The age of universal commerce is here. We know that customers are shopping through more channels than ever before, with mobile and connectivity serving as hallmarks of this evolving stage of retail. On the first morning of Retail’s BIG Show 2013, executives from First Data, IBM Software Group, McDonald’s Corp., Pacific Sunwear and Yankee Group [...]
When it comes to the economy, there’s no question that millions of people have had their share of the good, the bad and the ugly. Years of stubbornly high unemployment, fluctuating home values, stagnant income growth and unpredictable retail sales continue to drive the conversation. Last holiday season food and apparel prices were higher than most were [...]
While most Shop.org Summit attendees were still on their way to Denver, hundreds – including myself – convened a day early for the Digital Retail Boot Camp. While being my first ever boot camp, and retail conference for that matter, it turned out I was in for more than a crash course in digital tactics. [...]
Right after presenting a BIG !deas session about the power of analytics, I met DSW’s Harris Mustafa, Executive Vice President, Supply Chain and Merchandise Planning and Allocation, at the SAS booth at Retail’s BIG Show EXPO. Watch below to find out what Harris has to say about the biggest challenges in retail today, what’s to come [...]
On Monday, I made my way through the giant Twitter walls, dancers, a psychic, retro flight attendants, and a bunch of Kindle Fire giveaways to find out what was top of mind on the EXPO floor at Retail’s BIG Show 2012. From business intelligence to point of service, mobile to kiosks, customer experience revolutions to [...]
Catering to all of their shoppers’ needs and wants this holiday season, retailers excited even the most cynical holiday shoppers with their bargains and promotions over Black Friday weekend and on Cyber Monday. And, for the first time for many retailers, mobile shopping was a huge component of their strategy. Undeniably, this will be the [...]
It’s (officially) the most wonderful time of the year! November 1 marks the beginning of the holiday season, when retailers everywhere strain to get a piece of that $466 billion in U.S. sales. After releasing our holiday sales forecast in early October and distributing our first consumer survey mid-month, we took a look at some [...]
If you haven’t had the chance to take part in NRF’s annual ‘State of the Industry’ survey yet, you’ve got one more week to make sure your organization becomes a part of next year’s widely read report. Retail Horizons: Benchmarks 2011 – Forecasts 2012, a joint project between the NRF Foundation and KPMG, annually assesses [...]
In the latest edition of The State of Retailing Online from Shop.org and Forrester Research, nearly half of retailers surveyed reported that they either have an optimized mobile site or smartphone app, with 16% planning to increase their investment in mobile technology. Thus if retailers are not providing mobile conveniences to their customer they are [...]