2021 was an anti-climactic year for Black Friday sales. Global supply chains had been disrupted, inventory was very low, and demand was very high. So, retailers had little incentive to sell items at discounted prices. 2022 has been a little different, said Prof Maxime Cohen in an interview with CTV News. Some supply chain disruptions have been alleviated, and there is excess inventory in certain product categories. This set of circumstances encourages retailers to discount products more aggressively.听听
Black Friday offers cut-rate deals, but low prices can come with a high environmental cost. If shoppers don鈥檛 make choices wisely, their purchases could end up in the landfill.
The Innovating Commerce Serving Communities (ICSC) conference in Toronto aims to create connections and catalyze deals between the innovators, dealmakers and changemakers who are driving retail forward. The Bensadoun School of Retail Management was well represented at this year鈥檚 three-day expo and networking event, which was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Aldo Bensadoun began his career at a chemical company, but that didn鈥檛 align with his values 鈥 or his vision. The entrepreneur launched ALDO in 1972, with a vision of love, respect, and integrity. Fifty years later, the company has more than 3,000 stores around the world.
Authors:听Yuhong He, Saibal Ray and Shuya Yin
Publication:听Production and Operations Management
Volume 31, Issue 6, June 2022, Pages 2681 鈥 2694
Abstract:
Over the next two years, Alimentation Couche-Tard is installing more than 7,000 automated check-outs that use artificial intelligence to recognize the products that customers want to purchase, without having to scan each item individually. There are already more than 500 of these point-of-sale units in place 鈥 including at the Bensadoun School of Retail Management鈥檚 Retail Innovation Lab, where Alimentation Couche-Tard tested the technology. It has been deployed at locations in Arizona, and is being tested in South Carolina and Denmark.
Congratulations to听Changseung Yoo,听Assistant Professor, Bensadoun School of Retail Management with affiliation to Information Systems Area, who听has been awarded the 2022-2023 FRQSC New Academics Grant听(Soutien 脿 la recherche pour la rel猫ve professorale) for his project titled听鈥淪ocial Media Content Creation Strategies and Engagement During Disasters鈥澨(鈥淪trat茅gies de cr茅ation de contenu et de mobilisation pour les m茅dias sociaux pendant les catastrophes鈥).
Health questionnaires are time-consuming 鈥 for doctors and patients alike. 鈥淭he digitalization of all of those questions would allow patients to do lot of work before visiting a physician,鈥 says Maxime Cohen, a Professor of Retail and Operations Management at Desautels and the Chief AI officer for ELNA Medical, Canada鈥檚 largest network of clinics. That would save a lot of time, and could help physicians see more patients, and increase access to health care for more people.
For years, paparazzi have been clicking candid shots of Justin Bieber cradling Tim Hortons coffee cups, but it still came as a surprise to see Biebs Brew become an official menu item at Canada鈥檚 most popular coffee chain. The novelty aspect of this type of collaboration can help drive sales, said Charles de Brabant in a story in The Globe and Mail. Biebs Brew might only be available for a limited time, but some collaborations can last for decades 鈥 like those between athletes and apparel brands.
After naming 看片视频听听earlier this month, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has ranked Montreal as the most desirable Canadian city to be a student, and one of the most sought-after and praised destinations for international students in the world.听
Reducing waste can help lower the environmental impact of any business, and Javad Nasiry believes that policy can help achieve this. The fashion industry is a major source of carbon emissions, and fast fashion retailers have made it worse with low-quality apparel designed to be worn only a few times. The Associate Professor of Operations Management argues that the fashion industry could be made greener by requiring the sustainable disposal of waste and taxing waste to make both manufacturers more waste conscious.
惭肠骋颈濒濒鈥檚 Retail Innovation Lab is a testing ground for new technologies, and an automated check-out system that it is currently using will be deployed in 7000 Couche-Tard and Circle K locations. The computer vision technology uses eight cameras to automatically detect multiple items simultaneously at check-out, and Couche-Tard鈥檚 Vishnu Subramaniam gave TVA Nouvelles a demo of the cutting-edge tech in action 鈥 no scanning required.
At a glance, the Couche-Tard in the Bronfman Building looks much like any other. But it is actually an innovative research facility that uses technology to improve our understanding consumer behaviour. Known as the听Retail Innovation Lab, a partnership between 惭肠骋颈濒濒鈥檚 Bensadoun School of Retail Management and Alimentation Couche-Tard,听it is the first frictionless store in Canada. At the Retail Innovation Lab, computer vision systems recognize grab-and-go items in real time, and payments are processed digitally, so customers can shop quickly.
Artificial Intelligence innovation thrives in an environment where business arenas, fundamental research, and thought leadership overlap. As seen in recent AI initiatives in Montreal, determining the capacities of AI and related data analytics applications is essential to understanding how they will play out in the wider world, whether analyzing healthcare data or implementing predictive analytics in retail.
Dynamic pricing algorithms set the prices we pay online鈥攁nd few rules govern how they work. Even if an algorithm doesn鈥檛 ostensibly consider race at all, research shows that it can be biased and discriminatory on the basis of race, as well as gender, economic level, and other personal information openly gathered from consumers.