Technology

With the first half of the fiscal year in the rear-view mirror, it’s a good time to evaluate the impact of newly implemented technology and understand where technology is still needed on the IT road map. Optimizing sales, margin and inventory across all operation channels is important, but how do you know which technology to prioritize? According to…

The age-old belief for retailers was that the longer customers spent in your store, the better. But in today’s world of instant gratification, consumers are looking to streamline almost everything — including shopping. This means that retailers must find ways to shorten transactional time while enticing consumers to spend more time engaging in the in-store…

Artificial intelligence (AI) and related fields — data science, machine learning, predictive analytics — have become mainstream across industries dealing with big data, including retail. One of my favorite ways to explain this influx is a quote (and great article) from Harvard Business Review: “[Data scientists’] sudden appearance on the business scene reflects the fact…

An Analysis of Trends, Buying Behaviors and Future Opportunities

Now that summer is coming to a close, retailers’ thoughts are turning to planning and strategies for the all-important holiday season. The season spans Black Friday to Cyber Monday and through the varied landscape of early shoppers who plan ahead to last-minute shoppers who crowd stores and websites in the last days before Christmas. Retailers…

Today’s retail landscape is undoubtedly competitive. As customers flock to direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce brands (e.g., Warby Parker, Casper, Dollar Shave Club), many traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to stay afloat. This is evidenced by recent store closures from Dressbarn, Charlotte Russe, Payless ShoeSource, and Gymboree. With Coresight Research predicting that U.S. store closures could reach…

Analysts predict that spending on artificial intelligence (AI) in the retail sector will reach $7.3 billion by 2022, a majority of which will be poured into customer-facing conversational solutions like voice assistants and chatbots. That’s not surprising, given how the power of conversation is poised to fundamentally transform customer experiences across industries. The use of…

The retail industry, like many others, is being disrupted and permanently changed by the ever-increasing capabilities and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). As I wrote in my last post, we're just beginning to see the benefits of AI and ML implementations in the retail sector, but they've already helped forward-thinking companies…

Retailers are learning about all of the new technologies in the marketplace primarily through self-research. This was a key finding from Total Retail's recently released 2019 Retail Technology Report, which surveyed retail executives on a variety of technology-related topics, including how retailers keep abreast of the new technology solutions and innovations in the market, as well…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most prevalent buzzwords of our time. Everyone expects it to change the world, from driving our cars and making our burgers to policing our citizens – even writing surprisingly believable articles called "How AI Will Change Marketing." And what industry could be better suited to an AI revolution…