Google, Inc.

The nation’s top Internet retailer is also tops in corporate reputation.

The term “impulse buy” has a negative connotation to many. Picking up that guilty pleasure snack in the checkout line at the supermarket, that gadget you don’t really need, or those shoes that are on sale all qualify.

We often talk about how to avoid, deter and block bots. But much opportunity lies in figuring out how to distinguish between good and bad bots, and to understand how the distinctions change across applications and environments, especially within the retail industry.

Dating websites exploit data relationships to find great matches and the same approach can help retailers make a love connection with their customers.

Online dating is a huge success story. Estimated to be a $2 billion global business, about one in every ten Americans is using an online site or mobile dating app to look for love today.

Google is finally shutting down efforts to promote Google Glass as a consumer device.

Back in April 2015, Google said it would partner with Luxottica Group to create a more user-friendly version of the connected eyewear. This announcement followed Google’s decision to essentially putting Google Glass on hiatus in January 2015. However, consumers never took to Google Glass, and after releasing an initial flurry of apps, retailers never really did, either.

Google is being secretive about its “Project Wing” delivery drone program, but a patent filing gives some additional information about the effort. According to Fast Company, Google hopes to use remote wheeled delivery receptacles that will automatically guide drones to drop their packages. The receptacles will then complete the delivery on the ground. [Fast Company]

Retailers have one less form factor to consider in their wearable connected device strategies. According to Gizmodo, Google is officially ending all support for its Google Glass connected eyewear device in the consumer market. This ends plans to relaunch Google Glass among consumers in partnership with Luxottica Group that were announced in April 2015, although Google is still promoting Google Glass as a workplace tool. [Gizmodo]

“Now Trending” is an exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

As more of my work brings me into contact with mixed-use developments in urban core markets, it’s clear to me that there are some important changes taking place – changes that are fueling the ongoing mixed-use renaissance in many cities.

The NFC/contactless ecosystem will grow in 2016, with an increasingly number of third-party wallets coming from the likes of Samsung and Google.

That’s just one of seven payment predictions contained in a new infographic from the Ingenico Group.

To see the infographic, click here.

Trying to picture how home improvements will look in your mind’s eye can be tough, and Lowe’s is using emerging technology to expand the view.

Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, recently told Chain Store Age how retailer’s proprietary technology development center is developing an app for the new Project Tango virtual reality (VR) mobile platform. Jointly created by Google and computer technology company Lenovo, Project Tango provides mobile devices with spatial capabilities.