News

2016 will be a year when many niche innovations in customer experience will become mainstream as consumers expect more out of their shopping experiences, forcing traditional retailers to step up or risk becoming irrelevant. Marketplace buzzwords and emerging trends, such as personalization and seamless mobile access, will become table-stake elements of the customer experience.

Here are ways retailers will take their customer experience to the next level:

Personalization

Mobile technology is helping shoppers at Scranton, Pennsylvania-based Gerrity’s Super Market Inc. check out much more conveniently.

Gerrity’s is beta testing a checkout app from mobile grocery solution provider Skip. The app, which Gerrity’s is the first retailer to test, lets customers scan items with their phone and place it in their cart or basket. For produce or other items that need to be weighed, shoppers place the goods on Skip scales that weight them and present a barcode for the price.

A new study shows that consumer demand for mobile technology has reached a fever pitch, with most shoppers trending toward mobile-friendly retailers.

According to a study by SOTI, differentiating with mobile technology is proving successful among retailers, with 73% of survey respondents stating the availability of in-store mobile technology signaled better customer service and loyalty, an increase of 26% from the previous year.

When providing the BDO retail IPO outlook for 2015 at the beginning of this year, we asked: Will consumer businesses face a potential Alibaba hangover in 2015?

Genesco has sold a subsidiary that sells apparel and equipment to schools and youth sports programs to a larger Texas-based competitor.

BSN SPORTS, a division of Varsity Brands and a direct marketer and distributor of sporting goods to the school and league markets, announced that it has acquired Lids Team Sports from the Lids Sports Group, a division of Genesco Inc.

Citing a Virtual Builders Exchange report, the San Antonio Business Journal last week reported H-E-B would be opening a pureplay convenience store operation with plans to construct a 7,500-sq.-ft. convenience and fuel center.

Staples is giving itself three more months before calling off its proposed $6.3 billion acquisition of Office Depot, giving the companies time to fight an antitrust lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission.

The largest single-day, private sector pay increase ever will take effect Feb. 20, when more than 1.2 million Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club associates receive a pay increase.

The salary hike is the second phase of the company’s two-year, $2.7 billion investment in workers. But it is broader than the original plan, which was announced last fall.