Artificial Intelligence

In retail, as in life, experience is everything. Whether it’s online, on a smartphone or in the store, it really doesn’t make a difference. A bad experience will turn off customers, while a good one will build brand advocates. It’s always been like that, of course. But today’s technology-enabled shoppers have changed the rules of the game by upping the stakes considerably.

Retailers tapping into technology to maximize in-store labor during the busiest season

Let the games begin.

Retailers are gearing up for the Super Bowl of the holiday-selling season, when stores generate up to 40% of their annual sales and boost their staffs in light of the heightened shopping spree.

As technology reshapes the retail landscape at a dizzying pace, it’s also advancing the art and science of aligning sales and traffic patterns with in-store labor — particularly crucial during the make-or-break winter selling period.

Tools for engaging with holiday shoppers on the most popular social platforms

Social media platforms offer retailers a chance for direct engagement with consumers as well as access to highly personalized data, all in real or near-real time. During the holiday season, with its intensified levels of competition and customer distraction, having the type of direct promotional connection with customers that social media can offer is more crucial than ever.

H-E-B has registered its new store in Austin for LEED certification and Austin Energy Green Building certification. Apart from using a propane refrigeration system, the store includes a number of other green “firsts” for H-E-B, including the use of 100% LED lighting, radiant floor cooling, a chilled water system that supports the store refrigeration and HVAC systems, chilled sails/beams for cooling, a wood building frame and roof deck, a ceramic-based roof coating and extensive use of photovoltaic panels.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- “The Chore Score,” an app that allows parents to create chore lists for their kids with rewards that can be redeemed at Sears stores or Sears.com, won the recent Sears Startup & Developer Challenge. The contest, held for three days, featured more than 150 participants using the Sears development API to create apps that would strengthen the experience of the Sears Shop Your Way membership program.

Boston -- Brian Kilcourse, managing partner for Retail Systems Research, took some time out at the Orgill Fall Market Friday to deliver a primer on mobile technology as a driving force in the contemporary retail environment.
 
The seminar, titled "The New Rules of Retail: How Today's Consumer is Changing the Game," positioned mobile technology as a harbinger of a giant "reset" in retail comparable to the Industrial Revolution and onset of the Information Age.
 

By Dawn Palmer, Accenture

BOSTON — Brian Kilcourse, managing partner for Retail Systems Research, took some time out at the Orgill Fall Market Friday to deliver a primer on mobile technology as a driving force in the contemporary retail environment.

The seminar, titled "The New Rules of Retail: How Today's Consumer is Changing the Game," positioned mobile technology as a harbinger of a giant "reset" in retail comparable to the Industrial Revolution and onset of the Information Age. 

Redwood City, Calif. -- Sur La Table is deploying eCommera’s DynamicAction SaaS solution, which provides timely analysis of marketing, merchandising and inventory data, giving Sur La Table actionable insights and recommended business changes to improve omni-channel performance.
 

Dublin, Calif. – Epicor Software announced the appointment of Noel Goggin as senior VP and general manager of the Epicor Retail solutions business reporting to Epicor president and CEO Pervez Qureshi.

In this strategic role, Goggin will have operating responsibility for the Epicor Retail solutions business which delivers a comprehensive retail management suite representing a complete range of advanced solutions for specialty, soft goods, and general merchandise retailers.