Technology

Budgeting for the new year isn’t always easy to plan for, especially in unprecedented times. In order to gain deeper insights into retail, I turned to industry veterans Rich Pedott and Daniel Binder of Columbus Consulting. One way to streamline the process of keeping budgets in check while accommodating vendors is to use artificial intelligence…

COVID-19 has changed everything. The retail ecosystem has been impacted more than any other industry. Now, the industry is tiptoeing to the most important time of year: the holidays. In-store traffic is down over 50 percent from a year ago, and let’s not forget that this traffic had already decreased every month for over six…

2020 has been a year marked by a series of uncertainties. Many companies have seemingly been flying blind the past several months, attempting to weather the fallout from our COVID-19 new normal and pivot their operations in response to our anticipated next normal. Many business leaders are understandably somewhat disoriented by the rapid changes we've…

Holiday season 2020 ... bring it on. More than ever, consumers are longing for the joy the season typically brings, especially since life as we know it amidst the worst (and only) pandemic of our lifetime still looms. When we think of holiday shopping though — the crowds, tight spaces and just the sheer madness…

Learn how to deploy a personalized AI shopping assistants within 1 week, without backend integration.

COVID-19 has led every segment of our economy to rethink business practices. Customers continue to buy. What they buy and how they buy has changed, however. Many of these changes, such as digital-first experiences and hybrid retail models, are here to stay. Retail is at the forefront of an accelerated digital transformation. The current environment…

To no one's surprise, this year's holiday shopping season promises to be unlike any other. While annual trends have already indicated that consumers were turning away from brick-and-mortar retail locations, COVID-19's persistence promises to break retail's online sales records this year. As consumers trial alternative shopping methods, recent events have accelerated digitization in retail. For…

More than 6,300 U.S. stores are expected to close in 2020 amid a pandemic and ongoing changes to the brick-and-mortar model. Among them are some of the longest-running brands in retail, including Lord & Taylor, Victoria’s Secret, and Brooks Brothers. In order to re-stimulate the sector, retailers are mixing in digital solutions to create memorable…

Consumers are massively changing their shopping patterns and preferences. According to McKinsey, 40 percent of U.S. buyers said they had switched to other brands or retailers for the past few months. The first two reasons they provided were lower prices and a better price/value ratio. A logical and the easiest step to take here would…

Retailers considering implementing a full lifecycle price, promotion and markdown optimization system typically are familiar with the business benefits it delivers — enhanced shopper engagement, better alignment with price image and category strategy goals, and improved margins. However, retailers are often unsure how to make an informed decision about whether to build or buy a…