Technology

Would you like to receive coupons on your smartphone's digital wallet that are related to the products you're viewing on TV? Or forget the smartphone. How about buying products directly through your television using the remote control? PayPal announced it's working with television service providers to help power "television commerce," aka tcommerce. PayPal has entered into agreements with Comcast and TiVo as it tries to establish itself as a payment method for purchases made over the television. 

Evian is sidestepping retail partners to sell its products directly to consumers with the promotion of a new online delivery service and the release of a new digital device it plans to make available widely in 2013. The device can be tacked onto a fridge and enables water delivery with the push of a single button. Initially, the website, called evianchezvous.com, is only available in Paris and its surrounding suburbs, the target being single-family homes and small businesses. The website will also permit delivery of other water products in the Danone family, such as Badoit or Volvic water.

As it watched its biggest competitor file for bankruptcy and cease operating, Barnes & Noble knew that a change to its business model was necessary for its survival. Specifically, that change meant shifting its focus to becoming a digital book seller. In his keynote address at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago yesterday, William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, detailed how the bookstore chain has used the web to redefine and grow its business.

Clear your throat, put down your mouse, take your fingers off the touchscreen; retail is primed to be the next industry to use the spoken word as the interface between consumers and technology. Driving this innovation in large part is the prevalence of smartphones today and, in turn, the growth of mobile commerce.

Despite all the buzz around social media over the past several years, the concept of "real" social commerce — when consumers can actually buy merchandise directly from whichever social network they're visiting and wherever they happen to be — has eluded the industry.

The overlaying of digital data on the real world is here, and it's a valuable tool for merchants. Here are three reasons why augmented reality is important for retailers’ commerce efforts:

Neiman Marcus is equipping all of its 4,000 associates at its full-line stores with smartphones in an effort to better serve customers, company executives said on the retailer’s recent conference call with analysts. Neiman’s executives also said the company plans to remodel it stores on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and in Bal Harbour Shops, Bal Harbour, Fla.

Toys"R"Us has added QR codes in-store to promote more than 20 of its larger outdoor play products and to give consumers information on items that are too large to stock in stores. This past holiday season, the toy retailer first experimented with QR codes in its The Great Big Toys"R"Us Book holiday catalog. Last year, Toys"R"Us also featured a virtual store that let consumers scan QR codes featured on billboards across the country to virtually shop the retailer's "Hot Toy List." 

Nordstrom will spend $140 million, or 30 percent of its total capital expenditure budget, on information technology infrastructure improvements. As Forbes reported, the IT expenditures will be used to intensify Nordstrom's internet presence, such as its new Salt Lake City store that has 150 mobile point-of-sale-devices, which makes shopping faster.

NetSuite, a provider of cloud-based business management software suites, introduced its "Commerce as a Service" (CaaS) platform during the SuiteWorld 2012 conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.