News

Black Friday starting early at Sam's Club
Sam’s Club is introducing a new way for shoppers to get a head start on their holiday shopping: Pre-Black Friday.

The nation’s eighth largest retailer and the warehouse division of Walmart is planning to give Sam's Club members early access to exclusive savings on some of the most sought-after holiday items and Thanksgiving meal must-haves.
Tech Bytes: Three Reasons Amazon is Everyone’s Competitor
Think quick – who are your top competitors? No matter what product category or channels you operate in, if your list of top two or three rivals doesn’t include Amazon.com, it probably needs updating.

Staples CIO Tom Conophy has publicly identified Amazon as a prime competitor, and Walmart has launched a clear strategy of trying to one-up Amazon innovations like Prime Day and delivery drones. But even if you’re not a major big-box chain, Amazon still most likely represents a critical threat to your market share. Here are three reasons why.

Deliv loves New York

Same-day delivery provider Deliv is strengthening its position in the important New York market.

Deliv has acquired Zipments, a New York-based same-day delivery company. This gives Deliv more of a foothold and delivery density in New York City, one of the largest markets for same-day delivery in the country.

Zipments services brands such as Trina Turk, on-demand companies such as Casper, Handy, and Plated, local merchants such as B&H, Murray's Cheese and Epicerie Boulud, as well as large corporate clients who need to send packages across town.
Demandware: Automation will drive 2016 retail IT growth

E-commerce platform provider Demandware has released its annual list of retail predictions for 2016, and many of them center on how machines will continue taking over tasks once done by people.

Out of the nine trends Demandware identifies, four are related to growing IT automation: machine learning driving voice-based intelligence assistants, in-store payment evolving dramatically, data-driven decision marketing replacing gut instinct, and last-mile fulfillment providers driving instant gratification.
Major U.S. retailers team up for Singles Day

It would take a pretty big event to cause Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Off 5th, and Neiman Marcus to all align their online discount offers.

Singles Day, coming up on Nov. 11, is just that size of an event. Once an informal celebration of the Chinese singles dating scene, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba formally turned Singles Day into a shopping holiday in 2009. The occasion generated gross merchandise volume of more than $9.3 billion on the Alibaba Alipay mobile and digital payment platform alone in 2014.
The democratization of technology

Merriam Webster defines democratize as “to make (something) available to all people.” We are
witnessing the democratization of technology as technology providers are able to put
increasingly powerful solutions in the cloud, making industry-leading capabilities available to
even the smallest retailers.
Amazon's new bookstore has nothing to do with books?

When Amazon.com opened its first brick-and-mortar store this month selling books, many wondered what the e-commerce giant was up to. Now Forbes is telling us what that is. [Forbes]
Z Gallerie keeps content current with Aptos

Specialty home furnishings retailer Z Gallerie has long operated a catalog and e-commerce site along with 57 physical stores, but the Los Angeles-based chain wants to update for the omnichannel era.

Thus Z Gallerie has selected the full suite of Aptos retail solutions in a full-service Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model to help the retailer streamline, optimize and integrate its omnichannel retail operations, while supporting new means of engaging with its customers.
Here's how Walmart can beat Amazon

Everyone wants to know how Walmart can compete with Amazon in e-commerce when the latter doesn't really make money at it. According to Ad Age, "The more Walmart does to differentiate itself from Amazon and offer a better value proposition, the more it will succeed," she said. "The more it focuses on price and value, the more it can compete." But it's a very long game. [Ad Age]
Virtual to Visceral

Online retail sales continue to increase – both in absolute terms and as a percentage of total retail sales. The fact remains, however, that online commerce takes place in what is essentially a one-dimensional transactional venue.