Digital Innovation

While retailers are using the Internet of Things (IoT) in many different ways, most have one goal in common: to build customer loyalty and engagement. In fact, it’s already evident that both retailers and consumers are beginning to reap the benefits from more intelligent technology. The onslaught of smart sensors and devices, interactive store layouts,…

Get out your crayons and mobile phones. The Toys"R"Us holiday catalog drops this week. At 96 pages, "The Great Big Toys"R"Us Book of Awesome" is its biggest issue ever and includes interactive elements for the first time. "The Big Book, as we call it internally, is done every year, but this is a significant revamp of…

Retailers are continually faced with finding new ways to lure shoppers and keep them coming back to their stores. Beacons are emerging as a means to get that shopper loyalty and keep it. About the size of a hockey puck or smaller, beacons are devices that are placed throughout a retail store and used to…

When it comes to making a purchase, consumers want to be able to easily access detailed product information both online and in-store, and they want to use technology to make this happen. While consumers have been accessing product information online for more than a decade, PowerReviews found that around 70 percent of shoppers want access…

Nearly a year after its opening, Rebecca Minkoff’s flagship store in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood is a hotbed of consumer data. The “connected store,” which is the first of three to open in the U.S., has given the designer brand some key takeaways: the team can find out which items are taken into the…

The retail industry has drastically changed over the years, forcing businesses to rethink how to meet the needs of customers. According to Forrester, 90 percent of customer experience decision makers say that a good experience is critical to their success, with 63 percent believing that the importance of the customer experience has risen. The need to…

3-D printers will be coming to your local Staples — or rather, available on Staples’ website. Small businesses and customers will now be able to upload designs for order. According to a press release issued by the office supply chain, customers who want to use its 3-D printing service must make an account, where they can…

J.C. Penney has gone through some tough times, and that’s an understatement. People tend to forget that the company has done more revamping and restructuring than just the Ron Johnson era, however brief it may have been. It was a company that was struggling before Ron Johnson came, and while it has found a certain…

As online giant Amazon.com charges into the $300 billion U.S. apparel market, Macy’s is running for the dressing room. Even Macy’s acknowledges there’s little it can do to keep customers from shopping online for basic clothing — T-shirts, men’s jeans and tighty whities. Yet the department store chain is clinging to the idea that many…

Checkout is the last opportunity a retailer has to make a positive impression on a shopper. Yet new research confirms the majority of checkout experiences today end in frustration. By addressing acute front-of-store pain points, retailers will be able to boost customer satisfaction ratings while encouraging longer, more frequent visits. A study conducted online by…