B2C (Business-To-Consumer) mobile marketing for Canadian apparel retailers

The mobile device industry has changed dramatically over the last 10 years. The world is swiftly adopting mobile devices, and Apple and Google have become major players in an industry that now encompasses a burgeoning mobile-fashion marketing business. This research project sought to help apparel retailers understand more about apparel consumers’ usage of mobile devices and perceptions of mobile marketing strategies, and to shed light on better business practices. The study used a quantitative research method, along with cross-sectional, descriptive, and non-probabilistic sampling techniques. An online questionnaire survey was designed to collect data with a sample of 390 mobile device users in the Greater Toronto Area. SPSS was used for coding and analyzing the information.

B2C (Business-To-Consumer) mobile marketing for Canadian apparel retailers

The mobile device industry has changed dramatically over the last 10 years. The world is swiftly adopting mobile devices, and Apple and Google have become major players in an industry that now encompasses a burgeoning mobile-fashion marketing business. This research project sought to help apparel retailers understand more about apparel consumers’ usage of mobile devices and perceptions of mobile marketing strategies, and to shed light on better business practices. The study used a quantitative research method, along with cross-sectional, descriptive, and non-probabilistic sampling techniques. An online questionnaire survey was designed to collect data with a sample of 390 mobile device users in the Greater Toronto Area. SPSS was used for coding and analyzing the information.

Xinjiang issues place US firms in a difficult position

Significance Many are facing a combination of ethical and commercial dilemmas as China uses the commercial power of its domestic consumers to silence critics. Those targeted so far, mostly apparel retailers, have expressed concern about reports of forced labour by minority Uighurs in Xinjiang, where 20% of the world's cotton is produced. Impacts Upstream supply chain visibility in Xinjiang will remain opaque, even if downstream operations are sourced elsewhere. The WTO may take up the issue as its new director-general is keen to re-establish the agency's credibility. The EU's attempt to use its investment agreement with China to impose labour standards will be exposed as ineffectual. Viscose, of which Xinjiang produces 10-18% of global supply, may follow cotton as a 'forced labour' issue for apparel companies.

An integrated framework for supplier selection and performance evaluation for apparel retail industry

Supplier evaluation, including supplier selection and performance evaluation, has become a critical issue for apparel retailers within the apparel supply chain dealing with severe competition in the global market. An effective evaluation of suppliers requires considering both the quantitative and qualitative performance aspects and integrating the efficiency measurement. In an attempt to address this issue, this study proposes an integrated framework that can handle supplier selection and overall performance evaluation in a comprehensive but feasible manner. The proposed integrated framework customized for apparel retailers combines the current techniques having specific capabilities: data envelopment analysis (DEA), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). DEA has been used to make the overall performance evaluation, whereas AHP and TOPSIS have been used in combination to provide the quantitative data required by DEA. The proposed integrated framework was implemented and verified using numerical data gathered from a global apparel retailer. The findings revealed that suppliers can be more successful when they put a balanced effort into improving their performance in regards to the important criteria instead of concentrating on only the most important criterion. Moreover, the overall performance evaluation can be much more convenient and rewarding for apparel retailers in terms of finding out the true potential of suppliers when quantitative and qualitative data and efficiency measurements are taken into account at the same time.