Digital Innovation

Retail is currently facing one of the greatest opportunities and challenges in its history: the shift to digital channels. Across the entire retail landscape, online sales continue to increase while store-based retail sales stall or decline. In fact, according to a survey done by UPS, consumers made more purchases online than in stores in 2015…

Fifty-five percent of consumers start product searches by price checking on Amazon.com, according to a recent BloomReach survey. Fifty-five percent. This means the majority of shoppers are using price as the initial barometer for potential purchases, rather than a final deciding factor. As e-commerce has developed, it’s brought the convenience of online, on-demand comparison shopping. Large companies…

Wal-Mart is shaking things up a bit. The big-box retailer announced changes to its e-commerce leadership as Marc Lore, founder of Jet.com, takes on new responsibilities in the wake of the $3.3 billion merger of the two companies. As a result, several e-commerce executives are leaving Wal-Mart, including Fernando Madeira, head of Walmart.com, and Brent…

Rapid changes in consumer technology have created a demand for equally fast changes in retail technology. Today, there's an expectation that the instant results you receive on personal devices will be replicated in face-to-face transactions. However, retailers encounter a variety of challenges when trying to compete with e-tail (even, sometimes, with their own digital channels). Enabling consumer…

Retailers know that time and resources aren’t infinite in this shifting digital world, especially in marketing departments. Shoe Carnival, a “brand focused” footwear retailer that sells the likes of Nike, Adidas and Anne Klein, uses content like product images, lookbooks and video to give consumers a better understanding of its products. “Consumers historically like to…

The retail landscape is changing, and it all can be traced back to a phenomenon dubbed the Amazon effect. This trend, in which online retailers are cutting into the market shares of even the biggest of big-box chains, has small business owners asking one question: What do we do? Building a website and setting up…

Macy's launched an Apple shop at its Herald Square store last week, becoming the first U.S. department store with a hub devoted to the brand. The shop features a range of products, including iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and the new Nike-branded Apple Watch. Staffed by Apple associates, the shop is on the main floor in the busy…

Responsive web design (RWD) continues to be one of the biggest hypes for digital marketers. If you don’t already have a responsive site, chances are good you’ve at least thought about making this a priority, especially if you’re in the e-commerce space. However, as is true for most trends, getting caught up in the excitement…

I recently moved into a new house and was doing the requisite purging of years of accumulated stuff, including a few boxes of old work files. One of the dusty files was a project related to developing a vendor performance scorecard when I worked at Lands’ End around 20 years ago. At the time, we felt…

“Why the Future of Retail Will Blow Your Mind” reads the title of an Entrepreneur article from nearly two years ago. The piece detailed how brick-and-mortar retailers were planning to leverage technology to improve the often mundane in-store experience and boost slowing store sales. A primary way in-store customers were going to be "mind blown" was an "immersive personalized mobile experience" which would ping…