Sales & Marketing

Visiting the expansive Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, has always been an experience for shoppers, but a recent digital upgrade takes that experience to a new level.

Duluth Holdings just put a key element of its growth strategy in place, choosing cloud commerce solutions provider Demandware to integrate its physical and digital presence.

Going to market under the banner of Duluth Trading Company, the retailer said it selected Demandware to optimize is digital and omnichannel growth strategies.

Whether you're in-store or online, the benefits of a personalized customer experience are undeniable. We want salespeople who can help us find exactly what we're looking for as quickly as possible; we return to lunch spots where all we have to ask for is "the usual." For e-tailers, personalization has traditionally relied upon recommendation engines, algorithms that look to match prior consumer clicks and purchases with like-minded cohorts. And personalization is indeed effective for those e-commerce sites.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest topics in retail technology. While there has been a lot of talk about IoT’s status as a game-changer for retail, there has been less discussion on exactly how it will drive industry transformation.

Here are three specific ways IoT will bring about a new era in retail operations.

Automatic shopping

Starbucks Corp. reported profit for the second quarter that exceeded expectations, but it disappointed on sales. The chain also offered a third-quarter earnings outlook that was shy of forecasts.

For the quarter ended March 27, Starbucks reported $4.99 billion in sales, up 9% from $4.56 billion in the year-ago period. Although sales set a new record for a non-holiday quarter, they but still fell short of analyst estimates of $5.03 billion.

Net income rose 18% to $575.1 million on strong U.S. sales.

Macy's chose Earth Day to give an update on its ongoing solar power deployments.

The retailer, in a 10-year partnership with SunPower Corp., has deployed SunPower solar systems at, or planned for, 71 Macy's and Bloomingdale's locations in 10 states, totaling approximately 39 megawatts.

Fifty SunPower systems are operating to date, and the company is contracted to install its technology at 21 additional Macy's and Bloomingdale's facilities this year.

Inspired by the history of Hollywood, Starbucks has set up shop at Universal Boulevard, a new main street-styled retail destination at Universal Studios Hollywood.

The façade of the 5,000-sq.-ft. store is broken up into multiple buildings, as if it had originally been the site of several small shops. The interior is fashioned as one grand space. A banquette made of reclaimed black walnut wood curves like a siren’s tale, creating seating eddies.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest topics in retail technology. While there has been a lot of talk about IoT’s status as a game-changer for retail, there has been less discussion on exactly how it will drive industry transformation.

Here are three specific ways IoT will bring about a new era in retail operations.

Automatic shopping