice president, B2C ecommerce for national and regional accounts.

Eldridge will report to Chris Williams, executive vice president of national accounts.

Reporting to Eldridge will be:

Sam Raia, senior director, omnichannel development;
DarShanna Smith, senior director, Amazon sales;
Sarah Twitchell, director, liquor channel;
Brennan Duke, director, mass market, club and drug channels;
Jennifer Bailein, director, grocery sales.

Customer and trade development

Ryan Saas has been promoted to vice president of customer and trade development for national retail sales and on-premise sales. In his new role, he will drive supplier relations and manage Southern Glazer’s NRS business with support from customer development category experts. Saas will report to Williams.

National retail sales

JR Allen has been promoted to vice president, NRS Commercial Operations. He will work on demand forecasting, inventory and execution.

Nicolle Nottingham has been appointed senior director of GoBrands. She will work on strengthening and fostering national strategy with national retail sales suppliers.

Allen and Nottingham will report to Scott Moore, senior vice president of national accounts off-premise.

Center of Excellence

Adam Byrne has been appointed vice president, customer planning and development for Southern Glazer’s Center of Excellence. His duties will include focusing on the COE’s Elevate program, which recommends branded merchandise to customers. He will report to Williams.

In July, Southern Glazer’s hired ecommerce veteran Alan Wizemann as its chief digital officer. In prior roles, he worked in digital operations for Munchkin Inc., Target.com and Lululemon Athletic.

Southern Glazer’s racked up $3 billion in digital sales last year on its B2B ecommerce platform SGProof.com.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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4 vital digital skills for integrating MRO supply chains

Emily Newton — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 13:00:03 +0000

Emily Newton

Integrating a supply chain with a maintenance, repair and operations program requires dedicated effort and critical skills. People who excel in this role must have strong digital capabilities and be open to using various technologies — including emerging ones.

Here are four top skills that will set people in this industry apart from their peers and ensure success in their careers.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has rapidly emerged as a notable technology, particularly as people grapple with item shortages and demand fluctuations. However, anyone who currently works with MRO-integrated supply chains or plans to soon should get some AI skills under their belt and progressively work to improve their competencies.

Predictive algorithms help professionals know which supplies to order and when, greatly reducing the chances of stockouts. Executives are also realizing AI is essential to their operations, which suggests they should see it as an in-demand skill when hiring new team members.

A 2023 poll of C-suite members found that 90% were using AI to achieve better operational resilience. Additionally, 88% depended on it for supply chain enhancements. The potential uses span from interacting with a chatbot to place an order to getting predictions from algorithms about when specific products will sell out or start to run low.

2. Data Analytics

Data analytics skills are also proving essential. Professionals in these roles use them to evaluate the sensor data associated with a piece of equipment or estimate when the current stock of a vital component will be depleted. Knowing how to use data analytics platforms is increasingly important as the number of products moving through supply chains rises.

For example, during a single year, the supply chain for technology brand Lenovo included 2,000 suppliers working to deliver more than 130 million devices. An MRO-integrated supply chain specialist might use a data analytics tool to determine the most reliable suppliers according to their performance across several key performance indicators.

Even if someone doesn’t have strong data analytics skills, they can set a goal to gradually improve in that area. Besides making them more of an asset to their employers, this plan could increase job satisfaction by providing a well-defined career path and growth opportunities. Notably, a 2023 survey found that 84% of employees said clear career paths strengthened their commitments to employers.

3. Cloud Computing

Many leading industrial apps run in the cloud. Authorized users can access them from anywhere, making it easy to check statistics, communicate with stakeholders and more. People also use the cloud to store paperwork or streamline its distribution, such as to approve repairs on specific pieces of equipment or keep track of when maintenance occurred.

Another handy thing about cloud computing platforms is they support remote working arrangements. Even if someone doesn’t work from home all the time, it’s increasingly likely they will eventually. One 2023 survey of Americans found they spend 27% of their workdays at home on average.

Cloud computing tools have some similarities, but people must also learn to work with brand-specific features. It’s helpful for those working with MRO-integrated supply chains to dedicate themselves to learning the ins and outs of cloud software. That might mean using built-in help guides or signing up for provider-offered online courses.

People who grow their skills might spend time mentoring peers or encouraging colleagues to embrace the organizational changes that cloud computing products often bring. This enables employees to become crucial parties that show others how these apps can improve their workflows.

4. Project Management

A continuing commitment to digital skill growth will also put MRO supply chain professionals ahead of their peers. Roles increasingly include time spent with various internet-connected tools and platforms, and many suppliers and distributors prefer digital-only transactions.

Digital project management tools simplify tracking what responsibilities people must handle and when. They also enable smoother communication between various stakeholders, allowing people to comment, upload images or documents, and assign subtasks to other parties.

Once people improve their cloud computing skills, they’ll likely find significant similarities associated with using project management tools. That’s because most of them work in the cloud to make it easier for people to get things done in on- and off-site locations.

Commit to Ongoing Growth

These four skills are among the most necessary in today’s fast-paced and digital-centric world. Anyone involved with MRO-integrated supply chains should stay aware of emerging technologies that could become more prominent in their industry.

Some companies are experimenting with augmented reality to support workflows and improve training. Others use mobile robots to carry supplies around distribution centers and other large facilities. People should pay attention to what’s new in their companies and the industry and be ready to capitalize on new learning opportunities. That will help them prepare for whatever’s ahead while setting good examples for others, bringing their company to the forefront.

About the author

Emily Newton is an industrial writer reporting on how technology disrupts industrial sectors. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Revolutionized, covering innovations in industry, construction, and more.

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