Technology

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…

Joe Megibow is CEO of Bright Cellars, an online wine subscription company that uses data to pair people with wine they'll love. Megibow recently spoke at Total Retail Tech in Denver, delivering a keynote on why he opted for an "off the shelf" technology solution to quickly re-platform the business. In this video interview from the…

In an effort to encourage appropriate and effective governance of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, promote consumer trust, and facilitate innovation and beneficial use of AI technologies, the National Retail Federation (NRF) has published a  series of guidelines called Principles for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Retail Sector. Developed through NRF's Center for Digital Risk &…

In a media cycle full of daily shocks and surprises, there’s comfort in the mania of the holiday shopping season. Each year, we know a few things will happen — endless speculation on consumer spending habits, earlier-than-ever deals and sales, and a frenetic spin-cycle of shopping and returns that ultimately deposits us into the darkness…

Diana Ganz is co-founder of SuitShop, a destination for affordable, size- and gender-inclusive, and yours-to-keep suiting. Ganz recently spoke on a panel discussing emerging technology trends at Total Retail Tech in Denver. In this video interview from the event, she provides a overview of the SuitShop business, identifies what she attributes the growth of the business to, and…