Digital Innovation

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…

Kyle Nel is executive director of Lowe's Innovation Labs, where he's developed the Lowe's Holoroom, an augmented and virtual reality home improvement design tool, the OSHbot autonomous retail service robot, and in-store and online 3-D scanning and printing. In Nel’s words: “I (and my team) build new technologies that solve consumer problems, as envisioned through…

Rakuten, Japan’s answer to Amazon.com with e-commerce operations and investments that stretch from digital media and e-commerce marketplaces through to social media and transport apps, is making another acquisition to expand its holdings, this time in the area of fashion. The company has acquired Fits.me, a startup that develops “virtual fitting rooms” — two-way technology…

Target has opened a new retail space at the base of its Metreon City Target near San Francisco’s Moscone Center, and if you’re a fan of the smart home, clear acrylic furniture or grand retail experiments, then this is the place to be. The Minneapolis retailer is calling this Target’s Open House, and it's the…

Just when you think you know a little something about the millennial generation, another piece of research drops like a bomb. Of all the stores for them to prefer, Wal-Mart isn’t the one that naturally comes to mind. But that’s precisely the case as Wal-Mart ranks as the preferred place to shop for millennials 24…