This holiday season is make-or-break for retailers
In light of ongoing supply chain bottlenecks and labour shortages, businesses may not offer their deepest discounts this holiday season. According to Professor Saibal Ray, the Academic Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management, 2021 sales will signal whether many retailers can stay afloat despite production delays.
Shedding light on the supply chain dilemma
As retailers anticipate a welcome uptick in sales amid the holiday shopping season, manufacturing and delivery delays continue to limit just how much profit retailers can expect.
IKEA Canada's Michael Ward shares vision of a retail future with MMR cohort
In a recent Master of Management in Retailing Retail Leaders Talk event, guest speaker Michael Ward, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer of IKEA Canada, shared his insights on business from a digital and global perspective. Following the discussion, students had the chance to ask questions, allowing them to engage with the material further and gain a deeper understanding.
Black Friday: Forever changed by COVID-19 and digitization?
With online shopping more convenient than ever, Anwar White, Program Director of the Master of Management in Retailing, discusses how retailers have adapted their strategy around Black Friday to drive innovation, offering lessons for future leaders in retail.
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Retail Innovation Lab inaugurated by Quebec Minister of the Economy
The Retail Innovation Lab at McGill University in partnership with Alimentation Couche-Tard has been officially inaugurated by Lucie Lecours, Quebec’s Minister of the Economy. As the first of its kind in the world dedicated to on-the-ground simulation research for retail technology, the lab represents monumental progress and future growth for the Bensadoun School of Retail Management and its industry collaborators.
Slowing the vehicle supply chain
In the race to cut down on global carbon emissions, many experts are turning their attention to automotive manufacturers and their customers. As a potential solution to slowing the vehicle supply chain, Professor Saibal Ray, Academic Director at the Bensadoun School of Retail Management, suggests a collective pivot toward car rentals or other ride-share services in place of purchasing personal vehicles.
Retailers can ease customer anxiety after the pandemic changed grocery shopping
COVID-19 caused massive shifts in the way we do even the most mundane of things. Take grocery shopping, for example. This past October, Dr. Yu Ma, Associate Professor of Marketing and Academic Director of the Master of Management in Retailing (MMR), spoke at Grocery Innovations Canada.
Finding solutions for fair, online pricing
With e-commerce here to stay, dynamic pricing algorithms are adjusting what individual consumers pay for their items online using a complex system of price comparisons and purchase histories.
Alimentation Couche-Tard expands frictionless retail experience
Through its partnership with the retail innovation lab, Alimentation Couche-Tard is working steadily to develop frictionless shopping solutions using AI tracking and smartphone technology.
Now, the company is expanding its efforts to pioneer a new customer experience as Circle K, one of its daughter brands, rolls out a fully frictionless option in several Arizona stores.
Explore a McGill Desautels graduate business degree
Whether you are looking to begin an MBA or delve deeper into the world of finance, retail or analytics, when considering a graduate degree there are four main things to look at: what you learn, who you learn it from, who you learn it with, and who else has learned it. In other words, the curriculum, the faculty, your classmates, and the alumni.
Welcoming inaugural cohort of MMR program
On September 1, 2021, the first ever cohort in the Master of Management in Retailing (MMR) commenced with 31 students in total. Hailing from eight nations across the world and with eight languages spoken among them, this cohort features a diverse set of academic backgrounds. Our inaugural class holds degrees in economics, finance, business, engineering, marketing and communications, and retail management, from universities around the globe.
Raising the bar for real-world learning in analytics and retail
KPI Digital entrepreneur Benny Cohen (BCom’82) shares business acumen and scholarship support with students in McGill’s Master of Management in Analytics (MMA) and Master of Management in Retail (MMR) programs.
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Where technology meets retail
According to Charles de Brabant, Executive Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management, investing in smart technologies may help retailers profit in the long-term despite a steep upfront cost. In a pandemic world, frictionless alternatives to face-to-face interactions prioritize consumer safety, which could lead to increased brand loyalty and in-person browsing.
Weekend hope for retail
The labour shortage created by the pandemic forced many large retailers to decrease their hours of operation, leading to significant revenue losses, particularly over weekends. As the academic year progresses, Charles de Brabant, Executive Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management, predicts more students will be willing to work weekends if it means regaining some semblance of normal, pre-pandemic life.
McGill’s Retail Innovation Lab can help solve labor shortage in Quebec
Eric Bosco, the head of business development and partnerships at MITACS, provides recommendations for solving the current labour shortage in Quebec. He cites the Bensadoun School of Retail Management’s new Retail Innovation Laboratory as an essential partner in encouraging and supporting innovation within local companies.
