How Predictive Commerce Helped Costa Express Cope With Growth | SupplyChainBrain

How Predictive Commerce Helped Costa Express Cope With Growth

Pat Smith, General Manager, ToolsGroup

June 27, 2014

"Predictive commerce" is a new concept that links customer demand data, planning and the execution of transportation. Pat Smith, general manager of ToolsGroup, tells how it was implemented at Costa Express, the U.K.'s fastest-growing coffee shop chain. [Run Time (Min.): 12:03]

Related Content

Related Videos

Featured Product

Photo: iStock/Anastasiia Yanishevska

How a Leading U.S. Floral Distribution Company Reduced Warehouse Labor Costs by 45% with RFID

Recycled Tagging Fasteners: Small Changes Make a Big Impact

Mobile geolocation service for track delivery, cargo shipment and freight transportation. Logistic Import Export business (Elements of this image furnished by NASA)

Enhancing High-Value Electronics Shipment Security with Tive's Real-Time Tracking

Franchise business e-commerce online e-marketplace or digital marketing branch expansion for growth or use technology to analyze product consumer data website management plan for sale service concept.

Moving Robots Site-to-Site

Five Industry Shifts Transportation Leaders Can't Ignore

With transportation and logistics operations focused on delivering products and services to specific locations, parts of the industry will always be physical in nature. But what’s now disrupting the sector more than anything are digital forces, from AI-driven automation to increasingly volatile global trade networks.

Scb Q326 Aptean Top5 Thumb

Watch: Introducing Reveel IQ for Shipping and Parcel Spend Management

Michael Falls, chief customer officer of Reveel, introduces the company’s AI-driven tool for shipping and parcel spend management, to debut at Parcel Forum ’26 in Orlando, Florida on September 14-16.

Scb Introducing Reveel Iq For Shipping And Parcel Spend Management

Preparing for Peak Season: What to Ask an Expedite Provider Before You Need One

None of these questions is hard to ask. They’re only hard to ask in November, with a line down and a dispatcher on hold.

Delivery Truck Generic I Stock Suprun 175490807

Cargo Thieves Steal 800 Barrels of Guinness in U.K.

Thieves drove two trucks into a distribution center and hitched them up to trailers holding a combined total of about 70,000 pints of the signature beer before driving away.

Photo: iStock/Nagalski

Dry Bulk Shipping Rates Surge on Tight Capesize Vessel Supply

Shares in dry-bulk carriers have also surged this year, outpacing even the stock of tanker owners as Middle East traffic disruptions upend the wider maritime sector.

Photo: iStock / Baloncici

Uber’s $15B Delivery Hero Takeover Gains Board Backing

The food delivery market boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has been consolidating in recent years.

Signage for Delivery Hero SE at the company's office in Berlin. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Historic Drought Leaves Europe's Supply Chains High and Dry

A continent that built out its infrastructure around the weather patterns of the past is confronting conditions those systems were never designed to withstand.

Photo: iStock.com/Markus Volk

The High Cost of Legacy Tech in the Shipping Department

Profit-savvy e-commerce retailers have embraced the evolution of fulfillment from a standalone shipping function into a connected operational capability.

Image: iStock/ipopba

Why Going Global Isn't Always the Right Call

For years, global sourcing has helped companies reduce production costs, access specialized suppliers, and achieve greater scale. But today’s supply chains face tariff uncertainty, geopolitical risk, transportation disruption, supplier concentration, inventory pressure, and rising customer expectations.

Supply Chain Brain Thumbnail

5 Ways Aftermarket Parts Distributors Improve Uptime, Accuracy, and Scalability with Goods-to-Person Automation

Aftermarket parts distributors face a unique set of fulfillment challenges. SKU counts continue to grow, demand can change without warning, and customers often need parts quickly to restore critical equipment. At the same time, distributors must maintain accuracy, control costs, and operate with limited labor.

Thumbnail (1)

Staying Ahead of Cargo Theft: Building a More Secure Supply Chain

Cargo theft is becoming more organized, more sophisticated and more difficult to prevent. Criminals are increasingly using identity fraud, strategic deception and coordinated theft rings to target high-value shipments, forcing shippers, logistics providers and carriers to rethink how they protect freight.

Upcoming Webinar Tive Supply Chain Brain Webinar Tue Oct 27 2026 11a Et

South Korea Trials Arctic Shipping Route

South Korea is looking to test the route as part of a push to establish regular Arctic shipping between Busan and Europe by 2030.

Photo: iStock / Jean Landry

Page 1 of 685