Technology
August 10, 2015 at 4:10 pm
Before, we had online retail and offline retail, and never the twain shall meet. Now both worlds are merging into each other, sped on by the increase in mobile usage, which now represents 60 percent of the time spent online. It’s no longer a question of online vs. offline; consumers want to be able to…
August 10, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Iconic images from the pages of Vogue are getting a makeover, courtesy of Target. In an ad campaign running in the September issue of Vogue, the discount department store has reimagined classic images from the fashion magazine, dating to the early 1900s. In this topsy-turvy world, carpets and curtains sold at Target replace high-fashion dresses, a chunky…
August 3, 2015 at 2:46 pm
Retail was a vast and varied industry even before the internet, mobile devices and a host of other technologies transformed consumer behaviors and expectations. Since then, the gradual changes implied by retail “evolution” have been replaced by enormously transformational leaps. Despite this ever-growing complexity, I believe retail today is being shaped (or reshaped) by three…
July 31, 2015 at 3:39 pm
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…
July 30, 2015 at 2:33 pm
When Amazon.com announced the Dash Button back on March 31, it seemed like an early April Fools’ Day joke: it had made a button you can buy that would place an order for something — a single, specific product — whenever you pressed it. But the Dash Button was very real and designed to be…
July 29, 2015 at 2:59 pm
Amazon.com wants to carve out a special zone of the sky to shuttle commercial drones that would deliver goods to its customers. Amazon Prime Air project vice president Gur Kimchi used a NASA convention in California on Tuesday to fly the idea of dedicating separate air zones for commercial drones. Kimchi proposed setting commercial drone zones between…
July 28, 2015 at 2:47 pm
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…
July 14, 2015 at 2:48 pm
Breaking through the noise to establish your online store as a gift destination isn't easy. The good news is that your customers love your products. However, data shows that many customers who purchase items for themselves online aren't necessarily shopping for gifts at the same stores. Much of this is due to the various obstacles…
July 13, 2015 at 2:18 pm
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…
July 10, 2015 at 1:43 pm
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…
