The online marketplace Temu, launched in 2022, has become one of the most downloaded apps in North America. The platform is known for ultra-low prices, though the quality and safety of the products it sells are sometimes suspect. “If I understand their business model correctly, they sell products at a loss, and make money from the data they collect,” said Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) Executive Director Charles de Brabant in an interview with Radio-Canada.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Charles de Brabant
Published on: 14 Mar 2024

Lingerie retailer La Vie en Rose operates in 20 countries, but they haven’t expanded to the neighbouring United States – until now. The Montreal-headquartered company is opening three stores in New York state, with an eye cast toward operating nationwide one day. But with a more crowded market for lingerie in the United States, they’re taking a cautious approach.

Classified as: Desautels Faculty of Management, Bensadoun School of Retail Management, retail
Published on: 20 Feb 2024

Generative AI has recently garnered significant attention, yet many individuals possess only a superficial understanding of the technology, as outlined by Professor Maxime Cohen in an open letter published in Le Devoir. Co-authored with Pierre Graff, Marie-Chantal Leduc, and Bertrand Milot, the letter emphasizes the necessity for businesses to enhance their comprehension of what AI can offer and what it cannot.

Classified as: Maxime Cohen, Bensadoun School of Retail Management
Published on: 6 Feb 2024

We live in an age of information, and we’re able to obtain it through many different channels. During disasters, many people turn to social media, and there is an orthodoxy in the field of crisis communications that organizations should speak in a consistent voice across different accounts and platforms. But Changseung Yoo is challenging that notion.

Classified as: Changseung Yoo, Bensadoun School of Retail Management
Published on: 30 Jan 2024

Big businesses are deploying artificial intelligence to streamline their supply chains, cut labour costs, and better understand their customers. For small- and medium-sized enterprises, keeping pace can be a daunting task.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Maxime Cohen
Published on: 30 Jan 2024

The pandemic hit many businesses hard, and the artisanal bakery and café Mamie Clafoutis was one of them. Their seven locations in Montreal and Ottawa were forced to reduce their hours to one shift per day. As they’ve emerged from the storm, they have sought ways to keep their costs low, and one of them is by automating checkout. Working with the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM), Mamie Clafoutis is sensitizing its clientele to the idea of self-checkout by stationing a single employee to oversee the process. But they have ambitions to become even more automated.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management
Published on: 19 Jan 2024

This year, Canada’s large grocery chains are freezing the price for a greater variety of items than usual before the holidays. While 10-15% more products are included in the freeze this year, the true test of affordability will come later. “How high will grocery prices be when the price freeze ends?” asks Professor Saibal Ray in an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, retail, Saibal Ray, Operations Management (T)
Published on: 30 Nov 2023

Among the low-rise industrial buildings that line the northern end of Décarie Boulevard, a major new shopping centre is taking shape. The $7-billion Royalmount luxury retail and lifestyle centre is slated to open in summer 2024, after numerous construction delays.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Charles de Brabant, retail
Published on: 13 Nov 2023

This Fall, McGill University awarded new Sustainable Workplace Certifications to nine units. Among them, two McGill Desautels units earned the silver-level distinction: The Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) and IT Customer Services Team.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Desautels Faculty of Management
Published on: 10 Nov 2023

Food prices rose by 5.8 per cent in September, prompting the federal government to ask Canada’s five largest grocery chains to provide a plan for how they will stabilize prices, with staple products a likely focus. “High transportation costs, inventory issues and other pressures driving up costs are subsiding,” says Professor Saibal Ray, who specializes in Operations Management. Ray, commenting to Financial Post and Toronto Star, suspects the grocers’ promises to Ottawa will involve price cuts.

Classified as: Saibal Ray, Operations Management (T), Bensadoun School of Retail Management
Published on: 10 Nov 2023

Amazon Go, convenience stores that eliminate the check-out process, are coming to Canada. Customers can use a debit card, credit card or payment-enabled phone to enter, select and buy items, and simply walk out of the store. Amazon introduced the cashierless stores in the U.S. in 2018 and is now opening locations in Calgary and Toronto. "The growth in this sector is remarkable, with a significant amount of investment pouring in," says Professor Maxime Cohen in interview with CBC.

Classified as: Desautels Faculty of Management, Maxime Cohen, Bensadoun School of Retail Management
Published on: 20 Oct 2023

The way that we shop is changing, and for small- and medium-sized enterprises, it can be challenging to keep up with the pace of innovation. But the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) is helping them do it. Since spring 2023, it has been hosting regional networking events that meet Quebec businesspeople where they live and work. Regional roadshows aim to help SMEs become omni-channel retailers, and consist of workshops that showcase the innovative research happening at BSRM.

Classified as: Desautels Faculty of Management, retail, Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Charles de Brabant
Published on: 10 Oct 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) will give productivity a major boost in the retail sector, according Maxime Cohen, Professor of Retail and Operations Management at McGill Desautels, home to the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM)’s retail innovation lab.

Classified as: Maxime Cohen, Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Desautels Faculty of Management
Published on: 3 Oct 2023

The Bensadoun School of Retail Management, in collaboration with the Master of Management in Analytics (MMA) at McGill Desautels Faculty of Management, is pleased to announce the launch of the Data Sphere Lab.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Shoeb Hosain, Saibal Ray, Master of Management in Analytics (MMA)
Published on: 5 Sep 2023

Technologies like artificial intelligence are changing the way we shop. But change can be intimidating, and people can be reluctant to adopt it. The Bensadoun School of Retail Management’s Retail Innovation Lab provides such an example. At the highly automated Couche-Tard location on McGill campus, cameras in the store allow customers to make frictionless purchases that don’t require bar codes to be scanned. Still, many people don’t want to use them.

Classified as: Bensadoun School of Retail Management, Charles de Brabant
Published on: 22 Aug 2023

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