53. High-tech dressing rooms

Dressing rooms are critical to the customer experience, as purchasing decisions may be made or broken by a customer’s perception of herself in an outfit.

HP edges Kodak kiosks out of Walmart stores

March 3, 2010

Hewlett-Packard Co. just gave rival printer giant Eastman Kodak Co. a swift kick in the shins, according to MarketWatch.com.HP’s "Prints in Minutes" photo…

Best Buy's video-on-demand service 'coming out soon'

March 3, 2010

Entertainment-starved consumers will soon have another option for their instant gratification fix: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Best Buy…

NCR Netkey enhances digital signage software

March 3, 2010

NCR Corp. has announced in a new release that its NCR Netkey digital signage solution, designed to help companies connect better with their customers by…

Vigix rolling out vending kiosks

by Christopher Hall — writer, self

The company is confident the system it is calling the "first true vending kiosk" will be a showstopper.

54. Multichannel integration

The average customer may not be able to articulate the concept, but he wants it to be the case anyway: All facets of a retailer should be seamlessly…

The evolution of private labels at retail

Half of consumers now say they seek out private brands over traditional ones.

Tesco revamping Fresh & Easy store format, selection

March 2, 2010

According to a report from ImagesFood.com, Tesco is making consumer-driven changes to both the design of its Fresh & Easy markets and the products…

Opinion: 'Just say no' to discounting

March 2, 2010

Luxury retail took a heavy hit from the recession, and many retailers responded almost reflexively with quick and deep price cuts. The jewelry segment relied…

55. Palin/Obama and women’s fashion

The history-making 2008 presidential election made waves in the fashion world, too. Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin turned heads with her rimless Kazuo…

RAMA Research reveals habits, preferences of social media users

March 2, 2010

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a division of NRF, released new research today at NRF’s Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference on the…

Pricing and Name Awareness

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

Viewpoints adds blogs, content publishing to reviews platform

March 1, 2010

Viewpoints Network, a social technology and media company, today announced the addition of a new Blogs & Content Publishing module to The Viewpoints…

Retailer Migros moving to electronic shelf labels

March 1, 2010

Migros, Switzlerland’s leading retailer, has selected ZBD’s e-paper solution as part of a major pilot project that will see the company move away from…

Swedish retail giant relaunches its e-commerce site

March 1, 2010

TrueAction, a GSI Commerce company, has announced in a news release the expansion of its portfolio into international markets with the redesign and launch of…

Lawrence Metal to introduce new queue management system

March 1, 2010

Lawrence Metal Products will unveil its latest version of the SLQ3000 single line Electronic Call Forward and In-Queue merchandising systems to the U.S market…

Wall + Forms intros compact display for GPS, MP3 products

March 1, 2010

Walls + Forms announced it has introduced an attractive display that enables retailers to showcase the latest in GPS and MP3 technology. This compact display…

Paperless-coupon service OfferIQ launches

March 1, 2010

OfferIQ, a new electronic coupon service for retailers, announced that it launched today. Using proprietary technology, OfferIQ enables the redemption of…

56. Kroger

This regional supermarket chain is giving customers what they want — and what they can really use. According to The Washington Post, Americans redeem only …

Is Technology Just Ahead--Or Is Retailing Behind?

by Mike Wittenstein — Customer Experience and Service Designer, Storyminers

It’s time for retail business design to catch up with technology.