Store Systems

From hyperlocal social media intelligence to mobile survey creation, this month’s crop of startups is filling niche spaces that can have a big impact on a retailer’s business. Learn about an augmented reality platform that’s elevating the online experience, a social referral startup that makes it easy to spread rewarding word-of-mouth recommendations and an analytics company that helps retailers and CPG companies get the most out of their online and transaction-level customer data.

SurveyMe

The nation’s top two extreme-value discounters aren’t feeling the retail malaise that affected department stores and many specialty retailers in the first quarter.  

Canadian specialty frozen food retailer M&M Meat Shops has changed its name to M&M Food Market as part of a total brand reinvention that includes a new store experience.

Complete with new shopping carts, color-coded in-store signage, merchandising displays and a kitchen, the new store concept works to create a more effective, convenient and hands-on shopping experience.

Designed by Shikatani Lacroix, the format is now being rolled out across Canada.

Ikea has broken ground for its second store in Ohio.

The new Ikea will open in summer 2017. The 355,000-sq.-ft. store is being built on 33 acres at the northeastern corner of Interstate-71 and Gemini Place in the Polaris Centers of Commerce development, approximately 15 miles north of downtown Columbus.

The retailer has contracted with Pepper Construction to build the project. The chain also will evaluate potential on-site power generation to complement its current U.S. renewable energy presence at nearly 90% of its U.S. locations.
 

Two events converged by 2010 that fundamentally changed how consumers shop and how retailers sell.
 
The first was that the world was enmeshed in a deep recession triggered by the collapse of financial markets in 2008. The second was that the world was going through a refresh cycle for consumer mobile phones. What happened next rocked the retail industry.
 

Cameron Geiger, senior VP, Walmart technology, has been appointed to the GS1 U.S. board of governors.

He will help guide the GS1 U.S. strategy for driving adoption and usage of GS1 standards within the retail industry. GS1 standards are used to uniquely identify products, services and locations globally.

Forget South Beach. Brickell City Centre is shaping up as the place to be and be seen in the Miami area with 11 more retail tenants added ahead of a planned November opening.
 
Eleven new tenants have joined the 500,000-sq.-ft. Brickell City Centre retail development scheduled to open this November in an area of Miami developers of the project describe as underserved.
 

Specialty outdoor retailer Cabela’s Inc. is deploying POS hardware and software from Ingenico Group to make the final step of the in-store shopping process as safe and seamless as possible.

Sidney, Nebraska-based Cabela’s is using Ingenico ISC Touch 250 smart terminals at its 80-plus U.S. and Canadian stores. The POS stations offer a full range of upselling/cross-selling capabilities, such as the ability to display digital advertisements, videos and gift card promotions.