The art of balancing workplace automation

The buzz about bots is on the rise. No, not the all-knowing Isaac Asimov supercomputers. The 1-800-number variety that never seems to detect any urgency in the…

The future of beacons and digital signage

Beacon technology has not been adopted by merchants as quickly as expected, yet changes to devices and strategy will spur 4.5 million active beacons in the…

Amazon's Treasure Truck banking on retail consumer whimsy

by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

While the New York Times describes Amazon's Treasure Truck as another of Amazon's "puzzling retail experiments," it can be viewed as Amazon's continuing effort…

FastCasual's parent company launching FoodTruckOperator.com

by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

Networld Media Group will launch FoodTruckOperator.com on April 1. It will cover industry trends and news, profile business owners and explore the technologies…

Donald Trump, Nordstrom, Ivanka Trump: How politics now play into the retail customer experience

by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

In simple terms, social media and the internet have given consumers the loudest and biggest mouthpiece to project their views and feelings and actions. But it…

The 1 thing forgotten at the world’s largest retail event

There is no doubt, that in the current age, information is critical. When everything online is connected to a cloud and data is accessible in real time…

Amazon Go's impact on payments, self-checkout

The Amazon Go store has no cash register or payment kiosk. Instead, shoppers scan themselves into the store using the free Amazon Go app, shop as normal…

7 under-the-radar retail trends for 2017

by Bryan Pearson — President, LoyaltyOne

Will men and artificial intelligence define retail in 2017? Possibly. Considering the activities in retail today, several experts shared what unexpected trends…

Harnessing mobility in retail: 5 challenges to overcome

Retailers have a number of digital sales channels and a plethora of mobile marketing technologies to choose from. That said, when building a mobile marketing…

2017 & beyond: Prognostications for retail technology

Shopper behavior and expectations have clearly changed and become more sophisticated. Retail stores need to evolve to meet consumer demands, and the influence…

Customer success is the key to business growth

Typically the responsibility for customer service is split amongst various in-house teams and there is no overarching coordinated system to manage it. A…

UX university: 4 retailers getting the user experience right

Customer loyalty requires more than offering a customer a free coffee every time they buy 10. There’s no middle ground any longer as user experience is key for…

Staging an experiential marketing encore, the Bloomingdale's, Brooks Brothers way

by Bryan Pearson — President, LoyaltyOne

There's no business like show business, and retailers are vying to get in on the act. More merchants are turning to Broadway in their ongoing play for…

5 key success factors for 'omnichannel as the new normal'

by Chris Petersen — Owner, IMS

Chris H. Petersen explains why assorting the hottest products is not enough to win today's consumers.

New year, new resolutions: 4 brand strategies to boost customer satisfaction in 2017

From creating improved customer experiences to a renewed focus on employees, 2017 will be a year where companies deploy new employee engagement strategies that…

5 tips to boost customer loyalty in 2017

by Jon Siegel — CMO, ZBoxDVD

The new year is fast upon us and with it comes new opportunities for brands to surprise and delight their customers with engaging and rewarding experiences. A…

7 keys to customer experience happiness

Storytelling and understanding the rules of a "happy life" are two of the dominant themes throughout my career and education, with science being added as an…

Convenience for retail consumers will demand innovation in 2017

2016 was an interesting year in retail. Many established brands died a bricks and mortar death. While many thought this signaled the demise of the physical…

Online assortments: Long-tail, curated or castrated?

by Chris Petersen — Owner, IMS

Declaring you are omnichannel is the easy part. Achieving profitability will require balancing the tradeoffs of long-tail assortments vs. the ability to…

How Macy's, Target tap devices for the holidays

by Bryan Pearson — President, LoyaltyOne

Here's a reason for retailers to be "appy" this holiday season: Purchases made on mobile apps more than doubled in 2015, to nearly $50 billion. We look at…