Gelson's

By John Orr, [email protected]

Passive-aggressive, unengaged employees just aren’t that into your customers. Worse, they might be taking it out on customers, whose experience sends them to competitors. Contrast that with the upside of having an engaged staff happy at their jobs and going out of their way to treat customers well.

Los Angeles -- Arden Group, owner of the 16-unit Gelson’s Market grocery chain, said that the company is exploring its strategic options and has hired financial adviser Moelis & Co. to help with the review process.

The options may include a possible sale of the company.

No timeline for any potential transactions has been outlined.

From mobile payments to mining big data for customer insights, savvy retailers are using all the tools at their disposal to engage and connect with shoppers and provide relevant, convenient and personalized shopping experiences across all channels.

As retailers competitively position themselves for growth in 2013 and beyond, there are a number of hot buttons or key considerations that will be driving their strategies. Here is a look at some of the top ones:

Marketing and IT collaboration

Retail chains are keeping a sharp eye on IT solutions that will deliver a fast return on investment and streamline business operations. A step in the right direction is to transition a legacy-based applications to the cloud, but a lack of understanding among the corporate hierarchy can slow efforts.

Eager to make more effective business decisions, many retailers are reevaluating their business intelligence strategies. With a renewed focus on breaking down enterprise-wide silos, retailers are making a move to the next generation of BI, which includes giving line and store managers access to predictive analytics tools and multifunctional views of data.

San Diego -- Research released Thursday by Transaction Wireless and Aberdeen Group, which examined the benefits of mobile and digital gifting and emerging trends in mobile and social frontiers, found a shift toward digital gifting.

In fact, online gift cards have risen to prominence in the past few years and are now used by nearly a third (28%) of retailers. More than half – 61% – plan to use mobile gift cards, and 43% of customers prefer to use the mobile medium for gift cards.

New York -- Whether your company is already in the cloud or still on the fence about making the move, retailers can gain additional insight at “Legacy Modernization to the Cloud,” a FREE roundtable luncheon moderated by Chain Store Age. Attendees will learn how to move legacy workloads to the Cloud at a low cost and repurpose the savings on strategic imperatives like loyalty, mobile, and seamless digital connections.

The physical and virtual retail worlds continue to converge thanks to innovative technology, especially as consumers rapidly adopt digital solutions and apply them to their retailing experiences.

“Consumer-driven solutions are what keep customers at the epicenter of the shopping experience, and that’s what retail is all about,” said Sahir Anand, VP and research group director for Aberdeen Group, Boston.

Palto Alto, Calif. -- Personalization of the in-store customer experience will be a key objective for retailers over the next two years, according to two new Aberdeen Group reports sponsored by HP.

According to the 100 senior retail executives surveyed from industries such as apparel, grocery and department stores, 76% do not possess the technology tools or the business processes for executing web, catalog or special orders from stores. This challenge is being fueled by rising consumer expectations of rich, multimedia in-store shopping experiences.