Omnichannel

Specialty arts and crafts retailer The Michaels Companies Inc. knows that customer loyalty is not its own reward.  

Walmart was offering its own July online savings event before Amazon Prime Day was officially announced, and now the discount giant is sweetening its deal.   Walmart is offering all customers free shipping with no minimum purchase on its e-commerce site from Monday, July 11 – Friday, July 15. This builds on a previously announced online promotion that offers a free 30-day trial of the retailer’s ShippingPass program, which provides consumers unlimited, two-day free shipping for a year.  

Amazon.com has unveiled another new feature for its second iteration of Prime Day, and customer voices will be heard.   The e-tail giant is offering exclusive Prime Day deals for Amazon Prime members who use its Alexa voice-activated artificial intelligence platform through July 12. These offers will be good for eligible shoppers who order products using their voice on Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Amazon Tap devices.  

Customers at all of Walmart’s 4,600-plus U.S. stores can now use the Walmart Pay digital payment service.   This is an impressive feat, especially considering Walmart Pay was only announced in December 2015 and didn’t start undergoing official rollout until May 2016. While everyone agrees Walmart Pay reaching full implementation is a big deal, there is less agreement on how this will affect the digital payment landscape.  

Customers at all of Walmart’s 4,600-plus U.S. stores can now use the Walmart Pay digital payment service.  

As the largest, most diverse generation ever, it’s impossible to predict the full impact millennials will have on the retail landscape.   Unlike their older counterparts, millennials are digital natives with preferences and behaviors continuing to shake up the retail world. This poses a quandary for retailers. In n a highly competitive market, how can they engage millennials without alienating or “creeping out” older consumers?  

PetSmart is ensuring that it has the right back-end infrastructure to support front-end omnichannel commerce.  

A text-based “store” may sound like a flight of fancy, but Kaboom Chat is graphically bringing it to life.   The Dallas-based specialty comic book retailer is leveraging the Samus Chat text-based commerce app to offer a mobile store and informational platform. Kaboom Chat asks customers some discovery questions when they first register, which then enables the retailer to auto-populate the SMS-based store when they visit via mobile phone.