How to survive your first holiday season as a retail manager

by Bob Phibbs — CEO, The Retail Doctor

When I was in college, I worked nights and weekends in a department store. I was there for the the guys shopping on Christmas Eve and for the after-holiday…

Visa's chief economist offers holiday shopping forecast

November 18, 2013

Wayne Best, chief economist for Visa, has announced the findings of this year's Visa Spending Intentions survey. Conducted for Visa by Prosper Insights and…

Millennials are accepting more lax privacy policies in exchange for rewards

by Jeff Fromm — Executive Vice President, Barkley

Online privacy policies always seem to be a bunch of gibberish. Who actually reads the privacy policy anymore? When given the option to either read pages of…

New survey reveals consumer holiday shopping habits

November 18, 2013

A new survey published by Alliance Data Retail Services shows that consumers are being more cautious with their shopping this holiday season, taking longer to…

Mobile POS boosts sales 318 percent at specialty retailer Alex and Ani

November 18, 2013

Launched in 2004, retailer Alex and Ani has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past few years, and as a result, the traffic in its stores was increasing…

OSHA reminds retailers about crowd safety issues during holidays

November 18, 2013

In advance of the holiday season, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is encouraging retail employers to take…

Five steps toward developing 'programmable retail'

Retail strategist discusses how to bring certain characteristics of the e-commerce world to the brick-and-mortar store.

Researcher says smartphones will 'completely revolutionize' retail tech, operations

November 18, 2013

Smartphones will change the face of retail technologies and shopping, enabling a whole new converged ecosystem to emerge, according to a new report. ABI…

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales to grow 2.2 percent

November 18, 2013

For the fourth year in a row, disposable incomes have only inched up, wearing on consumers' ability to shop 'til they drop. October's government shutdown…

VeriFone introduces unattended payment devices

November 18, 2013

VeriFone Systems Inc. has introduced UX Solutions, its series of unattended payment devices that the company said can improve transaction security, speed and…

Microsoft, FreedomPay bring big data analytics to payments platform

November 18, 2013

For businesses, it may be tempting to think that mobility begins and ends with apps for smartphones or tablets. But according to the commerce platform…

Symphony EYC unveils loyalty campaign management platform

November 18, 2013

Retail solution provider Symphony EYC has announced the availability of Symphony EYC Engage, a next-generation targeting analytics and loyalty campaign…

First Data releases October 2013 consumer spending analysis

November 18, 2013

First Data Corp., provider of electronic commerce and payment processing, today released its First Data SpendTrend analysis for Oct. 1, 2013, through Oct.

DigitalPersona introduces customer and employee biometric authentication system

November 18, 2013

DigitalPersona Inc. announced a new biometrics-based solution that allows security-minded enterprises to authenticate customers and employees in real time…

New partnership to make it easier for Canadians to buy from US retailers

November 15, 2013

GoECart, a provider of e-commerce solutions, has announced a new collaboration with Canada Post that it says will improve the online shopping experience when…

Research reveals impact of Pinterest on e-commerce

November 15, 2013

Software firm Piqora, which offers a marketing suite for "the visual Web" (Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr), has released preliminary findings of its research…

Pinterest opens its API to select retailers

November 15, 2013

Social sharing site Pinterest today announced on its blog that it is making its API available to select retailers and brands. That means retailers can embed…

MyRegistry introduces mobile app for retailers

November 15, 2013

MyRegistry.com has announced the release of its "Kiosk" mobile app on iOS for merchants to operate an in-store gift registry service. According to the company…

140 million people expected to shop online Thanksgiving weekend

November 15, 2013

For the first time since 2002, Thanksgiving falls as late as the calendar possibly allows it to, but eager holiday shoppers are already mapping their…

Four ways to fight showrooming with data

A thorough understanding of the practice can lead to strategies that help thwart the loss of customers to online competition.