SAP America

Washington, D.C. - The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), has announced two major additions to the ARTS Standard Request for Proposals (RFP) library on selecting payments solutions and video analytics solutions. These standardized RFPs will help retail companies research software applications ahead of time.

Palo Alto, Calif. – SAP is opening HanaHaus, a new cafe and community workspace that aims to foster a culture of technology innovation, on March 19. Located in Palo Alto, California, HanaHaus seeks to become a central hub of activity that supports new thinking and entrepreneurial energy.

Omnichannel commerce is exposing organizations as "legacy channel impaired." Customers don’t talk about and don’t care about channels. Customers care about engagement, information, value, product and service. Channels are a frame we’ve used to organize around and operate in an increasingly disruptive environment. What started as a fear of cannibalization has evolved into an opportunity for augmentation, as digital and physical convergence accelerates across categories and formats.

Stanley Black & Decker and Newell Rubbermaid reported modest but steady growth in the fourth quarter, results that position both companies on solid ground going forward.

At Stanley Black and Decker, net sales for the fourth quarter came in at $2.98 billion, up from $2.88 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013. This was mainly due to increases in volume and price, but partially offset by currency. In terms of net income, the company pulled in $145.8 million, up considerably from last year's $56.1 million.

The ability to create an integrated and personalized user experience across all channels is the promise of a new omnichannel grocery solution from Grid Dynamics.

With the supermarket world evolving rapidly and shoppers demanding increased integration between physical and digital, Grid Dynamics released its Omnichannel Grocery Platform as an extension of the SAP hybris ecosystem of solutions. Citing statistics from BI Intelligence, Grid Dynamics said 3.3% of current U.S. grocery spending is online and that figure is projected to increase to 20% by 2018.

Last week, I took a look back at three technologies that disrupted retail in 2014. Now that we are kicking off the first work week of the New Year, it’s time to look ahead at three technologies likely to disrupt retail in 2015.

Wearables

Normanton, U.K. – U.K.-based discount retailer Poundworld is embarking on an IT overhaul with global retail IT services provider PCMS to support its long-term growth plans. The 10-month project will see Poundworld implement a range of new IT systems to improve customer experience, efficiency and store management.   

By Jeff Seabloom, Alsbridge   At one time, IT service providers could demonstrate their retail industry expertise by showing a PowerPoint slide of customer logos. That’s no longer sufficient.