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We study the effects of the introduction of cross-channel functionalities on the overall sales dispersion of retailers and the implications of these effects for inventory management. To do that, we analyze data from a leading U.S. retailer who introduced a “ship-to-store” (STS) functionality that allows customers to ship products to their local store free of charge when those products are not available in their local store. Based on the fact that stores prioritize carrying products for which local demand is high, we test the hypothesis that introducing the STS functionality increased the retailer’s overall sales dispersion. We find that, on average, the contribution of the 90% lowest-selling products to total sales increased by 0.75 percentage points, increasing sales dispersion. Calibrating conventional inventory-ordering models, we show that to respond optimally to the observed increase in dispersion, the retailer would need to increase its cycle and safety inventories by approximately 2.7%. Our paper points out the effect of an increasingly important retail phenomenon (channel integration) on a key factor for inventory management (sales dispersion). This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

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We herein present a new catalytic system for the palladium‐free Sonogashira coupling reaction. The catalytically active moiety is formed in situ, in a straightforward and user‐friendly manner, by combining a widely available low‐cost copper salt and an N‐heterocyclic carbene precursor. A series of N‐heterocyclic carbene ligand precursors with variable structural features, some of which are novel, were tested and the reaction conditions were optimized. Using the catalytic system with the optimum performance, the scopes of the alkyne and the aryl halide were probed. Aryl iodides readily react with terminal alkynes, providing the coupling products in high to excellent yields. The protocol is highly efficient with alkynes bearing either alkyl or aryl substituents, the latter having either electron‐donating or electron‐withdrawing groups.