Retail

New York -- Last week, SAP hosted its annual Retail Forum in the palatial confines of the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Within the elegant surroundings a lot of very practical and down-to-earth information about the latest retail IT trends was dispersed. Here are three tech trends retailers should pay extra close attention to.   Predictive Analytics  

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Kmart is the latest retailer to be hit by a payment data breach. The breach was discovered last Thursday by the chain’s information technology team, and the company immediately launched an investigation with a leading security firm, according to Kmart’s parent company, Sears Holdings Corp.   

Regional discounter ALCO Stores succumbed to market pressures and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The operator of 198 stores in 23 states was founded in 1901 and sought to serve small underserved markets with a broad range of value priced merchandise.

By Steven Pinder, Tom White and Kurt Kendall    Retailers are being squeezed by growing consumer individualism, globalization and evolving preferences. These pan-industry pressure points are causing a proliferation of SKUs that retailers must now nimbly administer. And with online competition eating into already-low margins, the challenge for brick-and-mortar retailers is clear: Find a better way to manage assortment practices.  

Las Vegas -- VeriFone Systems announced RubyCi, an integrated site controller and point-of-sale (POS) solution designed to enable average-sized convenience stores and petroleum retailers to more efficiently manage their POS, payment and fueling systems and prepare their payments infrastructure for EMV. The new solution combines features of VeriFone’s Ruby2 POS system and Commander Site Controller.   

Outdoor enthusiasts have been given a host of new capabilities on REI’s newest mobile app – including the ability to check snow conditions at popular ski destinations.

London - Online retailers provide delivery options shoppers don’t want, and don’t offer the ones they do. According to new research from software company OrderDynamics and Opinion Matters, more than half of online shoppers (54%) want a named delivery date, but only 15% of retailers currently offer it.