Changing prices, changing value?

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

A newscast recently reported that some companies are changing prices as often as 5,000 times a day. Why are they doing this? How well is it working? More…

What retailers can learn from the hospitality industry

Transforming culture requires a shift in focus, where friendliness and helpfulness are emphasized as much as efficiency.

Target integrates real-time shopping into tonight's 'Cougar Town'

March 18, 2014

In a move that the New York Times says "could signal a new era for product placement," the March 18 episode of the TBS comedy series "Cougar Town" will be…

Tensator launches ImpulseQ Merchandising System

March 18, 2014

Queue management specialist Tensator today announced its ImpulseQ Merchandising System, a fully customizable, modular system that it says provides retailers…

WhitePages PRO launches new identity validation engine

March 18, 2014

WhitePages, a provider of contact information for people and businesses in the U.S., has announced the launch of its WhitePages PRO Identity Score product…

Survey says Amazon Prime price increase has hurt the brand

March 18, 2014

Last week, Amazon announced a price hike for its Prime program, which gives members free two-day shipping and access to a burgeoning library of streaming…

Don't forget, every situation has a story

by Andrew Sharpe — Retail Strategist, BRANDSPANK

A few weeks ago, my wife started to search online for a trampoline for our kids. Our girls have been wanting a trampoline for quite some time, and so my wife…

Roundy's Supermarkets installs behavioral insight tech from Symphony

March 17, 2014

Technology provider Symphony EYC announced that Wisconsin-based Roundy's Supermarkets Inc. has selected Symphony EYC Customer Insights behavioral insights…

Three ways retailers should prepare for the 'Internet of Things'

Retailers must prepare now for the changes that are coming. Here are three ways to get a head start.

Study says retailers face big challenges from multichannel

March 17, 2014

Organizational, operational and technology challenges are hampering retailers' efforts to meet customers' demand for a seamless shopping experience across all…

Millennial marketing lessons from Jimmy Fallon

by Jeff Fromm — Executive Vice President, Barkley

How do you rebrand a company and increase its reach to the Millennial demographic? Easy — hire Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon took over NBC's The Tonight Show in…

US consumers twice as likely to share a bad service experience than UK counterparts

March 14, 2014

New research from NewVoiceMedia reveals that U.S. consumers are twice as likely to share a bad customer service experience than those in the U.K., whereas…

Sephora launches Beauty Board social shopping platform

March 13, 2014

Sephora has announced the launch of Beauty Board, its new social shopping platform designed to engage clients through beauty images and allow them to post…

Three big-picture ideas for introducing new customer experience technology

by Adam Toporek

One of the things I love about blogging, besides its conversational tone, is the ability to swap back and forth between the macro and the micro, between the…

Report says Target dropped prices 20 percent during data breach

March 13, 2014

360pi, which actively monitors millions of products from hundreds of retailer websites, today announced that according to its price intelligence data, Target…

Report says Target knew about the data breach, but did nothing

The retailer had a working anti-malware system in place before the breach, but it was ignored.

Amazon raising Prime membership to $99 per year

March 13, 2014

This morning, Amazon Prime members started getting word on the expected price increase on the service. For months it had been speculated that the service…

Training retail employees: What is your ROI?

by Bob Phibbs — CEO, The Retail Doctor

"What if I train my retail employees, and then they leave?"

Conference Board offers comment on February retail sales

March 13, 2014

Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for the nonprofit research association The Conference Board, has offered this comment on the U.S. Census…

Yelp launches in Mexico

March 13, 2014

Online reviews site Yelp Inc. today announced the availability of Yelp Mexico. Yelp's free iPhone and Android applications will be available as well as its…