Technology

It’s clear that people’s shopping habits are changing. E-commerce is on the rise and the increase of smart mobile devices are forcing retailers and brands to re-evaluate their plans for the future. However, brick-and-mortar stores are far from dead. Despite the temperamental relationship people have with supermarkets, research from PwC suggests that many consumers still…

Rebecca Minkoff will launch a program to fund retail technology companies with venture capital firm Quotidian Ventures to identify new tech talent — a move aimed at nurturing the kind of startups and tech enterprises that enabled Minkoff to create the Rebecca Minkoff connected flagship stores in early 2015. The announcement was made at the National…

In episode 69 of Total Retail Talks, recorded at this week's National Retail Federation Big Show in New York City, Total Retail's Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews Lisa Gavales, president and CEO of Things Remembered. Gavales discusses what innovation means for the personalized gifts retailer, how testing influences Things Remembered's product selection — both in-store…

Staples is using IBM's Watson cognitive computing technology to help its online shoppers with "low-end tasks" such as customer service inquiries. In this interview with Staples’ Chief Technology Officer Faisal Masud at the National Retail Federation's Big Show, he explains that Watson also helps influence sales by making the buying process easier and quicker for…

For traditional brick-and-mortar retailers like Target, shifting consumer behavior to more online shopping has caused them to have to re-evaluate their business models. No longer can stores be the single point of interaction between retailers and customers. Leveraging technology to meet the needs of today's digitally savvy consumers has become essential to retail success. In…

Retailers collect a massive amount of data every day. That data gets turned into reports, which are distributed throughout different branches of the company, including store associates. However, do those store associates know what to do with all the reports sent to them? Most of the time the answer is “no.” In the session “Prescriptive…

There’s no arguing that a prominent web presence is crucial to the success of a retail business, but what’s more important is placing focus on a website’s performance. Customers have come to expect a quality online experience, which often comes down to the basic function of a brand’s site. Global IP traffic will increase nearly…

If Italian eyewear brand Luxottica — which controls 80 percent of the frames and sunglasses market — is an 800-pound gorilla, then Warby Parker is a chimpanzee: lean, agile and smart enough to shake things up. Where did Warby Parker Co-Founder Neil Blumenthal get the gusto to take on the incumbent ape? Before starting Warby…

There are many exciting facets of mobile that open up worlds of opportunity for customer and business expansion for retailers. And while mobile marketing is still just scratching the surface, one strategy is sure to become more in focus for retailers in 2017: location-targeted marketing. What is Location-Based Marketing? It sounds like something from the…

In 2016, we saw retailers begin to experiment with chatbots. Customers could place orders or contact customer service through the use of this technology. The rise in chatbot popularity became clear when Facebook Messenger announced it would be integrating with retailers to allow consumers to make purchases right in the platform. Now Narvar, a software-as-a-service…