How Healthy Are Your Plants?
Is your production personnel up to date on the latest disease identification, pest management and plant growth strategies? Does your team have the all of the know-how they need to help produce healthy and profitable plants for your business?
If you and your team are looking for solutions to these types of production challenges (as well as earn pesticide certification credits), then you should register them to attend one of the two Plant Health Management conferences that GPN is offering next month.
For the second year in a row, we are returning to Grand Rapids, Michigan. On Oct. 6., the Doubletree by Hilton at the Grand Rapids Airport will host a full-day of educational sessions from some of our industry’s biggest names like Jim Barrett, Ann Chase, Raymond Cloyd, Ron Valentin and Paul Pilon.
On Oct. 27, the Plant Health Management conference will convene at the Springfield Marriott in Springfield, Massachusetts. Barrett, Cloyd and Pilon will be joined by the University of Florida’s Paul Fisher and and the University of Massachusetts’ Robert Wick to provide a day’s worth of education.
Both events will also feature tabletop exhibits for some the industry’s leading vendors.
For additional information or to register for the Grand Rapids event, please click here.
Additional information on the Springfield event can be found by clicking here.
Wal-Mart Looks to Simplify SKUs
In an effort to unify the myriad of SKUs and related data of the products that Wal-Mart sells, the retailer has implemented a new approach to manage supplier data. Beginning in October, Wal-Mart will no longer accept products that are not optimized to Wal-Mart’s data specifications. By streamlining supplier data, the company hopes to be able to better manage its back-end supply chain attributes and also make things easier for consumers.
Study: Home Depot is #1 in Gift Cards
According to a recently released study from RSR Research, the Home Depot is the top retailer when it comes to “digital gifting experiences.” In the study, “Digital Gift Cards: A Key Indicator of Omni-Channel Alignment,” the Home Depot had the highest score among retailers when it comes to buying and using gift cards. The home improvement retailer had the top scores in such categories as making it easy to find gift cards, providing card personalization options, meeting delivery time expectations and mobile integration,
Consumers Get an Early Jump on Holiday Shopping
Even though September is barely half over, consumers are already getting in the holiday spirit and opening their wallets. A survey done by CreditCards.com, reports that 32 million Americans have already begun their holiday shopping. Overall, about 15 percent of the survey respondents said they are planning to start shopping earlier this year compared to 2014. More than 22 percent of the Millennial respondents plan to move up their holiday shopping schedule this year, while only 9% of the 50+ category plan to start earlier.
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