Digital Innovation

It's a bird, it's a plane … never mind, it's just my Amazon Fashion order. It was announced this week that Amazon.com received a patent for a shipping label with a built-in parachute to help drone and air craft deliveries make a soft landing. GeekWire reports the newly issued patent would have the shipping label look…

Good retailers are all about nurturing. If you’re doing it right, you’re perpetually taking care of the customers you have — even as you look to the future to attract and nurture the next generation of consumers. However, for many long-established physical retailers, built for an era that no longer exists, it can feel challenging to…

The athletic footwear, apparel, accessories and equipment brand continues to chug along despite increased competition in the marketplace. Nike increased year-over-year net sales by 5.8 percent in its 2016 fiscal year. In addition, the company increased its net earnings for the year by nearly 15 percent. (Nike ranked No. 44 on Total Retail’s seventh annual ranking…

Albertsons Companies announced the hiring of two key digital leaders who will collectively add 30 years of digital leadership experience in product and digital technology, respectively. Karl Varsanyi, who helped develop macys.com into one of the largest e-commerce sites in the United States; and Ramiya Iyer, who was instrumental in building and scaling Levi Strauss & Co.'s platforms…

Total Retail is excited to present its seventh annual ranking of the 100 fastest-growing publicly traded retailers. This year’s list, as in years past, is based on companies’ year-over-year net sales growth, comparing the 2016 fiscal year to the 2015 fiscal year.

With e-commerce now a normal part of everyday life, the number and frequency of in-person interactions is decreasing, and sometimes disappearing altogether. However, even as online shopping pervades, brands are finding important value connecting with customers face-to-face, whether through local pop-up shops, brand-sponsored community events or new brick-and-mortar locations. In-person experiences are often the best…

Large retailers need a chief digital officer (CDO), or someone with the same charter, to drive holistic and consistent digital experiences across an entire brand. If you're not convinced, I suggest you go back to Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Trends, understand why Deloitte gave the title a “superpower,” or try to comprehend the idea of…

Charlie Cole, chief digital officer at TUMI, sat down with Total Retail's Taylor Knight at Shoptalk in Las Vegas last week to discuss the luggage brand's digital strategy. Cole explains how TUMI's new partnership with AgileOne is helping the retailer to gain a more complete view of its customers, enabling it to more effectively determine their…

Aside from working an unsustainable 70-hour work week and hiring expensive contractors, there are few additional — somewhat more complex — things managers can do to get the work done, run an efficient department and foster a sane work environment for all.

In today’s hypercompetitive retail environment, there’s mounting pressure for retailers to leverage their brick-and-mortar presence as a competitive advantage. This reality arguably makes the store associate the most important asset retailers have. Associates can provide the personal service that differentiates their shopping experience from their competitors, including online pure-play retailers. In fact, store associates that…