In-Store Technology

I’ve long been a proponent of making omnichannel a C-suite issue. It has to come from the top down. But the brands struggling to deliver a true omnichannel experience have a fundamental issue. At an organizational level, many brands still operate online and in-store in silos. E-commerce and physical retail are their own separate entities,…

Holiday shopping season isn’t on the horizon … it’s here. In fact, some stores began launching holiday deals as early as October. And while consumers are seemingly ready and willing to buy, customer experience can make or break peak season for any retailer. Almost every shopper coming through your doors or visiting your website is…

The retail industry has heard the narrative enough: online retail is disrupting and may even unseat traditional brick-and-mortar retailers sooner than later. But the data tells another story. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, e-commerce accounted for only 10.2 percent of total U.S. retail sales at the close of Q1 2019. That evidence serves as…

As smartphones continue to serve as shoppers' personal assistants, retailers can utilize key capabilities like in-store beacons to offer personalized updates to customers’ smartphones throughout their shopping journey. Whether a consumer is shopping in-store, attending an event, or even shopping at a reseller partner, they expect to receive special information to further influence their purchase…

The optics on the health of the retail industry have been gloomy for some time now, with one old-school brand after another biting the dust on a regular basis, according to major headlines. More often than not, the blame lands on online brands and big-box giants like Amazon.com or Walmart, which are relatively easy targets…

PUMA opened the doors to its first-ever North American flagship store recently, located on Fifth Avenue in New York City. With a focus on cutting-edge technology and innovative products, the store showcases an immersive PUMA brand space. The flagship store offers consumers a unique shopping experience through innovative sports engagement zones, a customization studio, and…

Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company launched a new pop-up store at the Mall of America last month, a large investment in its retail practice. The store, Modern Retail Collective, features products from Elevé Cosmetics, Kendra Scott, ThirdLove and type:A Deodorant. “The purpose of the store is to provide retailers a real, flexible environment — a learning…

In today’s modern world, connectivity is key. This is true for most facets of everyday life — how we communicate, how we travel, even how we shop. Consumers expect their physical experiences to be highly connected, with technology serving as a life raft for any troublesome or inconvenient situations they encounter. But despite their elevated…

RSR has been conducting an annual benchmark on the state of the store since the company launched in 2007. It’s one area where we always hope to see change from the previous year’s respondents. After all, many of us have grown disillusioned with how little the shopping experience has changed in the physical world. As…

The implementation of in-store retail technologies is lagging far behind consumer expectations surrounding these new tools, according to a new A.T. Kearney report. The survey on which the report was based polled 1,000 people from various demographic and economic backgrounds about emerging retail technologies used in physical stores, and focused on five crucial technologies: augmented reality;…