News

The winners in today’s retail food retail sector will be those who can continually stay ahead of competitors by retaining current customers and attracting new ones.

However, many of the tools of yesterday are likely stale and ineffective today. Trending indicates that older, traditional practices of discount/promotional pricing, printed signs/stickers, and aisle video display monitors to attract customers and increase sales are becoming outmoded and have lost their effectiveness in many food retail environments.

For millennials it’s little more than legend, but the dotcom crash of the early 2000s was a very real event for any retail IT professionals of the Gen X or Baby Boomer demographics.

As retailers prepare to kick off the technology conference/user group season with the upcoming NRF “Big Show,” it might be a good idea to review a few lessons from that era about how to properly evaluate vendors and solutions.

A Shaky Investment

The Container Store is cutting its guidance for the year after the company says expenses led it to report a loss in the third quarter.

Toys “R” Us produced surprisingly strong results, especially online, in what is proving to be a holiday season characterized by mixed results from retailers who have disclosed results.

In what was arguably one of the strangest holiday season in recent memory – for a variety of reasons – retailers have reported a variety of results ranging from impressive to outright awful.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset is slowly gaining popularity with retailers as a customer engagement tool, and an industry vendor is hoping to capitalize on the trend.

Location-based mobile platform Retale is releasing Retale Virtual Reality (VR) for Oculus Rift this year. Designed to be a VR, location-based shopping companion, it will provide an immersive, 3D environment where customers can shop context-based local offers.

Jordan’s Furniture believes in giving people a reason to visit its stores — a reason that extends beyond merchandise. And its newest location is no exception to the rule.

The 192,500-sq.-ft. space combines retail with entertainment, and devotes 20,000 sq. ft. to such attractions as an elaborate indoor rope course, a water show with light and sound effects, a pizzeria and ice cream counter.

Toys “R” Us produced surprisingly strong results, especially online, in what is proving to be a holiday season characterized by mixed results from retailers who have disclosed results.

Overall retailers had a good 2015 holiday from a digital commerce standpoint, but some patterns changed.

According to the Verizon Retail Index, days that previously had unusual spikes in e-commerce activity, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, now show more normal levels of online traffic and purchase activity. Part of this shift is attributed to the widespread availability of high-speed online connections from consumer mobile devices.

Mall operator General Growth Properties (GGP) is looking to get in touch with customers in a new and very personal way.

GGP has selected Mobiquity to be the provider of beacon-based advertising services for select malls in its U.S. portfolio, including Tysons Galleria (Washington D.C.), Glendale Galleria (Los Angeles), Water Tower Place (Chicago) and Ala Moana Center (Honolulu).