Omnichannel

The holiday hiring wars have begun.

Target Corp. is the first national retailer to announce its holiday hiring plans with the news that it plans to hire 70,000 seasonal store associates. The amount is the same as last year.

In addition, the discounter plan to hire 7,500 employees to work in its distribution and fulfillment facilities during the holiday season, which is slightly up from last year.

The fuel pump is becoming an increasingly critical customer touch point.

Often overlooked in the omnichannel experience, convenience store fuel pumps are a prime way to reach on-the-go shoppers. Extending their partnership with NCR, Rutter’s Farm is adding a new outdoor payment terminal to reach this time-pressed customer segment.

Search engines are getting knocked down a peg when it comes to where consumers begin their online research.   More than two-thirds (67%) of shoppers now begin their online searches on a retail site, not a search engine, according to “Browsing & Buying Behavior by Category: 2016,” a report from HookLogic.   

European consumers seem to be taking the adage, “buyer beware” very literally.

Unsure whether their online purchase will satisfy their needs until it actually arrives, 54% of shoppers reported they think about returning an item before they have even purchased it. And this mindset runs the gamut from decisions about apparel and electrical goods to home decor and furniture, according to “Making Money Out of Returns: The Essential Guide to Managing International Returns,” a report from fulfillment provider B2C Europe.

It happens all the time. A customer goes on a shopping spree, gets home and checks email — only to find a valuable promotion for a store she just left. In an era when time-starved customers are more digitally-savvy than ever before, retailers need to step up and manage a brand in total versus managing separate channels if they want to maintain loyalty.   

Grandin Road has made the leap to brick-and-mortar with a spooky in-shop at Macy’s Manhattan flagship.
   
The brand’s 1,400-sq.-ft. Halloween pop-up is elaborately designed to offer a bewitching immersive experience, complete with digital signage animated with spiders, a costumed witch and scary animatronic products (also available for purchase.) An on-site photo booth allows customers to create a fun memento of their visit.
 

The collapse of Hanjin Shipping, the seventh largest freight carrier in the world, has left $14 billion worth of cargo in limbo. Much of that is literally floating around in the ocean, unable to dock; the rest is sitting idle in ports waiting to be unloaded. For Samsung, that means $38 million worth of electronics and appliances are held hostage in the carrier-bankruptcy case. And HP has 500 containers filled with computers waiting to reach American soil.

On Sept. 1, UPS announced that effective Dec. 26, 2016, the UPS U.S. Ground service daily rate will increase by an average net 4.9%. Additionally, UPS Freight announced an average net 4.9% general rate increase effective Sept. 19, 2016.