Technology
January 19, 2020 at 7:55 pm
The 2020 event season started with the National Retail Federation’s Big Show last week. This year’s event drew more than 38,000 participants. As attendees and most in the retail space know, the show brings together the retail industry's varied brands and the vendors that help them deliver great experiences to learn, share and talk about current market…
January 17, 2020 at 8:49 am
Today’s merchandise management teams simply cannot keep up with the demands of modern retail. Too many stores (both digital and physical), store plans and products — each with unique characteristics — leave no room to make quick adjustments as shoppers’ tastes continue to rapidly change. With a plethora of information, opportunities and competitors in the…
January 16, 2020 at 11:41 am
As the grocery market becomes more digital and customer expectations rise, grocers like Northgate Market need to implement new technology to stay competitive. In this interview conducted at the 2020 National Retail Federation Big Show in New York City this week, Total Retail's Joe Keenan speaks with Harrison Lewis, chief information and privacy officer at Northgate Market,…
January 16, 2020 at 9:51 am
The dust has settled following the “retail apocalypse” of 2018, and the numbers reveal that retail’s radical transformation is more nuanced than we once thought. While headlines in early 2019 spelled the end of retail, data from IHL Group shows otherwise. In 2019, retailers announced 2,965 more store openings than closings. Certain retailers led the…
January 15, 2020 at 10:57 am
More than 8,200 retail stores closed in 2019. Well-known brands like Forever 21, Radio Shack, and Barneys New York declared bankruptcy as consumers continued to move away from physical stores in favor of online shopping or more specialized experiences. Whether they’re looking at a product in person or on their mobile device, consumers now expect…
January 15, 2020 at 10:08 am
“Alexa, stop the alarm.” “Alexa, play the news.” “Alexa, remind me to buy bread.” Even though it has only been a few years since I bought an Amazon Echo, Alexa has already become an integral part of my life. When I read PYMNTS’ annual How We Will Pay study, in collaboration with Visa, I found out…
January 13, 2020 at 7:31 am
As pressure mounts to differentiate with superb customer service via interactive channels, more brands are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help deliver that service at scale. Technology researcher Gartner predicts that by 2021, seven out of 10 companies will rely on AI to boost productivity. Consulting firm McKinsey found that 47 percent of companies…
January 10, 2020 at 11:14 am
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic and many marketers have high expectations for the technology. There are lofty predictions for AI in the future, however, there are already a lot of applications for the technology within marketing automation that retailers have yet to take advantage of. What does it look like in practice?
January 8, 2020 at 12:50 pm
The retail industry has reached an inflection point where technology-driven transformation is a mainstay and crucial to a company’s growth and market value. From a place of scarcity, we've now migrated to an age of abundance — i.e., we have a plethora of technologies, resources and data. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and Internet…
January 3, 2020 at 12:09 pm
When it comes to vendor hype in retail, perhaps no other term is being tossed around as casually and frequently as “artificial intelligence.” A cursory look at technology vendor claims would have the retailer believe that AI is successfully deployed in every corner of the business, working flawlessly and delivering profoundly transformative results. But anyone…
