The days of workers roaming around the warehouse with a scanner gun are over at GNC’s distribution centers. The health and wellness retailer is tapping cutting-edge drone technology from Corvus Robotics to automate and speed up inventory tracking.

Also known as a cycle count, this essential back-end operation is how retailers verify the quality and quantity of the physical goods in their warehouses. In the past, workers did this manually, and the process could be slow, labor intensive, and error prone.

In theory, warehouse management systems (WMS) should provide accurate inventory information based on their record of what has come in and out of the facility, but in reality there is a significant margin of error. According to a report from the Auburn University RFID Lab, the average inventory accuracy rate among US retailers is around 65%, meaning more than a third of their data is incorrect.

The challenge is that cycle counts take time and manpower, and for GNC it was hard to keep up under the old system.

“Our goal was to count it once a quarter,” Bill Monk, VP of distribution at GNC, told Retail Brew. “Some quarters we achieved that. Some quarters we did not.”

Keep reading here.—AV

They say there’s nothing quite like retail therapy, but what happens when online shopping just feels like it’s lost its spark?

Well, more than 3 in 4 consumers say that while e-commerce is “functional,” it’s just not fun anymore, a new study by Criteo found.

While we don’t advocate for impulse purchases, it’s undeniable it has its own thrill that, according to the study, is “fading fast.”

In fact, 61% of those surveyed said that shopping was simply a means of convenience for them, while 29% viewed it as a chore and 36% said they missed the fun of “unexpected finds.”

Keep reading here.—JS

Some Chinese manufacturers on TikTok may have just started using Trump’s tariffs as an excuse to peddle $2 wholesale “Louis Vuitton” bags. But Jhara Valentini has been prepping her luxury clients on how to market during a trade war since last August.

Valentini is the founder and president of Valentini Media Group, an agency whose clients have included Louis Vuitton, the lifestyle brand Goop, and Watches of Switzerland, a seller of brands like Cartier, Rolex, and Patek. Luxury clients bring a wealth of unique consumer behavior data, and their consumers have more drawn-out customer journeys, she told us; high-end brands also often have more variable long-term goals, like engagement and awareness, rather than performance-based KPIs. That is key to how she plans to advise them on navigating the tariffs’ effects, which are levying extra costs on imports from countries central to the luxury sector’s manufacturing and inventory processes.

“Luxury is very atypical,” Valentini said. “I think luxury and heritage and that value perception is going to be the biggest narrative.”

We spoke with Valentini about how tariffs are already affecting luxury brands, and how she’s counseling her clients through a turbulent time.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—JN