Digital Innovation

Nonessential Retail, Essential Digital
August 25, 2020 at 12:06 pm

Online sales in the United States have surged in recent months. As such, today’s acceleration of e-commerce amplifies the need for retailers to connect with consumers earlier in the shopping journey, fueling customer acquisition and fostering brand loyalty. This is especially important as we enter what consumers might consider the most meaningful holiday season of…

Retail Aims High on Digital Transformation, But Has Room to Improve on Integrations
August 20, 2020 at 2:37 pm

At the end of 2019, retail was one of the hottest industries poised for digital disruption in 2020 and the decade ahead. In fact, PwC reported it’s one of the top industries with the greatest opportunity for artificial intelligence (AI) impact by 2030. Looking back at the digital strides retailers have made over the past…

Pandemic Drives Digital Transformation in Retail
August 11, 2020 at 2:45 pm

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shockwaves through our world as we know it, changing just about every facet of how business is done. One area that was immediately hit due to stay-at-home orders was the retail industry. Revenue in clothing stores was down 78 percent in April, leading J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J.Crew to…

Retailers Need to Plan for Recovery. Here’s How They Can Start. 
August 6, 2020 at 2:30 pm

The retail industry has seen significant damage as a result of unprecedented supply chain disruptions, wavering consumer confidence, and technological gaps for those making the leap from brick-and-mortar to digital storefront. Many retailers had just started to return to normalcy earlier this year, following a two-year trade war — and a promising Phase One deal…

How to Leverage Custom Text-to-Speech Voice in the Shopping Experience
July 27, 2020 at 2:38 pm

As innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transform how consumers interact with brands, voice technology is becoming a staple of the modern shopping experience. Voice technology allows brands to service consumers with increased efficiency and engagement. However, with so many brands adopting voice-first strategies, retailers that want to distinguish themselves need to take extra personalization…

Changing the Narrative: Setting the Stage for Retail Recovery, Part I
July 21, 2020 at 12:37 pm

At the start of 2020, the biggest challenges for the retail industry were issues such as market saturation, finding new ways for old and aging brands to stay relevant, and the impact of new technologies and innovations. No one anticipated the greatest challenge of 2020 — and beyond — would be a pandemic that shut…

New Feature Lets Consumers Shop for Groceries From Yahoo Mail
July 20, 2020 at 4:10 pm

Verizon Media today announced the launch of Groceries from Walmart, a Yahoo Mail feature that enables users to browse, add to cart, and purchase essential groceries from Walmart within Yahoo Mail. According to Verizon Media, this is the first time that email users can fill a shopping cart from their inbox, streamlining their shopping experience from…

Why Infrastructure Modernization is Essential to Operational Efficiency
July 16, 2020 at 7:27 pm

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Ashley Chiaradio and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published on Total Retail titled, “Retail Modernization: Unlocking Actionable Insights,” authored by Valentyn Kropov and Jessica Bricker of digital consultancy SoftServe. This article examines how retailers can increase operational efficiency by turning data into actionable insights. They…

Using Agile Principles to Re-Open and Recover Your Retail Business
July 16, 2020 at 5:24 pm

Retailers across the country have started to reopen their storefronts, clearing the path for recovery from the devastating global pandemic. While the coronavirus has sparked uncertainty in retailers’ futures, it has also brought about new ways of working in retail. These new ways are largely rooted in pre-pandemic trends that have accelerated — e.g., the…