E-commerce/Retail

For many years, Black Friday was the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season. However, this year, it began on October 4 with Amazon's massive Deals for Days promotion. With reports of impending product shortages and expected shipping delays, it's no surprise that people are starting to shop earlier and earlier.

The supply chain disruption is shorthand for problems from factory closures to workers who are not working anymore.

BALTIMORE (WJZ)  — Americans are expected to be in the mood to spend this holiday season but this isn’t the year to procrastinate and experts say you may be taking a gamble by waiting for a discount.

A few hundred yards south of the fishing boat docks at the Port of New Bedford in southeastern Massachusetts, workers will soon start offloading gigantic turbine components onto a wide expanse of gravel. Local trawlers and lobster boats will find themselves sharing their waterways with huge vessels hefting cranes and massive hydraulic jacks. And on an approximately 100-square mile patch of open sea that fishermen once traversed with ease, 62 of the world’s largest wind turbines will rise one by one over the ocean waves.

If you thought last year's supply chain woes during the pandemic have been resolved, think again: Analysts and industry experts say suppliers and retailers are already dealing with delayed cargo and skyrocketing freight prices, which will cause headaches during the holiday season.

Forget one-time holiday deals. “We’re seeing a different transformation in the retail market and e-commerce is taking off in ways that are unbelievable,” said Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois. That means you will need to do more research for the best price. “It’s prudent for people to sign up for a variety of retailers online and have emails come because they’ll tell you when their sales are,” Jacobson said. This year mindful gifts that focus on self-care or that can be used at home are topping holiday lists.

One of the biggest challenges for shoppers this holiday season could be getting gifts to their destinations on time. In fact, there's already a lot of nervousness in the retail industry about whether their deliveries can keep up with demand. As we found out, they aren't the only ones who are nervous. Donna Bachmann counts herself as among the nervous ones. She says Federal Express lost five quilts she made last holiday season as gifts.

For many Americans, “Hey, Siri, type a text,” or “Alexa, turn up the volume” have become common phrases as voice assistants and smart speakers have become more popular. Now, artificial intelligence and voice tech experts predict that consumers will be issuing similar commands in retail spaces if doing so helps reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

There was a moment maybe, like, three years ago when fashion was very heavily intrigued by drones. The verb used here is intentional: I wouldn't go so far as to say "obsessed with," because one runway show with drone "models" — whirling slabs of machinery clutching bags in their robot talons — does not an infatuation make. But the intrigue was abundant: Many a think piece declared drones to be "the future" of fashion and retail, referencing megaliths like Alphabet and Amazon that were — are — actively testing drone deliveries, like it's already 2045 and we have both flying cars and a woman president.

Drones are a welcome delivery approach for today's consumers but there are challenges both on the regulatory and the geographic fronts, according to a study in INFORMS journal Transportation Science.