Today on Total Retail

At its height, Sears was the Amazon.com of its day. The 125-year-old retail giant amassed a catalog audience of more than 25 percent of the U.S. population — without using the internet or modern technology. It achieved the extraordinary feat of fulfilling more than 105,000 orders a day by changing the way business was done…

If your store’s doors are locked, three seconds is all it takes for a shopper to rattle the handles, then turn around and go somewhere else. For many retailers, the holiday season is a time of both trepidation and anticipation. As both Macy’s and Lowe’s discovered last year with site outages due to overcapacity, it’s…

Kroger has started using unmanned autonomous vehicles to deliver groceries in Scottsdale, Arizona in partnership with Silicon Valley startup Nuro. The delivery service follows a pilot program started by the companies in Scottsdale in August and involved Nuro’s R1, a custom unmanned vehicle. Kroger said the service would be available in Scottsdale at its unit Fry’s Food…

Just as the holiday season often brings a busier period of shopping, traveling and social events for the average person, so too does it come with supersized demands placed on retailers. The season, when consumers shop outside of their comfort zone, more broadly and more intentionally than at perhaps any other point on the calendar,…

A year-and-a-half ago, as numerous countries dealt with WannaCry’s aftermath, ransomware was one of the hottest topics in retail IT — and all feared what would happen if their systems were suddenly held hostage. But even by the end of 2017, security firm Malwarebytes found that ransomware attacks dropped off significantly. One potential reason: Ransomware…

With Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday falling on the early side this year, there's a little longer shopping season — but an overwhelming array of choices. More time means more opportunities to compare assortment, prices and offers, which means loyalty may go out the window.  How can retailers craft engaging, relevant pricing and promotions…

In episode 176 of Total Retail Talks, Kelly Murphy, director of marketing and causes at Olivela, a luxury philanthropic retail site that donates a portion of each purchase to charitable causes, offers insights into the brand's socially conscious business model and growth strategy. Murphy addresses Olivela's mission to make shopping for women's fashion a charitable…

Merchants need to start looking ahead and think about new approaches to turn holiday shoppers into year-round customers.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on Friday approved Sears Holding Company's request to pay up to $25.3 million in bonuses to top executives, even as the company reported losing nearly $1.9 billion in the first three quarters this year, according to the Chicago Tribune. Sears, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, said the funds will…

Due to the season’s unparalleled competition for eyes, interest, and wallets, companies need to modernize their marketing strategies.