An amazing customer service idea: The $5 lifeboat

by Shep Hyken — CAO, Shepard Presentations

The second-generation owner of a chain of Ace Hardware stores, Tom Glenn, tells an inspiring story about his father, Elder Glenn.

Survey says mobile use to be high this holiday season

November 11, 2014

The report found shoppers are using their phones mostly to compare pricing and read product reviews, but retailers' tech-enabled associates are using mobile…

Half of Americans opposed to stores being open on Thanksgiving

November 11, 2014

Iconic retailer Macy's plans to launch Black Friday shopping at 6 o'clock Thanksgiving evening, down from 8 p.m. last year, and from midnight in 2011. Other…

ARTS announces major update to data model standards

November 11, 2014

The ARTS Operational Data Model is a retail-specific roadmap that allows a company to plan how it organizes and uses its transaction data.

Survey says holiday shoppers will spend more of their budget in-store than online

November 10, 2014

Respondents with incomes less than $100,000 spend more of their total holiday budget in-store than those with higher incomes, 54 percent versus 46 percent.

Index says Walgreens, Amazon, Pizza Hut and eBay have the best retail apps

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

November 7, 2014

Research group ARC 360 has published its report "The State of the U.S. Retail Apps Economy," which aims to identify the best- and worst-performing retail apps…

'Tis the season for insane pricing strategies

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

In times of heavy discounting, retailers are ignoring the power of convenience.

Electronic gift cards gaining popularity, especially among millennials

November 5, 2014

Fifty-nine percent of gift cards are now offered electronically, up 18 percentage points from 2010.

Three-quarters of consumers plan to use their mobile for holiday shopping this year

November 5, 2014

According to a new survey, 82 percent plan to spend the same amount or more on holiday spending as compared to last year, while just 18 percent plan on scaling…

IBM releases holiday shopping forecast, predicts 15-percent growth

November 5, 2014

The biggest increase in online sales is expected on Cyber Monday, predicted to grow 15.8 percent, followed closely by Thanksgiving with a projected increase of…

US households plan to spend an average of $538 on holiday gifts

November 4, 2014

About 8 percent of consumers say they plan to spend more this year on holiday gifts, while approximately 32 percent plan to spend less. The remaining 6…

Webinar to cover mistakes retailers make with mobile during the holidays

November 4, 2014

In this webinar, we'll discuss five common problems that shoppers encounter in the mobile shopping process, and how retailers can remove the friction that is…

Should your stores have a lifetime return policy?

by Nandini Jammi — Chief Storyteller, Kayako

How Trader Joe's, Nordstrom and others benefit from offering this extremely generous policy.

German retail sales see surprising drop, spur fears of recession

October 31, 2014

Retail sales in September dropped by 3.2 percent from August, the biggest drop since May 2007, which is spurring fears of a recession in Europe's leading…

Digital disruption, emerging technologies to drive retail revenue in 2015

October 30, 2014

Omnichannel personalization specialist predicts sweeping changes for retail in the coming year.

Webinar on text analytics for retail data now available on demand

October 23, 2014

The webinar covers the basics of text analytics and offers some case studies on how retail brands can use the technology to mine the massive amounts of data…

RetailNext adds new features to in-store analytics platform

October 23, 2014

According to the company, new features in this version include multiple video stream export, Micros XBR integration, Japanese-language support, security…

Retail in 2015: The age of uncertainty

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Results of a new survey show a disconnect between what customers say they want, and what retailers think they want.

Target announces plans for 2014 holiday season

October 22, 2014

In addition to free shipping on all online orders through Dec. 20, Target said it now has more than 65,000 items available for "buy online, pickup in-store.…

Almost half of Americans are likely to avoid retailers affected by data breaches

October 20, 2014

This holiday season, almost half of Americans are likely to avoid shopping at stores that were affected by data breaches over the past year.