Digital Innovation
August 11, 2020 at 2:45 pm
The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shockwaves through our world as we know it, changing just about every facet of how business is done. One area that was immediately hit due to stay-at-home orders was the retail industry. Revenue in clothing stores was down 78 percent in April, leading J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J.Crew to…
August 6, 2020 at 2:30 pm
The retail industry has seen significant damage as a result of unprecedented supply chain disruptions, wavering consumer confidence, and technological gaps for those making the leap from brick-and-mortar to digital storefront. Many retailers had just started to return to normalcy earlier this year, following a two-year trade war — and a promising Phase One deal…
July 27, 2020 at 2:38 pm
As innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transform how consumers interact with brands, voice technology is becoming a staple of the modern shopping experience. Voice technology allows brands to service consumers with increased efficiency and engagement. However, with so many brands adopting voice-first strategies, retailers that want to distinguish themselves need to take extra personalization…
July 21, 2020 at 12:37 pm
At the start of 2020, the biggest challenges for the retail industry were issues such as market saturation, finding new ways for old and aging brands to stay relevant, and the impact of new technologies and innovations. No one anticipated the greatest challenge of 2020 — and beyond — would be a pandemic that shut…
July 20, 2020 at 4:10 pm
Verizon Media today announced the launch of Groceries from Walmart, a Yahoo Mail feature that enables users to browse, add to cart, and purchase essential groceries from Walmart within Yahoo Mail. According to Verizon Media, this is the first time that email users can fill a shopping cart from their inbox, streamlining their shopping experience from…
July 16, 2020 at 7:27 pm
In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Ashley Chiaradio and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published on Total Retail titled, “Retail Modernization: Unlocking Actionable Insights,” authored by Valentyn Kropov and Jessica Bricker of digital consultancy SoftServe. This article examines how retailers can increase operational efficiency by turning data into actionable insights. They…
July 16, 2020 at 5:24 pm
Retailers across the country have started to reopen their storefronts, clearing the path for recovery from the devastating global pandemic. While the coronavirus has sparked uncertainty in retailers’ futures, it has also brought about new ways of working in retail. These new ways are largely rooted in pre-pandemic trends that have accelerated — e.g., the…
July 14, 2020 at 4:06 pm
Amazon.com is launching shopping carts that track items as shoppers add them, reports CNBC. The Amazon Dash Carts automatically charge customers when they remove their grocery bags, allowing them to skip the checkout line. These smart shopping carts will roll out at Amazon’s new Los Angeles-area grocery store, which is slated to open this year, the company…
July 10, 2020 at 2:14 pm
Digital transformation has become an inescapable mandate across all industries, especially retail. Providing consumers with an excellent online shopping experience and going beyond their expectations are critical measures of a retailer’s success. Customers’ demands are constantly changing, and retailers’ digital transformation efforts must reflect this as always-on, not a one-and-done process. Nonetheless, we're still seeing…
July 9, 2020 at 5:21 pm
Disparate systems and siloed data make it nearly impossible for retailers to effectively run analytics that provide insight into the business and its customers. Modernizing legacy infrastructures and moving data to a centralized location within a cloud platform lets retailers reduce IT spend (from costly maintenance), leverage advanced technologies to transform structured data into actionable…
