Digital Innovation

J.C. Penney has gone through some tough times, and that’s an understatement. People tend to forget that the company has done more revamping and restructuring than just the Ron Johnson era, however brief it may have been. It was a company that was struggling before Ron Johnson came, and while it has found a certain…

As online giant Amazon.com charges into the $300 billion U.S. apparel market, Macy’s is running for the dressing room. Even Macy’s acknowledges there’s little it can do to keep customers from shopping online for basic clothing — T-shirts, men’s jeans and tighty whities. Yet the department store chain is clinging to the idea that many…

Checkout is the last opportunity a retailer has to make a positive impression on a shopper. Yet new research confirms the majority of checkout experiences today end in frustration. By addressing acute front-of-store pain points, retailers will be able to boost customer satisfaction ratings while encouraging longer, more frequent visits. A study conducted online by…

Kyle Nel is executive director of Lowe's Innovation Labs, where he's developed the Lowe's Holoroom, an augmented and virtual reality home improvement design tool, the OSHbot autonomous retail service robot, and in-store and online 3-D scanning and printing. In Nel’s words: “I (and my team) build new technologies that solve consumer problems, as envisioned through…

Rakuten, Japan’s answer to Amazon.com with e-commerce operations and investments that stretch from digital media and e-commerce marketplaces through to social media and transport apps, is making another acquisition to expand its holdings, this time in the area of fashion. The company has acquired Fits.me, a startup that develops “virtual fitting rooms” — two-way technology…

Target has opened a new retail space at the base of its Metreon City Target near San Francisco’s Moscone Center, and if you’re a fan of the smart home, clear acrylic furniture or grand retail experiments, then this is the place to be. The Minneapolis retailer is calling this Target’s Open House, and it's the…

Just when you think you know a little something about the millennial generation, another piece of research drops like a bomb. Of all the stores for them to prefer, Wal-Mart isn’t the one that naturally comes to mind. But that’s precisely the case as Wal-Mart ranks as the preferred place to shop for millennials 24…

It seems that we’re capable of buying a subscription for nearly anything today. What was once a pricing model limited to magazines, newspapers, utilities and telecommunications services has expanded to encompass just about any product a consumer or business can dream of. This transformation has been seen across B-to-C and B-to-B industries with diverse offerings,…

Say you’re a busy woman who doesn’t have time to shop for clothes. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a personal stylist who mailed you five pieces of clothing, specifically chosen for you, and you were given the option to buy what you liked and mail back what you didn’t in a prepaid envelope? Sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, that’s the business model behind Stitch Fix, a San Francisco-based startup that’s equal parts technology and retail, and has largely grown by word-of-mouth from women who love the service.