Papers and Publications

Retailing is not usually thought of as an extremely innovative sector. It should be remembered, though, that it has assimilated and accelerated the deep and numerous changes that have affected the consumers' habits and ways of life, while adopting new technologies (self checkout machines, electronic labels, interactive stations...). What's more, many original experiments have taken place in the supply chain, as shown by the examples of Walmart, Zara, and Amazon.

With the current economic crisis, it seems reasonable to expect that radical innovations will appear in this field, since major changes and stresses generally prove favorable to new experiments and procedures, as illustrated by the creation of the "Connect & Develop" organization at Procter & Gamble's in the 2000s decade.

This is the issue Didier Tranchier and Thierry Lembert try to look into in the following article of Supply Chain Magazine (35, June 2009).