By Shefali Kapadia

It’s not uncommon for a consumer to order the same shirt in three sizes, then return the two that don’t fit. But what happens when the consumer swaps the labels and returns different shirts, or buys a dress for an event, wears it once with the tag tucked in, then returns it?

These are examples of return fraud, a retail-industry risk that’s on the rise “in both scale and sophistication,” said Juan Hernandez-Campos, the chief operating officer at Happy Returns, a software company that manages returns and is part of UPS. Today, about 9% of returns are fraudulent, according to the 2025 Retail Returns Landscape report published by the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns last October.

With fraud a persistent problem amid growing return volumes, merchants can no longer rely on the “highly manual” methods they previously used to process returns, Campos said.

Continue reading on Business Insider.

By Shefali Kapadia

Convenience stores are no longer just a spot to grab an energy drink and a bag of chips. The retailers are increasingly becoming an outlet for prepared meals and fresh food – even sushi – while still maintaining grab-and-go convenience.

For packaging suppliers, the c-store sector presents a growing opportunity to supply innovative designs that maintain freshness and extend shelf life, while simultaneously helping c-stores boost their branding.

“This is a very attractive channel and category for packaging businesses to be looking at,” said Thilo Henkes, managing director, partner and leader of the global packaging practice at L.E.K. Consulting.

Prepared foods make up an increasing share of sales in convenience stores. Foodservice — which includes prepared foods, dispensed beverages and commissary items — led in-store sales in 2025, totaling 28.5%, according to the National Association Of Convenience Stores. That’s up from just under 12% in 2005. Prepared foods such as pizza, chicken, burgers, sandwiches and salads are the largest segment at nearly 74% of foodservice sales, an increase from more than 66% in 2021.

“Food and beverage has never been more important in a c-store than it is now,” said Farley Kaiser, senior director of culinary innovation at McLane Fresh, the foodservice program of distributor McLane.

Continue reading on Packaging Dive.

By Shefali Kapadia

Social media platforms, especially Facebook, have become a hotbed for payment scams, putting financial institutions in a position of playing the last line of defense to stop money transfers from a victim to a criminal.

The Federal Trade Commission tallied the toll on consumers last month in a new report: $2.1 billion in losses in 2025 for consumers who said they were victimized by a scam that started on social media. Consumers reported losing more money to scams that originated on Facebook than on any other social media platform, the report said.

A Consumer Federation of America report this year cited similar earlier findings. Among online platforms, 57% of reported scams were on Facebook, according to CFA’s March report, which cited 2024 Better Business Bureau data.

“Facebook is the worst in terms of safety for people from scams,” said Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America. 

Continue reading on Payments Dive.

By Shefali Kapadia

When NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, needs to move from point A to point B, it’s not as simple as plugging in GPS directions. The rover has to avoid boulder fields, sand dunes, and steep slopes on a foreign planet.

To help chart a course for Perseverance, NASA has enlisted the help of AI and a digital twin. Digital twins are particularly useful to NASA, which “operates in some of the most extreme environments imaginable,” said Kevin Murphy, acting chief artificial intelligence officer at NASA. The technology creates a virtual replica of the actual environment and conditions, helping NASA scientists understand real-time conditions in places like outer space and Mars.

Like NASA, the broader aerospace industry is also embracing the use of digital twins with AI. Human oversight and verification are essential for aircraft and weapons that may put people’s lives at risk, said Karen Willcox, director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Continue reading on Business Insider.

By Shefali Kapadia

Drew Crowe had been incarcerated multiple times and was stuck in a vicious cycle, as he described it: getting “locked up,” lacking skills and having no idea how to craft a resume or secure a job. Crowe found a turning point when a manufacturing employer hired him to work as a third-shift saw operator.

“It kept my mind busy. It kept my body busy,” he said. “It gave me purpose.”

Crowe now leads the New American Manufacturing Renaissance, which consults and advises manufacturers on hiring formerly incarcerated individuals, a process known as second-chance hiring.

His journey underscores the opportunity that manufacturing affords to people coming out of the prison system, due to the industry’s focus on skill building for workers in entry-level jobs and its push to recruit from a broader array of talent to mitigate workforce shortages.

Continue reading on Manufacturing Dive.