Technology

As you read this, business leaders across virtually every industry are dealing with the exact same problem: a deluge of sales calls, cold emails, and sketchy LinkedIn pitches from artificial intelligence vendors vying for even a sliver of your attention. For executives in the retail space it can feel like every platform, tool, and quirky…

Retail leaders have spent the better part of three years running artificial intelligence experiments. Smart shelf analytics here. A dynamic pricing engine there. A conversational bot standing in for customer service agents on the overnight shift. The results have been encouraging, sometimes even impressive, and the industry has responded with enthusiasm. But enthusiasm, unchecked by…

The top reason technology fails in retail has nothing to do with the technology. Retailers are deploying increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, robotics, and analytics platforms, yet nearly 90 percent of AI-powered technology transformations in grocery have not reached scale. These tools stall because the operating model fails to absorb them. In effect, retailers are buying…

Retail has always been about conversation. Long before artificial intelligence, the best store associates knew the real sale happened in the exchange — the “what are you looking for today?” that turned a browser into a buyer. Yet somehow, as the industry raced to digitize everything, that conversational instinct got lost and replaced with menus,…

The retail industry has entered a new era, one in which fragmented omnichannel strategies are no longer enough to meet rising consumer expectations and mounting operational pressures. According to Manhattan Associates’ latest report, Unified Commerce Powers Future Retail Success, the retailers pulling ahead are those that have moved beyond omnichannel and embraced unified commerce: a…

The retail industry spent the past decade building big. Scale was every CIO's mantra — massive systems designed to support millions of users and petabytes of data. And for a while, that strategy worked. E-commerce platforms handle holiday spikes. Cloud infrastructure powers businesses of every size. The engineering challenge of scale has largely been solved.…

Retail technology teams face a paradox: artificial intelligence is transforming how software gets built, yet the very tools that accelerate delivery are outpacing the security processes designed to protect it. For retailers competing on digital experience, faster development is essential. However, as the use of generative AI to create code and automate features becomes standard…

When shopping online, customers expect everything to work seamlessly. There’s no room for friction like a pricing error, payment failure, or out-of-stock item masquerading as “in stock.” If anything goes wrong, online shoppers take their business elsewhere. That’s why e-commerce continuity is table stakes for retailers today, especially when high-profile events such as Cyber Monday…

In large retail operations, category management teams spend significant time deciding which product goes onto which shelf and in which order. Shelf space is very expensive real estate in retail. According to Consumer Packaged Goods(CPG) Research, 10 percent improvement in shelf availability can drive a 5 percent sales lift. Shelf updates don’t happen frequently because…

New York Fashion Week (NYFW) has always been about more than what happens on the runway. Look behind the shows and you’ll see a real-time signal of how the fashion industry is evolving and where its biggest pressures lie. As I spoke with designers, brand leaders, and retail executives at NYFW last month, one theme…