Technology

As pressure mounts to differentiate with superb customer service via interactive channels, more brands are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help deliver that service at scale. Technology researcher Gartner predicts that by 2021, seven out of 10 companies will rely on AI to boost productivity. Consulting firm McKinsey found that 47 percent of companies…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic and many marketers have high expectations for the technology. There are lofty predictions for AI in the future, however, there are already a lot of applications for the technology within marketing automation that retailers have yet to take advantage of. What does it look like in practice?

The retail industry has reached an inflection point where technology-driven transformation is a mainstay and crucial to a company’s growth and market value. From a place of scarcity, we've now migrated to an age of abundance — i.e., we have a plethora of technologies, resources and data. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and Internet…

When it comes to vendor hype in retail, perhaps no other term is being tossed around as casually and frequently as “artificial intelligence.” A cursory look at technology vendor claims would have the retailer believe that AI is successfully deployed in every corner of the business, working flawlessly and delivering profoundly transformative results. But anyone…

At this year’s G7 summit in Biarritz, 32 companies banded together to sign the Fashion Pact, a commitment to solving one of the apparel and retail industry’s biggest problems: sustainability. The fast-fashion sector has been a main contributor to the problem. With companies churning out more clothing on a faster production cycle, the fashion world…

I don’t know about you, but I love convenience. I love ordering my groceries from Whole Foods while at the office, and have them waiting on my doorstep by the time I arrive home. Recently, I’m loving being able to pick up online purchases in-store. I order shoes on Nordstrom.com, wait a couple of days,…

As retail and direct-to-consumer companies look to ignite their next wave of growth, executives at these organizations are having to chart a path forward amid rising customer acquisition costs. As they do, many of these companies are setting their sights on a new beacon of potential growth shining on the horizon: advertising revenue. The opportunity…

As director of market research at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, I have an insider’s view of the latest and greatest innovations and technology. And there’s an important, but unexpected, trend in the intersection of technology and retail: tech innovations are giving shoppers even more reasons to visit brick-and-mortar stores. Ninety percent of consumer shopping still…

“Innovate or die!” is a mantra known to many industries, but is particularly relevant to today’s retailers. Recent headlines seem to highlight those that have failed to embrace innovation and have suffered the consequences — store closures, lost customers, bankruptcy filings. The truth is, however, that many have enthusiastically embraced the call for digital transformation,…

The holiday shopping season kickoff isn’t called “Black Friday” because of the chaos in stores when shoppers turn up in droves. The origin of the name goes back to the bookkeeping color code — retailers make their profits in the last quarter of the year, hoping to finish “in the black.” But profitability is a…