Data & Analytics

Retail business industry veteran Lawrence Jackson has been named to the board of directors of cloud-based enterprise retail technology provider Aptos Inc. (formerly Epicor Retail Solutions).

In the coming year, seamless technologies that blend physical and digital channels will have a major impact on e-commerce.

According to Pitney Bowes, five key developments will primarily drive e-commerce in 2016. These are:

1. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will drive better business outcomes

Whole Foods Market has settled a dispute with the city of New York.

The grocer has agreed to pay $500,000 and to conduct regular in-store audits in a resolution of allegations that its stores in New York City were overcharging customers for prepackaged foods. The settlement was announced by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA).

Retailers just went through an increasingly digital and mobile holiday season.

According to analysis performed by the IBM Watson business intelligence platform, the average order value for the mobile and desktop shopper combined was $127.49, up 2.5% from 2014 ($124.33).

Consumers also shopped via their mobile devices in growing numbers. Mobile traffic exceeded desktop, traffic, accounting for 52% of all online traffic. This was a 17% increase in mobile traffic from 2014.

FedEx on-time performance went up this holiday season while UPS did not fare quite as well.

According to new data from package tracking provider ShipMatrix Inc., FedEx met its guarantees of one-, two- and three-day holiday deliveries 97.8% of the time in 2015. This marked an improvement from 97.3% in 2014 and 95.4% in 2013.

Last week, I looked at the top three trends that disrupted how retailers engage their customers during 2015. This week, I predict the top three trends that will set the course for customer engagement in 2016.

As Seen on TV

Smartwatch-based commerce only represents a sliver of total e-commerce, but that may soon be due for a change.

According to new research from Mintel, smartwatch sales are set to boom in the near future. While only 6% of Americans currently own a smartwatch, 21% of consumers who purchased a watch in the past 12 months say they are very interested in the smartwatch trend. And 24% of consumers have bought a watch in the past 12 months.

Mobile purchasing looks set for major growth in 2016.

According to new projections from Bizrate Insights, a division of Connextiy, based on month-over-month order volume in November 2015, mobile website purchases will increase by as much as 68% from 2015 to 2016. The peak volume during the 2016 holiday season may reach as high as 42%, nearly half of all online orders.