Omnichannel

Facebook is Handing Out Free Beacons to Retailers
June 10, 2015 at 4:27 pm

Facebook is offering up free beacons to retailers and businesses using its service as part of an update to the company’s Place Tips feature originally rolled out in January. Place Tips, which works by showing Facebook users posts and photos about a specific retailer or business when they open the app within the actual store,…

Blue Nile Opens First Retail Store
June 9, 2015 at 2:22 pm

Online diamond retailer Blue Nile is putting down some brick-and-mortar roots for the first time by opening a tiny store of its own at a mall outside New York City. The so-called “webroom,” a 325-square-foot space with a half-dozen staffers, grew out of the Seattle retailer’s experiments with temporary counters inside a couple of Nordstrom…

Technology Helps Chinese Laundry Better Connect With Customers
June 5, 2015 at 3:23 pm

At the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago yesterday, Total Retail's Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews Scott Cohn, vice president of e-commerce at Chinese Laundry, a women's footwear brand, about the company's move to a

3 Ways Retailers Can Capitalize on Nomophobia
June 1, 2015 at 3:42 pm

The addiction to smartphones is real. In fact, people are so addicted to their smartphones that a clinical term is now dedicated to the psychological attachment people have to their devices: nomophobia, short for no-mobile-phone-phobia. The fear of phone separation is a growing trend that marketers, especially in retail, should be watching. Now more than…

Wanted: New Leaders for Retail Differentiation
June 1, 2015

A number of retailers are exploring new roles within the C-suite focused on helping them transform and evolve to keep place with consumer expectations. They're seeking leaders with priorities, authority and influence who are different from traditional chief information officers, chief marketing officers or chief merchants. These retailers are looking for leaders to drive cross-functional collaboration and governance, improve working relationships between various departments and IT, and foster executive alignment. As a result, three new C-level additions are emerging — chief digital officer, chief customer officer and chief omnichannel officer.

How to Personalize Your App Experience and Drive More Sales
May 28, 2015 at 3:24 pm

When e-readers disrupted the publishing industry, many consumers swore they would stay loyal to the old-fashioned paper book. Technology made inroads however, and the number of people who own e-readers is still growing. Retail has followed a similar course. Online shopping has revolutionized the industry, and mobile is a key reason why. Still, people crave…

3 Personalization Lessons From Lilly Pulitzer
May 26, 2015 at 3:47 pm

Over the last few years, traditional resort wear line Lilly Pulitzer has evolved into a full-fledged lifestyle brand, complete with an almost “cult like” following. Hot off of a very successful collaboration with Target, Michelle Kelly, president of Lilly Pulitzer, shared how the company has used personalization successfully across its multigenerational customer base. “Personalization is…

Why Nordstrom is the Amazon of Department Stores
May 15, 2015 at 3:22 pm

The luxury department store chain laid out its five-year plan for e-commerce and store expansion, showing how it's focused on growth rather than profits. Nordstrom and Amazon.com have a lot more in common than their hometown of Seattle. Just like Amazon, Nordstrom has been spending big on technology, warehouses and expanding into new businesses. And…

How Retailers Can Leverage UGC to Acquire Millennials
May 12, 2015 at 3:52 pm

Millennials are one of if not the most sought after customer demographics for retail brands. The largest generation in the world — 80 million strong in the U.S. alone — are forecast to spend $200 billion annually by 2017, and $10 trillion over their lifetimes as consumers. And that’s just in the U.S. You can…