Between historically high levels of demand and ongoing supply shortages, holiday shoppers will have to get creative with their gift-giving this year, says Charles de Brabant, Executive Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management. As delayed shipments and back orders become the new normal, consumers may have to wait until February or March 200 for heavily discounted wish list items to finally hit the shelves.

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.

Sequoia Capital recently valued the luxury fashion e-commerce platform, Ssense, at $4.1 billion. Charles de Brabant, Executive Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management, attributes the company’s success to its ability to appeal to its Gen Z and millennial target audience. This decision is a marked contrast to many other luxury retailers who try to satisfy too many consumer groups, he says.

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.

With a simple app download, customers can shop in-person at several Couche-Tard stores in Arizona without even taking out their credit card. And, with new contactless technology, stores can track which items consumers remove from the shelves in real time. Couche-Tard continues to work closely with the Retail Innovation Lab at McGill to study this technology’s impact on consumer behavior and retail profits, with the hope of expanding the system to additional stores across the country.

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. The move would significantly decrease the number of cars in factories and on the road.

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. In a new episode of the podcast "In Machines We Trust,” produced by MIT Technology Review, Professor Maxime Cohen recommends clearer regulations for data collection to better protect the privacy and fair pricing experience of consumers.