Technology

The retail industry is no stranger to technology. It's predicted that the biggest focus and greatest competitive advantage for U.S. retailers in 2011 will be related to retail technology. But technology that assists the sales process and robots that are an integral part of the retail experience are two different things.

Apple’s iPad is responsible for 1 percent of the world’s web traffic, as well as 2.1 percent of web traffic in the U.S., according to the latest numbers from NetMarketShare. Looking at earlier reports, the iPad’s share of web traffic has been steadily growing by 10 percent or more since March 2011. Looking at the overall market share of mobile and tablet devices compared to desktops, it reached 5 percent for the first time in June.

Best Buy recently entered its hat into the cloud arena by soft launching its Music Cloud service. The new service will go up against Amazon's Cloud Player, Google Music and Apple's iCloud, among other music cloud services.

Best Buy is expanding its 257-store Shopkick pilot to a nationwide endeavor. Patrons who have the mobile app open whenever they walk into one of the retailer's locations will earn reward points for items like gift cards, song downloads and flat-screen TVs.

J Vineyards & Winery has incorporated mobile barcodes onto its labels to educate consumers on the particular wine bottle they scan. The company decided to use mobile barcodes because of the growing number of smartphones in the market and to further engage its ever-changing tech-savvy consumers.

Sears Canada has introduced Skype technology in 10 of its trendy new fashion shops, allowing shoppers to get instant online feedback by modelling would-be purchases for friends or family on an in-store, 58-inch-wide screen.

There's a new kiosk on the market that promises to make shopping a more pleasant experience by matching shoppers' bodies with the perfect fit and style of clothing. The mybestfit kiosk designed by Unique Solutions is a body-scanning booth that takes body measurements and then matches those results to the sizing specifications of specific apparel brands listed in the kiosk's database.

We popped by the BlackBerry Playbook launch party in New York last week and found that some shopping sites work better (or work at all) on the Playbook vs. Apple's iPad 2, the other hot new spring tablet launch — and it's not just about have-Flash vs. have-not-Flash. On some sites, you can't even see all the merch or go to the next page if you're using one of these devices.

Best Buy has confirmed it's testing tablets and POS apps during the launch of its "Connected Store" pilot program. Tablets being tested include the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Motorola Xoom.

Lands' End has been doing e-commerce since 1995, and most of its revenue flows through its website today. It's been an early adopter of a number of e-retail technologies, like the live video chat with customer service reps that it started offering customers last fall. So you'd think it would be a natural for the clothing retailer to embrace cloud-based infrastructure.