Omnichannel

Most of us don’t know our customers. Picture the shopper who walks into a store. They’re blank canvases with no visible history, and that means there’s no easy way for sales associates to shape what happens in the next 10, 20 or 30 minutes, before they walk back out the door.

It’s no secret that e-commerce is continuing to grow as a portion of holiday shopping volume. But a newer trend shows that holiday e-commerce growth is shifting away from the desktop channel. According to a new survey from digital promotion platform RetailMeNot Inc., mobile app visits and transactions closed on desktop visits and transactions during the 2014 holiday season. If the trend keeps pace in 2015, mobile visits and transactions will surpass desktop visits and transactions as a holiday e-commerce channel.

Walmart offered a sneak peek of its new fulfillment center in the Atlanta area on Thursday on the heels of announcing that it would bring grocery pickup to the region this month.

Photos: Dalziel & Pow, London

Most of us don’t know our customers.

Picture the shopper who walks into a store. They’re blank canvases with no visible history, and that means there’s no easy way for sales associates to shape what happens in the next 10, 20 or 30 minutes, before they walk back out the door.

The National Retail Federation and e-digital consultancy FitforCommerce have launched a first-of-its-kind Omnichannel Retail Index to help retailers benchmark against industry best practices.

Kohl’s is giving its millennial customers some exciting new cold weather merchandise to think about as the fall season gets well under way.

The retailer is debuting the Madden Girl collection, featuring fashion, cold weather boots, accessories and outerwear. The collection will be available Oct. 15 in Kohl’s stores and on Kohls.com. The assortment will include the brand’s cold weather boots as well as exclusive designs for the fall season.

Lionel LLC has been making and selling model trains for 115 years, but that doesn’t mean the company is behind the times. Lionel is using NetSuite NetCommerce to run its end-to-end omnichannel commerce business.

The implementation, which only took four months, powers the company’s consumer-facing e-commerce websites for its Lionel Trains and Lionel Racing brands, call center, inventory management, order management, marketing, customer support and financials.