Technology

The customer is at the forefront of any retail business. A satisfied customer leads to loyalty, which results in maximized sales. Meeting the consumer's expectations is an important focus for retailers, and self-service technology is transforming the customer experience for the better. In today's hectic lifestyle, consumers are looking for the next best automated service that makes their lives a bit easier. According to the 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, two-thirds of consumers would pay more for a more superior customer experience.

Nordstrom Labs is a small team of techies, designers, entrepreneurs, statisticians, researchers and artists whose mission is to discover what will be in the future of retailing. It's one of the most important initiatives underway at Nordstrom, as management looks to build on its legacy of customer service and care in a technological world. Based in Seattle, also the hometown of Amazon.com, Nordstrom is well aware that the future with its tech-savvy consumers will bring many profound changes.

J.C. Penney is going against the retail trend and dumping its newly installed in-store Wi-Fi. The department-store company, which invested about $12 million installing the free, publicly accessible Wi-Fi last year, will save about $7 million a year by halting the service, sources familiar with the situation told BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity. While mobile checkout devices will still use wireless internet, it won't work for the public — or for store employees’ personal phones, sources say, leading to some unhappy grumbling on Twitter.

Target has become a leader in the retail industry for keeping ahead of the curve. The retailer is continuing its innovation and investments with the rollout of its Cartwheel coupon platform, expanding its footprint in smaller locations and building on its delivery capabilities. Target is building the digital acumen of the organization through hiring and collaborations with leading technology partners. Its Technology Innovation Center in San Francisco provides the opportunity to benefit from technology talent in the area and quickly explore opportunities that can be brought to Target, accelerating the pace of innovation and adoption of emerging technologies and trends.

If you're like me, you appreciate it when employees go out of their way to help you. Whether you're shopping for clothes or looking for groceries, it's always nice to know that someone is there to help. But there's always that customer service representative that goes too far. You know, that floor person who's really nice but needs to leave you alone. In today's hypercompetitive market, major retailers and small businesses alike are going out of their way to enhance the customer experience. But how far is too far?

Retailer Nordstrom says it's thinking about lots of ways that iPads can be used in stores to improve the shopping experience for customers, beyond using them as

I recently gave an interview where I was asked about the challenges of managing retail self-service projects given the rapid progression of in-store technology. With the array of tactical mobile options and digital innovations, there are seemingly limitless opportunities for in-store merchandising to connect retail shoppers to the online and virtual worlds. We can now provide a call to action for consumers to interact with content on-demand on any type of retail display or self-service kiosk. Still other "next big things," like gesture-based interfaces and virtual imaging, are competing for attention.

In a keynote session at the eTail East conference in Philadelphia, Tripp Sessions, the former chief information officer at Benchmark Brands, the parent company of FootSmart, a cross-channel retailer of shoes, socks and foot care products, laid out his tips on how companies can seamlessly and effectively roll out a new technology implementation. Sessions was recruited to lead the turnaround of the information technology and e-commerce operations teams at Benchmark Brands. Here's a recap of Sessions' tips:

In an effort to emulate the data gained in the realm of online shopping, and improve the in-store shopping experience, brick-and-mortar retailers are testing new technologies to learn about their customers. Last autumn, Nordstrom implemented in-store technology that followed Wi-Fi signals of smartphones and other mobile devices to track customers' movements throughout the store. This Wi-Fi tracking, combined with the use of video surveillance, allowed Nordstrom to learn information about its customers like sex, age, how many minutes were spent in a particular aisle or department before deciding to buy merchandise, how

We've certainly read and heard a lot about data gathering lately, and the term "Big Data" is making its way into the public lexicon. One issue that's come up often is "Given what we've found out about what's being done by government agencies with available data, will we see a consumer backlash against giving retailers information? Will consumers batten down their privacy hatches?" I'm a firm believer that an educated consumer will make better decisions, and so I thought I'd spend a few hundred words giving you some correct definitions, followed by some realistic retail scenarios.