Technology

Online shopping is easy. It’s part of what makes e-commerce tick and why, perhaps, it’s an $871 billion industry in the U.S. The simple convenience of adding things to your digital cart and checking out, often with free delivery and returns, makes up for the inability to see, hold, and try on items before buying.…

It’s a common occurrence in today’s retail landscape: merchants must continually confront labor shortages or unexpected employee illness. For smaller retailers, closing their doors for even a few minutes can profoundly affect revenue and challenge the loyalty of customers who are forced to shop elsewhere. Technology can be the key to overcoming workforce challenges. Retail-ready…

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published by Total Retail titled, “2022 Delivery and Retail Trends,” authored by Jay Sackos, vice president of Dolly. Many of the biggest trends in retail today have to do with getting products into the hands of customers…

In this episode of Total Retail Tech Insights, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Prashant Kumar, founder and CEO of TechBlocks, a cloud engineering and digital services provider. Kumar discusses his technology background that led him to launch TechBlocks, the types of clients the company works with, and how the organization can help retailers. In addition, Kumar…

After a two-year hiatus, close to 10,000 retail innovators joined forces in Las Vegas last month for Shoptalk. The much-anticipated event focused on the future of retail, highlighting new technologies, trends and business models. Shoptalk offered a variety of engaging speakers, from small startups to the biggest brand names in the industry, along with original…

Since the dawn of retail as a human occupation, it has turned into a complex industry, with millions of players and networks between a manufacturer and an end buyer. So now, years and years after, retailers are amidst a highly saturated competition, diversified landscape of sales channels and store formats, tangled purchase funnel, and sophisticated…

During Shoptalk 2022 in Las Vegas last month, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviewed Katia Walsh, senior vice president, chief global strategy and artificial intelligence officer at Levi Strauss & Co. In this video, Walsh discusses her innovative role at Levi's, the challenges in attracting and retaining top digital talent, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected hiring. She…

The pandemic accelerated e-commerce growth and there’s no going back. Gartner reported that 86 percent of marketing leaders believe digital commerce will be the most important sales channel within the next two years. E-commerce leaders need a clear maturity road map to stay ahead of the competition, add differentiating value for customers, and improve commerce…

Modern retail consumers expect brick-and-mortar stores to provide a level of service and technological sophistication commensurate with their online counterparts. However, delivering this level of service requires significant IT infrastructure to support key functions and business processes. Customer-facing technologies such as integrated point of sale/CRM, frictionless returns and exchanges, and rewards programs have become mainstream;…

As most people who have worked in the retail industry over the pandemic know, consumer demands for the best possible online experiences are at an all-time high. Consumers are not tolerating hiccups in performance. With potential loss of revenue and consumer trust on the line, potential outages and downtime aren't something retailers can afford. For…