Technology

The National Retail Federation forecasted 2023 holiday sales to grow between 3 percent and 4 percent. And while sales growth has slowed due to the pandemic, economic uncertainty, and other factors, retailers must still compete — if not compete even harder — for consumers’ eyeballs and wallets. The smartest retailers will leverage advanced technologies like…

The holiday season and year-end months account for as much as a fifth or more of annual sales for some retailers, with 2023 set to be no exception. Thanksgiving and Black Friday may have passed, but as consumers get ready to enjoy the final days of the holiday season, it’s the perfect opportunity for fraudsters…

At this point, doing one's holiday shopping at the mall feels almost like a nostalgic throwback — not far removed from listening to music on vinyl or taking pictures with a disposable camera. The records for online holiday shopping are broken on what seems like a yearly basis, with last year's $9.12 billion representing the…

2023 may be shaping up as the first holiday shopping season driven by artificial intelligence — for the brands that are positioned and equipped to leverage this technology at scale. For the brands that aren’t, 2023 could end up being the year their customers’ experiences fall short of expectations, which could determine the difference between…

The holiday season is always marked by a shopping spree. The challenge retailers face with this surge is making shopping experiences exceptional despite the chaos. Even with all of the variety of ways consumers shop, retailers must be able to understand what they seek and prefer. This is where advanced technologies like artificial intelligence come…

Retailers are gearing up for 2024, setting their budgets, campaigns and strategies for engaging omnichannel shoppers in the new year. But what happens if a new trend changes the way customers shop in stores or online halfway through the year? Or what if you have the opportunity to engage an audience that wasn’t prioritized in…

Without question, retailers’ busiest days of the year are during the holiday season. Holiday sales in November and December averaged about 19 percent of total retail sales over the last five years. Nevertheless, the increased traffic can be a double-edged sword, overloading networks and causing outages. At the same time, cybercriminals are more active during the…

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is the next big thing for retail. With 92 percent of retailers planning to increase AI investments next year, leading brands like Walmart are already rolling out GenAI assistants to help customers with purchases. The possibilities for GenAI are endless, but they create new risks for data breaches that everyone needs…

Retail theft has been a major problem, particularly since the pandemic, costing retailers $112.1 billion in 2022. A number of retail giants have announced they're closing stores across major cities due to theft and organized retail crime. But recent analysis shows that theft is only one of many factors behind these shutdowns. The combination of inflation,…

Instacart‘s partnership with OpenAI was a significant first step in showing how generative artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the digital shelf and retail media. Amazon.com also has several generative AI-powered initiatives, including AI-generated review highlights and Project Nile, a GenAI search concierge reportedly set to launch in January. If the feature fulfills its potential, it…