Today on Total Retail

Amazon.com has begun offering all businesses access to its logistics network, regardless of whether the business sells on the e-commerce giant's marketplace. In a press release, Amazon announced that it was opening its freight, distribution, fulfillment and parcel shipping capabilities to all businesses across all industries, including retail, healthcare and manufacturing. "We’re confident we can…

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…

Companies that use customer data to adjust the prices shoppers see, whether online or in-store, should know that regulators are paying attention and the legal landscape is changing fast. "Surveillance pricing" — the practice of using consumers' personal data to set targeted, individualized prices for a product or service — introduces legal risks for both…

Well before the war with Iran began, retailers were facing an impossible tangle of challenges, from supply chain volatility to upticks in theft to stubbornly high rates of staff turnover. Recent geopolitical tensions have merely added insult to injury, in particular by gravely exacerbating what was already a growing liability in the sector: namely, the…

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…

GameStop announced Sunday that it has made an unsolicited, nonbinding offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal, valuing the e-commerce platform at roughly $55.5 billion, reports CNBC. The offer, split evenly between cash and GameStop common stock, represents a 20 percent premium to eBay’s Friday close of $104.07, and a…

Retailers have spent years competing on convenience — one-click checkouts; frictionless returns; auto-applied promotions; instant buy now, pay later (BNPL) approvals — and that investment has paid off in higher conversion rates. However, it has also quietly expanded retailers’ attack surface. Today, with generative artificial intelligence lowering the barrier to sophisticated fraud, this is no…

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…

Every day, thousands of people are searching and reading about your company. About your team's expertise. Learning from guides and marketing collateral. These actions have been building trust in your brand. All without ever clicking through to your website. A manager in need of help with chatbot implementation might take their questions to an artificial…

Retail has always been a human-centered business. Every sale, return, upsell and resolution depends on an employee’s ability to read emotion, respond appropriately, and guide a customer through an experience that feels both personal and efficient. As customer expectations rise, competitive advantage in retail is no longer defined by operational efficiency alone, but by how…