Technology

In episode 310 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Jeff Swearingen, global senior vice president of demand accelerator, venturing and global business services at PepsiCo, an American-based multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation. Swearingen discusses the business and consumer changes PepsiCo has experienced in the last year-and-a-half during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how his…

The pandemic and subsequent acceleration of digital transformation made the cloud a rallying point for the entire C-suite. When COVID-19 hit, retailers needed to pivot to strategies like online delivery and adjust their supply chains based on constantly changing conditions. Cloud-enabled retailers had the visibility and data to make these changes quicker than analog counterparts.…

Luxury fashion brands were once infamously technophobic. Unlike direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) brands born with digital in their DNA, luxury was slow to embrace e-commerce. Iconic names and signature styles were enough to secure a loyal following, and most high-end consumers preferred to shop in stores. But recently — especially during the pandemic-induced e-commerce boom — this…

Traditional chatbots have become commonplace on e-commerce sites, yet too many are becoming unreliable and are alienating consumers due to their limitations. This is because many retailers rely on what's called "rule-based" chatbots when instead they should be implementing conversational artificial intelligence (AI), two terms often used interchangeably, but which are actually very different. Conversational…

Location intelligence (LI) combines location-based data with business intelligence (BI) to uncover new business opportunities that were previously hidden. Identifying new patterns and establishing critical relationships between trends and demographics create a gold mine of opportunities for chief merchants, supply chain leaders, and strategists who are waiting to explore new avenues. As the demand for…

While developers and CTOs worldwide perform Oscar-worthy "Red Queen" impersonations, screaming that for e-commerce it’s “off with its head,” it's worth stepping back to review the actual costs of going headless. Here, we’ll discuss headless e-commerce and its associated effects on costs and content. Headless, Simplified Headless e-commerce isn’t new. “Going headless” means separating your…

Over the past year, social unrest came to the forefront of public attention. As a result, the business world stepped up to support causes, doubling down on philanthropic efforts to drive change. The retail industry specifically continues to be a major contributor to causes like fighting the spread of COVID-19 and addressing demand for social…

High-end retailer Rebecca Minkoff has begun offering hundreds of clothing items on its website for rent without requiring a membership in a subscription service like those offered by some other fashion companies. The service is enabled through technology from CaaStle, which has created rental-subscription programs for companies such as Express. CaaStle's offering, called BORROW, allows customers…

On Tuesday, Sam’s Club announced its new feature, Scan & Ship, allowing customers to purchase Sam’s Club items using their mobile app and then have the products shipped directly to their homes. According to CNBC, the membership club is testing this feature as “a way to improve the customer experience.” The convenience of Sam’s Club…

The rapid evolution of technology has seen innovation take place at an exponential rate. Nearly every sector of human life, from personal communication to worldwide shipping logistics, has been touched and altered by these technological developments. The world of retail is no exception and has seen a significant shift as the influx of technology has…