According to the recent Aberdeen Mission-Critical Merchandising and Replenishment: Increasing Customer Traffic, Volume, and Profits report, the top two pressures affecting merchandising were the need to maximize gross margin and the need to maximize inventory turns. By Kevin Permenter, Aberdeen Group

Ohio Mulch is a landscape supply wholesaler and retailer with 21 locations across Ohio and Kentucky and 5 websites that combine to generate $40M in sales. By Bob Johns, Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

Suffering a lack of academic integrity keeps LP personnel from becoming LP professionals. By Gene Smith, Loss Prevention Foundation

Much of retailers’ losses are due to internal theft or employee procedural error. That’s a significant portion of overall inventory shrink. According to the industry average, loss due to employee theft accounts for 40% to 45% of retail loss. Procedural errors, or operational shrink, can add 8% to 10% according to national studies. By Erin Harris, Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

The Federal Trade Commission hosted a workshop on mobile payments earlier this quarter. It came on the heels of a March House Financial Services Committee hearing on the topic, which has also garnered the attention of the Senate Banking Committee and Congressional Internet Caucus, each of which recently held briefings on the expected groundswell of mobile payment applications and adoption. By Matt Pillar, Editor In Chief, Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

How would you pilot an automobile at a proper speed if it did not have a speedometer? You could drive along, stopwatch in hand, timing yourself between telephone poles or city blocks of known distance, then calculate velocity using the formula: distance-overtime. By Peter Charness, Manthan Systems Americas

The Apple Store proved long ago the implicit value and practicality of mobilizing the customer experience. And, even though mobility has been part of inventory management for over a decade for most grocery retailers, it’s only in recent years that retailers of all shapes and sizes have started to open their eyes to the benefit of a mobile strategy. By Adrian Schauer, Vortex Connect

Loss prevention is a big issue for any retailer, but when you are Australia’s largest retailer, it can really affect the bottom line. With over 188,000 team members, revenue of over A$54B, and several thousand locations across brands, this is the case for Woolworths. By Bob Johns, Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

Ensure your outsourced call center speaks your brand. By Wendy Shooster, Global Response

In today’s global economy, getting data quickly and cost-effectively is the name of the game. Most trading partners, suppliers, and service providers are willing to provide sought-after data when needed, but are they using the right avenues to deliver? And then, once we get the data, what do we do with it? It’s an interesting paradigm when a retailer is trying to improve supplier collaboration, yet still using disparate systems to collect it. By Bill Ren, Arigo