TECHNOLOGY

Study: Consumers influence other consumers
Retailers who can get consumers to generate social and online content about them have a decided competitive edge.

According to the new “CGC Index” from social marketing technology provider Bazaarvoice, consumer-generated content (CGC), or digital content that people create about a product or service they have experienced, used, purchased, or considered, can have a significant impact on retailer performance.
Study: Millennials like coupons — print or paperless
Despite their tech-savvy reputation, millennials are not above reducing their retail spending with the help of good old-fashioned print coupons.

Academy Sports + Outdoors eyes Midwest growth with third DC

Academy Sports + Outdoors has opened a 1.6 million square foot distribution center that dramatically increases the company’s ability to support store expansion and omnichannel initiatives.
Why Boot Barn has a vested interest in NBC’s ‘The Voice’

The nation’s largest western and work wear retailer is nothing if not supportive of its employees.

Boot Barn Holdings is donating $11,000 to charity in celebration of employee Mary Sarah advancing to be one of the eleven finalists on NBC's primetime singing competition, “The Voice.”

Sarah moved to Nashville and took a job at Boot Barn several years ago to support her life-goal of becoming a country music artist.
Another retailer joins in-store pickup club
eBay Enterprise merges to become Radial; DSW among first clients

eBay Enterprise has completed its merger with Innotrac Corp., creating a new, private company called Radial that provides technology and related services for online retailers, including payments, fulfillment, logistics and customer service.

Sterling Partners, the Innovac parent company which purchased eBay Enterprise in November 2015, had previously announced the two companies would be combined.

Footwear retailer DSW is one of the first retailers to deploy technology from the new provider, using it to support all facets of its omnichannel commerce effort.
CVS to offer curbside pick-up service at stores

CVS Health is teaming up with a Bay Area startup to offer consumers in-store pick-up at their neighborhood CVS for digital purchases.
Visa, Walmart chip away at EMV transaction times for faster checkout

A leading payment card issuer and the world’s largest discount retailer are both launching efforts to reduce how long customers have to wait to check out with EMV-compliant payment cards.

Visa Inc. is rolling out a technology enhancement designed to optimize EMV chip card processing and speed up checkout times. The new solution, called Quick Chip for EMV, streamlines the processing of chip card transactions to enable customers to dip and remove their EMV chip card from the terminal, typically in two seconds or less, without waiting for the transaction to be finalized.
Five things multichannel retailers should do for customers

While high bounce and exit rates can be frustrating to online retailers, nothing irks them more than seeing a high percentage of abandoned carts.

You were “this close” to making the sale. But somewhere along the sales journey, the shopper got frustrated or lost interest and left. Why? Chances are it was because you, the retailer, didn’t do enough to keep the customer engaged and motivated to complete the sale.

‘But people love our website!’ you say. ‘Shoppers adore our clothes!’ ‘What more do we need to do?’
Supervalu names innovation head as part of executive shuffle

Supervalu is adding a veteran wholesale executive to a new C-level position and also enacting several other changes to its senior leadership team.

James Weidenheimer, 57, has been named to the newly-created position of executive VP, corporate development and chief innovation officer, reporting to Supervalu president and CEO Mark Gross. Weidenheimer joins the company after having spent the last 16 years in senior leadership positions with C&S Wholesale Grocers. He is expected to start in his new role by April 25, 2016.