Omnichannel

New York -- Some of the largest retailers in the United States and United Kingdom are not keeping pace at adapting their store operations to changing consumer buying habits.  

CardinalCommerce and Unbound Commerce have rolled out a cloud wallet service for online merchants. The cloud wallet service from Unbound Commerce scheduled for release in July leverages Universal Wallet APITM from Cardinal to offer a single point connection to several leading digital wallets. 

As fans of the late ’90s Ben Affleck-Matt Damon film “Good Will Hunting” know, Cambridge, Mass., is often viewed as the province of what are locally referred to as “smaht kids.” I was privileged to be surrounded by “smaht kids” (or their grown-up equivalent) during the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, which was held at Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus in Cambridge. While there, I got to listen to their insights on how the evolution of IT and business is dramatically changing the role of the CIO.

DALLAS — AT&T and IBM teamed up to deliver an e-commerce solution that retailers can use to provide their customers with a consistent shopping experience whether they are shopping online, via a mobile app or in stores.

The new service, expected to be available this year, combines AT&T’s cloud, application management and network services with e-commerce software from IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative in a single, subscription-based package designed for retailers.

Online marketplace Rakuten Inc. has acquired Webgistix, a Las Vegas-based logistics and services company specializing in cloud-based fulfillment technology for e-commerce retailers. The acquisition is Rakuten’s second logistics investment outside of Japan and its first in the Americas. 

New York -- Golfsmith International will open a two-story, 15,000-sq.-ft. store on Fifth Avenue, near 38th Street, in Manhattan.
   
The store, opening on Friday, June 7, features three state-of-the-art club fitting studios with simulators that enable customers to test drive the latest equipment with the same technology used to fit tour pros. The store also has an indoor putting green and technology bar with GPS units, range finders and a variety of high-tech gadgets.

New York -- Kate Spade Saturday, a new division of Kate Spade, has partnered with eBay Inc. to open four pop-up storefronts with shoppable windows across downtown Manhattan.

The format will consist of a large interactive screen, open for business 24 hours a day. Shoppers can browse and select from among some 30 products and checkout via the screen, with the product delivered in approximately one hour, or scheduled within the week. The pop-ups will be open from  June 8 through July 7.

NEW YORK — Golfsmith International plans to open its first specialty golf store on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. By positioning its interactive store in the heart of the Big Apple, Golfsmith will reach both New York area golfers as well as tourists visiting the city from around the world.

To mark the store opening, the golf retailer has scheduled a number of activities from Friday, June 7 through Sunday, June 9, including $50,000 in cash giveaways, golf clinics from instructor Hank Haney and more than $7,500 in prizes.