Five things to look for next week at NRF

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

The BIG Show is bigger than ever, so where do you begin? Start with our checklist of five things to look for at retail's biggest gathering.

Number of cyberattacks on retailers drops by half, but hit more victims per incident

January 5, 2015

Criminals still stole more than 61 million customer records in 2014, despite taking off two of the biggest shopping days.

How Apple killed the digital wallet

Rick Oglesby, a senior research analyst for Double Diamond Payments Research, explains how Apple Pay changed the outlook for mobile payments.

CES 2015 will feature virtual-currency showcase

January 2, 2015

The World of Bitcoin will expose CES attendees to virtual-currency technology.

SCORE research says most smaller e-commerce sites have no call to action

December 30, 2014

SCORE, which has provided mentoring services to small businesses since 1964, has gathered statistics concerning how much online activity consumers engage in…

Can you charge your customers for loyalty?

by Shep Hyken — CAO, Shepard Presentations

Are you so good that your customers are loyal to you even without the incentives of a loyalty program? Good enough that they would be willing to pay to belong…

Study says luxury brands fundamentally misunderstand their audience

December 29, 2014

Luxury brands mistakenly believe their customers are typically female and on average 45-years old with a net worth over $1 million, the study found. However…

Seventy percent of shoppers buying gift cards this year

December 23, 2014

Although other holiday retail signals are mixed, gift card spending is on the rise.

Walt Disney World adds Apple Pay, Google Wallet acceptance

December 22, 2014

Disney will leverage the contactless infrastructure it already has in place for the MagicBand.

Home Depot chairman to receive NRF Gold Medal Award

December 22, 2014

Additionally, France's Galeries Lafayette will be named International Retailer of the Year with Executive Chairman Philippe Houzé accepting the award on behalf…

Why most retail loyalty programs are failing

by Jeff Weidauer — Vice President, Marketing & Strategy, Vestcom International, Inc.

In reality, most retail loyalty programs are little more evolved than a basic paper coupon.

Video: Behind the scenes of an AT&T holiday store makeover

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

AT&T recently decked the halls of its flagship Michigan Avenue store in Chicago, using a new "Magical Forest" theme.

Survey explores how the "pester power" of children drives retail sales

December 19, 2014

Advertising can work to build demand for devices, but despite the large advertising budgets involved, success isn’t guaranteed.

Retailers estimate holiday return fraud will cost them $3.6 billion

December 19, 2014

More than three-quarters of those polled cite organized retail crime as impacting return fraud rates.

WingCash makes its digital wallet brand available to merchants

December 19, 2014

Brand Cash is a closed-loop, digital currency that a business creates with WingCash, and that a consumer can use either for online purchases or at a…

Best Buy deploys directional audio for latest Call of Duty launch

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

The retailer used a high-tech approach to prevent the bombast of "Advanced Warfare" from permeating the store.

ShopKeep POS now supports Apple Pay, chip cards

December 18, 2014

For a limited time, new merchants receive a free reader at signup.

Global mobile NFC payments to exceed $130 billion by 2020

December 18, 2014

This equates to 254 million mobile users making five payments per month at an average of slightly less than $9 per transaction.

Second consecutive week sees $5B weekdays of online desktop spending

December 17, 2014

The online desktop spending season-to-date remains up 15 percent, still ahead of forecast.

Provision Interactive to deploy promotional kiosks at Rite Aid stores

December 17, 2014

Provision Interactive Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Provision Holding Inc., announced plans for the rollout of Provision's 3D Savings Center digital…