Apple, Inc.

Amazon fired the first shots of a long-needed retail industry revolution recently with its announcement of Amazon Go. While most major retailers have been working on solutions to many of the point-of-sale issues that a checkout-less store solves; Amazon is simply going to eliminate these issue entirely — at least in its own stores.   

  The Fung Global Retail & Technology team visited 35 stores throughout the Greater New York City area and Las Vegas on Black Friday for a first-hand view on traffic and sales.  Here are their top five takeaways from their store visits:  Cyber Monday Starts Early for Walmart:  Walmart kicked off its Cyber Monday deals at 12:01am EST on Friday for the first time ever, as it aims to grab customers ahead of its competitors. Last year, the company posted its Cyber Monday deals on the Sunday evening following Thanksgiving.

In a new post on Target's A Bullseye View blog, Target CIO Mike McNamara explains the reasoning behind the retailer's decision to offer an extensive Cyber Monday promotion: 15% off site-wide and store-wide from Nov. 27 to Nov. 28.   McNamara says the retailer's move to combine stores and online for a more seamless holiday shopping experience marks a new chapter in Cyber Monday history.  

Apple Pay may be transforming mobile payments, but digital targeted messages spur more shoppers’ willingness to pay with their devices.   This message was delivered in a study from USA Technologies. The report measured the impact of targeted digital advertising screens on consumers’ use of mobile wallets – primarily Apple Pay. The impact of 35 vending machines located in New York and Louisiana were measured over a six-month period, between March and August 2016.  

In 2013, to much hype and social media fanfare, Apple introduced the iBeacon into their iOS with release 4.0. Then everything went quiet, mostly because very few applications for the technology exist, and not enough developers understood the unlimited potential of the technology.   

The 24-hour Chinese shopping mega-event known as Singles Day brought in record numbers for the country’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba. But it appears that the growth rate is decelerating.    Alibaba Group Holding Limited reported that the total amount of goods and services sold by vendors (known as gross merchandise volume) over its e-commerce sites rose 24% to a record $17.8 billion this year. Last year, by contrast, sales on Alibaba platforms increased 60%.  

Macy’s third quarter profit fell short of analysts’ expectations, but the retailer raised its annual sales outlook based on improving trends in its business.    The retailer also announced an agreement with Brookfield Asset Management to monetize the value of its massive real estate portfolio.   

Apple’s App Store has been awash in recent weeks with hundreds of fake retail and product apps, the New York Times reported.