Software

Growers House Plants Seeds for a Better Omnichannel Experience
May 5, 2016 at 12:48 pm

Growers House, a family owned-and-operated hydroponics supply and indoor gardening center in Tucson, Ariz., was in the market for a retail management platform that would help it integrate data across its various business channels — retail store, e-commerce site, online marketplaces (Amazon.com, eBay), wholesale. Having to manage all of that data, from customer data to…

Amazon.com Goes Down for 20 Minutes, the World Freaks Out
March 11, 2016 at 8:14 am

Amazon.com went down for some users on Thursday afternoon for approximately 20 minutes before being restored. Users trying to access the Amazon website as well as the mobile app at around 2:20 p.m. ET were greeted with error messages. During the outage, many users took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

What E-Tailers Can Learn From Financial Trading Systems
March 10, 2016 at 11:51 am

From a revenue standpoint, what would you lose if your site was to go dark for 40 minutes? Where would your customers go? As we close the book on this past holiday season and look back on the e-commerce frenzy, I can’t help but reflect on this loss and how it might be avoided. To…

Preparing for the Holidays: A 101 in Web Performance Optimization
December 1, 2015 at 10:21 am

Holiday sales traditionally constitute a huge portion of retailers’ annual revenue, and there’s a lot at stake in the upcoming season. According to PwC, web sales for the overall retail sector will see a mid- to high-teens percentage increase over last year, with the leading retailers poised for a 40 percent to 50 percent increase.…

Back-to-School: A Prep Course for Peak Holiday Season
October 13, 2015 at 12:44 pm

Every year the back-to-school (BTS) season means something different for incoming students. One year it might mean multiplication tables, the next it could be long division, U.S. history or organizational chemistry. However, one thing that students expect every year — regardless of the actual course work — is that their work load will increase and…

Has Amazon Cracked the Problem With In-App Payments?
August 31, 2015 at 11:32 am

There’s an experience familiar to nearly anyone who’s downloaded a game on their smartphone. Try as you might to conquer the latest level/village/candy, your thumbs lack the speed/agility/candy to get you through. With deep regret, you purchase an item or expansion pack to continue your long march toward distraction. If every time you do this…

Lessons From Enterprise RFID Deployments
June 29, 2015 at 3:28 pm

The use of handheld RFID readers for retail cycle counting and inventory management is exploding — and for good reason. They’re inexpensive, tangible and convenient, and provide a familiar form factor for store associates. However, while handhelds are well suited for initial retail pilots, deploying them in scaled-up enterprise environments requires careful thought and planning.…