Innovation Labs
July 2, 2019 at 12:44 pm
Lowe’s announced last week that it has selected Charlotte, N.C. for a 2,000-employee global tech hub. The home improvement retailer said it's spending $153 million on the project. Lowe’s plans to create 1,600 jobs and bring about another 400 over from its headquarters office in nearby Mooresville, N.C. The retailer will be hiring for a…
June 5, 2019 at 2:15 pm
Walmart has hired Scott Eckert to run its investment arm and startup incubator, Store No. 8, according to an internal memo from Marc Lore, the retailer's head of e-commerce on Monday, and obtained by Reuters. Eckert is a former executive of Bain Capital Ventures, where he evaluated potential new investments and advised CEOs about existing…
January 29, 2019 at 11:58 am
A store of the future should always be customer-first, open to new experimentation, and have a fluid and dynamic support system, at least according to Albert Vita, director of in-store experience and visual merchandising at The Home Depot. Vita addressed the topic during a conversation with Zivelo CEO Healey Cypher at the National Retail Federation's…
October 18, 2018 at 1:34 pm
Scott Emmons, head of the digital innovation lab at Neiman Marcus, delivered a keynote presentation at Total Retail Tech in September. In this clip from Emmons’ presentation, he discusses the tech trends that the upscale department store is investing in, from augmented and virtual reality (e.g., makeup try-on tool available in-store) to personalization, which he…
September 4, 2018 at 2:03 pm
Kroger is taking another major step to position itself ahead of competitors when it comes to e-commerce in the grocery industry. The company recently signed an agreement with the University of Cincinnati to operate an innovation lab at the college’s 1819 Innovation Hub. The goal of the partnership is to help Kroger continue to develop the…
September 4, 2018 at 11:01 am
In episode 161 of Total Retail Talks, recorded at the Customer Relationship Management Conference (CRMC) in Chicago, Scott Emmons, head of innovation lab, Neiman Marcus, details how the upscale department store chain is leveraging technology across sales channels to improve customers’ experiences, ultimately resulting in increased loyalty to the brand.
August 27, 2018 at 2:18 pm
The retail arm of CVS Health has launched four pilot stores featuring a new in-store beauty format called BeautyIRL, according to a report published by WWD. Currently, two BeautyIRL test stores are located in Florida, and the others are in Andover, Mass. and Stamford, Conn. The new stores offer brands not typically associated with mass market…
July 31, 2018 at 9:49 am
Traditional retailers must commit to digital transformation in order to streamline, differentiate and enable new business models.
May 15, 2018 at 2:57 pm
Amazon.com's cashier-free grocery store of the future is coming to San Francisco and Chicago. The company is expanding its experimental Amazon Go store to the two cities, but didn't say when they would open. It has posted job listings for store managers in the cities on its site, which were first noticed by the Seattle…
May 2, 2018 at 1:18 pm
Clay Johnson, executive vice president and CIO, Walmart, isn't afraid to fail. This was a key revelation gleaned from a discussion he had with Debbie Hauss, editor-in-chief, Retail TouchPoints, at the Retail Innovation Conference in New York City this week. “I’m one of those people who uses a fail fast model,” Johnson said. “The pace…
