Technology

Today, B2B commerce teams rely on a patchwork of ERP platforms, spreadsheets, and separate order and inventory tools to run daily operations. Each system owns a piece of the commerce lifecycle. ERP handles pricing, product data, and customer accounts. Other tools manage orders, inventory, and fulfillment. Storefronts power the buyer experience. The issue isn’t the…

For decades, social class has been a useful shorthand for understanding consumers. Income, occupation, and geography have been used as proxies for purchasing power, preference, and brand behavior. However, new consumer data suggests this framework is becoming less reliable as a predictor of behavior. Rather than identifying with one fixed social class, many consumers now…

Change can be incremental, as in the cautionary “boiling frog” tale where a gradual rise in temperature leads to an unfortunate demise before the frog realizes what’s happening. Or change can be fast and furious; look at the disruption artificial intelligence is driving through the traditional path to purchase. Walmart’s introduction of an in-platform app…

Most retailers still think of RFID as a counting tool. The ones gaining ground have figured out it's something else entirely. I've spent the better part of two decades working in retail technology — including in IT at lululemon, at Avery Dennison, and as a vice president of supply chain at PVH — and the…

Artificial intelligence is disrupting the world faster than any previous technology change ever. The next decade of retail will be won by the brands that use technology to deepen human relationships, not replace them. A few weeks ago I stood at the back of a London flagship and watched a sales associate greet a returning…

Retail operations today depend on a rapidly expanding ecosystem of connected endpoints. From mobile point-of-sale (POS) systems and handheld scanners to back-office tablets and networked printers, these devices are essential to delivering fast, seamless shopping experiences. However, as retailers scale their technology footprint, they also expand their attack surface. Protecting mobile retail systems is no…

Most retail fulfillment technology investments don't fail at go-live. They fail months earlier, in a planning meeting where a vendor hands over a 14-week implementation timeline and nobody — not merchandising, not store operations, not the warehouse team — pushes back on the assumptions underlying it. By the time the project is six months in…

For today’s retailers, customer experience (CX) defines a business. Every delay, outage or failed transaction directly impacts revenue, customer loyalty and brand perception. To keep pace, retailers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence and automation to power real-time personalization, streamline operations, and support always-on digital and in-store experiences. However, the same technologies that enable speed…

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…

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…