Data & Analytics

Olive Garden brings digital to the table
Olive Garden is adding a new omnichannel twist to its traditional Italian dining experience.

The casual dining chain has completed rollout of Ziosk tabletop tablets at more than 800 restaurants nationwide. Ziosk's seven-inch touchscreen tablets allow Olive Garden customers to browse the menu, order drinks, appetizers and desserts, and pay checks. The tablets also feature interactive activities such as trivia games.
All e-commerce is local at Urban Decay
Specialty cosmetics retailer Urban Decay is making its e-commerce site as accessible as possible to as many customers as possible.

Urban Decay has integrated e-Spirit's FirstSpirit content management system (CMS) with a Demandware e-commerce platform. The CMS allows Urban Decay to manage the proliferation of content, then localize that content for each individual site the retailer operates internationally, through a feature called "UD All Access.” Urban Decay worked with e-commerce services provider OSF Global Services to launch the new feature.

Five Emerging Trends for Supermarket Retailers to Leverage in 2016

As we begin 2016, supermarket retailers continue to adapt to changing consumer demands, industry issues and regulations affecting their businesses. Some grocers are expanding their footprints, others are narrowing to specialty formats, and some seem to be doing both. All are facing increased competition and high expectations around freshness, convenience and transparency.
Top three things retailers can do when a site goes down

Several retailers, including Neiman Marcus, had site issues this past Black Friday weekend. Here is some advice from the folks at Dynatrace, an application performance management software company, on the top three things retailers can do when things go bad online.
Online woes impact Neiman Marcus, others over Black Friday

Three leading retailers suffered varying degrees of difficulty with their e-commerce sites during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Black Friday weekend goes digital

Consumer spending across digital channels showed significant year-over-year growth over this year's Thanksgiving weekend.

According to data from ComScore, desktop spending surpassed $1 billion on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Consumers sitting at desktop PCs spent a total of $1.1 billion, up 9% from $1.01 billion in 2014. On Black Friday, desktop spending grew 10% to $1.66 billion from $1.5 billion.
Retailers: Find the Marketing Payoff in Your Data

In a field rich with potential customer data, retail marketers are feeling more data-wealthy than ever as data big and small seem to rule the world. Meanwhile, though, the promise of all this data has lured more than one retailer into a frustrating marketing technology maze that didn’t pay off as planned, sending them in too many directions for too long to cost-efficiently find the customer magic they were promised.
Three Trends Impacting Retail Tech Outsourcing in 2016

Information technology outsourcing (ITO), or the strategic hosting and management of technology solutions, services and personnel by a third-party provider, is a popular way for retailers to quickly increase their technological capabilities, and also lower their IT-related capital expenditure.

Jeff Seabloom, managing director at Dallas-based global advisory firm Alsbridge Inc., spoke with Chain Store Age about three trends he sees having a major impact on retail ITO in 2016.
TechBytes: Three Ways to Extend Holiday Shopping Joy—and Profits

When retailers execute their IT and CRM strategies properly, the holiday shopping season is a joyous time of profits and customer engagement. But why let all the festivities end on Dec. 25?

By properly leveraging solutions and strategies, retailers can extend the season of consumer goodwill (and spending) right into the New Year. As “Cyber Week” fades into memory, let’s focus on the week (or weeks) after the end of the traditional holiday season. Here are three suggestions to keep that holiday spirit alive a little longer this year.
Spotlight on Lowe’s Innovation Labs: Q&A with executive director Kyle Nel

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, who discussed the mission and activities of the retailer’s proprietary technology development center.
NRF: Holiday weekend brings big in-store and online shoppers; online has edge

Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.
Lessons retailers learned this Black Friday

Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.

Retailers such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s spoke of well executed promotional strategies that leveraged their physical and digital presence and those insights were validated by data from the National Retail Federation’s Thanksgiving Weekend Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.