TECHNOLOGY

Study: Retailers leave money on table due to lack of personalized service
Disappointing shopping experiences are costing brick-and-mortar retailers serious money. Stores left about $150 billion in potential revenue on the table in 2016 by failing to offer shoppers personalized in-store shopping experiences. Shoppers would increase their in-store spending by 4.7% — if they received better, more personalized service from retailers.
Accenture: Traditional loyalty programs waste ‘billions’ in digital age
Organizations are throwing away billions of dollars annually on customer loyalty programs that just don’t work like they used to. This was revealed in the Accenture report, “Seeing Beyond the Loyalty Illusion: It’s Time You Invest More Wisely.” The study gauges the experiences and attitudes of 25,426 consumers around the world about their current loyalty relationship with brands and organizations.

Is Facial Recognition in Retail Market Research the Next Big Thing?

Remember the memory-erasing Neuralyzer in "Men in Black"? Or more recently, "Ex Machina," the Oscar-winning story of a humanoid robot that uses emotional persuasion to outsmart humans and escape from the secluded home of its creator?
Sears Holdings adds to Trump defections

The Trump brand at retail has taken another hit. Sears and Kmart this week removed 31 Trump Home items from their e-commerce sites, Reuters reported, to focus on more profitable products. Neither Sears nor Kmart carried the products in their brick-and-mortar stores.
These three retailers are tops in corporate reputation

Another corporate ranking, another first place finish by Amazon. The online giant came out on top in Harris Poll’s annual corporate reputation rankings report. The poll measures the reputations of the 100 most visible companies in the United States as perceived by the general public.
Report: Subscription beauty retailer expands options

Birchbox is launching a new, pricier service. The online beauty subscription retailer will debut a service that enables shoppers to better customize their monthly box of samples, along with other perks, TechCrunch said. The service, which is only currently available to current subscribers, is $14 per month. The original subscription is $10 per month.
Study: Grocery shoppers not all that connected with social media

While supermarket shoppers engage with their primary grocer on one or more digital platforms, social media sites are not a priority. This was according to the “U.S. Supermarket Shopper Digital Update,” a report from the Retail Feedback Group (RFG). The new study, an offshoot of RFG's “U.S. Supermarket Experience Study,” focuses specifically on the digital aspects of shopper engagement with supermarkets.
Starbucks’ social gifting feature launches in China

Starbucks has extended its social gifting promotions into China, where it has launched a major expansion program to double its stores within the next five years. The coffee giant’s new “Say It With Starbucks” program, created by Starbucks and Weixin, China’s leading mobile social communications app, enables users to gift a Starbucks beverage or digital gift card via a social gifting platform.
Report: A new two-legged robot is walking onto the home delivery scene

A group of engineers from Oregon State University think it has a solution to solve the home delivery puzzle.
Best Buy to close almost half of its in-store Facebook VR stations

Facebook is scaling back its first big brick-and-mortar retail push. The social media giant is closing approximately 200 of its 500 Oculus virtual reality (VR) pop-up stores operating in Best Buy locations across the United States, Business Insider said. Facebook launched the program in 48 stores last May, and the technology — which was available for demonstrations and sales — was rolled out to 500 stores in August, Engadget said.