Omnichannel

Slowly but surely, consumers are becoming open to the idea of switching from leather wallets to an electronic version.

The eBay platform facilitated commerce of nearly $22 billion in the fourth quarter, a 5% increase, and counted roughly 265 million transactions during the holiday season.

After two years of development, Walmart’s OneOps cloud management and application lifecycle platform is being made available to the open source community in a move that highlights a sharp distinction with Amazon Web Services.
 

Retailers are continually on a quest to find innovative technologies to help deepen customer engagement with their brand.

Yet, perhaps the most critical part of the buying journey happens when a consumer puts down her device and looks for a human being she can talk with about solving her problem – something that even the most engaging technology can’t provide by itself.

The intense focus directed on EMV compliance in fall 2015 has faded, but it is still a critical issue for the retail industry.

Away from the spotlight, progress in EMV compliance since the Oct. 1, 2015 mandate passed has moved more slowly than many in the industry may realize. According to a survey of 200 retail professionals conducted during the January 2016 NRF Convention by ACI Worldwide, the majority of respondents are not compliant.

Conservative spending behaviors that made 2015 a challenging year for consumer packaged goods companies will remain intact for 2016, according to IRI, but there will be pockets of growth available to those who capitalize on 10 trends.

Retailers understand that loyal customers are the most profitable shoppers. While these consumers make buying decisions that are increasingly influenced by online channels, the vast majority of retail business in the United States is conducted in the physical store, and this isn’t changing with the Millennial generation.