Black Friday and Cyber Monday break all records again
Friday after Thanksgiving is known to be an eventful day. Black Friday, the opening of the Christmas shopping season reached a new peak with 6.22 billion dollars spent this year. Supposedly unique, indispensable deals tempted consumers to dig deep into their wallets. However, the shopping spree didn’t stop with Black Friday. The following Cyber Monday also provided a plethora of special offers for electrical appliances. According to Adobe Analytics, 7.9 billion dollars were spent on online shopping alone this Monday. A press release by Amazon stated that this Cyber Monday was in fact the most successful shopping day ever for the company.
While online sales have been a great success this year, it is not surprising that traditional brick-and-mortar-retail will have to deal with decline. According to RetailNext, a company which measures the store traffic and other data at about 425 retail brands, the losses on Thanksgiving and Black Friday amounted to 7% in sales. But not only turnover is declining. The number of visitors willing to buy is dropping, although per capita expenses have increased.
The past few days have only mark the start of the upcoming Christmas season, in which retailers are expecting exceptional sales figures.
Further information here and here.
Gartner selects Cleveland Clinic as the leading global healthcare supply chain in 2018
In Gartner’s 10th annual Top-25 ranking of the best healthcare supply chains, Cleveland Clinic took first place. The ranking recognizes healthcare organizations for the successful implementation of the supply chain along numerous challenges. A successful combination of patient and cost orientation as well as the establishment of helpful innovations are decisive key figures.
The Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest hospitals in the USA and has jumped from no. 8 last year to the top spot. This year’s success is fundamentally based on the functioning cooperation of all parties and the optimally integrated patient focus along its supply chain. Supporting modernization measures also enabled innovative optimization in a wide variety of areas. CVS Health (2nd place), the largest retail pharmacy in the USA, and Johnson & Johnson (3rd place), a leading pharmaceutical and consumer goods manufacturer, ranked next.
Click here to read more
General Motors will close seven factories worldwide in 2019
The announcement came unexpectedly. GM announced on Monday that it plans to cut about 15,000 jobs next year and close seven factories worldwide, among those are four locations in the US and one in Canada.
GM CEO Mary Barra justifies the severe measures with “changing market conditions” and a stronger focus on electric and autonomous vehicles. Such a radical change after surprisingly strong 3rd quarter earnings should nevertheless happen at a time when “the company and the economy are strong,” says Barra. The planned downsizing is also related to the fact that GM intends to stop producing some models and produce others in in significantly smaller quantities. The demand is simply too low and as a result the ROI of manufacturing such models is unfavourable..
The scheduled closures caused huge criticism and disappointment not only from the affected employees and managers, but also from US-President Donald Trump. He even threatened GM with the reduction of all subsidies paid so far. The media and political pressure poses major challenges towards GM that will have to be overcome in the future.
You can find out more here
