Data & Analytics

Walmart has officially gone live with voice shopping on the Google Home platform.   As it was announced back in August, the discounter is partnering with Google to allow its customers to shop for Walmart items through voice via Google Assistant, the search giant's online shopping platform that lives on its smart speaker. On Wednesday, the partnership went live, with more than two million Walmart items available through voice.   

For all the buzz about buy-online-pickup-in-store, not that many retailers are actually deploying the service.   

A home furnishings brand is in rapid expansion mode — something that wasn’t possible five years ago.

Online-only retailers may be taking a toll on omnichannel companies, but traditional companies are finding ways to fight back.   This was according to “Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Fight Back: Winning Strategies to Compete with Online-Only Players,” a report from Applied Predictive Technologies (APT).  

It takes a lot of work for retail brands to deliver a remarkable experience. However, it can be done by making sure the environment provides a sensory experience. A sensory experience affects a human’s sense of sound, sight, touch, smell and taste. Retailers often naturally focus on sight, primarily caring about how the space looks. But what they don’t realize is that the look and feel of the environment encompasses a lot more than simply how it appears.   

Shake Shack, the burger chain founded by famed restaurateur Danny Meyer, is taking a high-tech approach to its newest site.  

Walmart is determined not to be bested by Amazon when it comes to same-day delivery.   The discounter announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Parcel, a last-mile delivery startup that specializes in delivery of perishable items and general merchandise to customers in New York City. Operating out of a warehouse in Brooklyn, Parcel delivers goods the same-day, overnight and in scheduled two-hour windows, providing customers with live updates via text messages throughout the delivery process.   

Destination Maternity is making it easier for its customers to connect with the brand.   The maternity clothing retailer transitioned from a custom e-commerce platform to Salesforce Commerce Cloud, with the help of global commerce provider Lyonscg. The transition enabled the chain to launch customized mobile sites for its Motherhood, Motherhood Canada, A Pea in the Pod and Destination Maternity brands. All sites feature more intuitive navigation, improved site merchandising and on-site search, and easier check out.