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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Can anyone fix Target’s grocery business?
Back in April of last year, a RetailWire headline asked the question, “Will Target’s new grocery boss get the job done?” Unfortunately for Anne Dament, the person handpicked by Target…
Are moms too busy for in-store ads?
Marketers have long sought to influence grocery shoppers at or near the point of purchase, whether through traditional or digital ads, and yet a new NRF report suggests moms may…
Will one CEO be better than two for Whole Foods?
Whole Foods is scrapping its co-CEO arrangement. Founder John Mackey will remain as the sole chief executive at the company. Walter Robb will leave his co-CEO role on Dec. 31…
Will curbside pickup drive front-end sales at CVS?
Back in April, CVS announced it was making an investment in Curbside, and recently made the decision to take the program chain-wide. How do you account for some retail chains…
Does increased consumer confidence translate to retail profits?
The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) rose from 101.8 to 104.1 in September, however economists are skeptical as to whether this increase predicts actual market recuperation. Do you think a higher…
Review site showrooms online-only brands
A variety of websites offer third-party reviews of consumer electronics, running shoes, beauty and other categories. Many of those items are new, online only and otherwise hard to find at…
What might the AT&T/Time Warner merger mean for retail?
The proposed AT&T/Time Warner combination is promising two big benefits to the advertising community: Being able to target TV commercials to individual homes and bringing Hollywood-grade content to the small…
Will integrating plus-size clothing boost Meijer’s apparel sales?
Meijer is integrating its plus-sizes into the same racks as all the others sold in its women’s clothing departments. Do you approve of Meijer’s plan to charge the same price…
Will Patagonia win Election Day by sending its workers to the polls?
The turnout for the 2012 Presidential election was described in various terms, generally synonymous with dismal. One retailer is looking to change that in one small but perhaps substantive way…
Will checkout elves make Walmart’s customers merrier this Christmas?
Walmart is introducing a new “Holiday Helpers” in-store position this season focused largely on solving and reducing stress around checkout bottlenecks. What will make the addition of holiday helpers worth…
Staples brings Watson to digital office assistants
With the help of artificial intelligence-based IBM Watson, Staples is testing a digital assistant that let’s small and medium-size businesses order products, track shipments and potentially handle many more needs…
Why are mobile conversion rates so low?
The average retailer stands to lose on 11 percent of potential revenue over the next 14 months because shoppers are shifting away from PCs, yet smartphone conversion remains woefully low,…
Is Black Friday doomed to extinction?
It wasn’t so long ago that retailers felt obligated to open early on the purported busiest shopping day of the year, and customers responded by lining up out their doors…
Can retailers overcome the challenges of urban deliveries?
Pity the poor city apartment doorman. In the past, the job entailed screening guests, shoveling snow outside after the occasional storm and helping out with the rare delivery. With the…
Retailers’ top four omnichannel investments in 2017
RSR’s annual benchmark on retailers’ omnichannel strategies shows that core omnichannel technologies added over the last decade are getting a little long in the tooth. It may be time to…
Does talking to a human still matter?
Given the march of technology, it may be naïve to believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will never be able to do everything humans do to support customer service — including…
Will branded services help lift Staples’ results?
Since the merger between Office Depot and Staples was blocked in May of 2016, each chain has raced to find a new approach to doing business. Staples appears to be…
Saks Fifth Avenue opens a new standalone shoe store concept
Saks Fifth Avenue has been trying to reinvigorate its appeal to high-end shoppers, even as department store traffic nationwide continues to wane. The chain’s latest move indicates that it could…
How can retailers achieve consistent branding across touchpoints?
High-end retailers have long enjoyed dedicated brand affinity with consumers, but now merchants across every tier of retail, from mass to class, identify as brands — not just as places…
Sephora scales down for scaled-down Penney’s
As analysts and news outlets debate whether or not J.C. Penney is currently experiencing a recovery, one undeniable success has been the chain’s relationship with Sephora. But this relationship has…
Driverless truck delivers 50K cans of Bud on supply run
One 120-mile beer delivery does not make driverless trucks a done deal, but it certainly raises the prospect that it could be in the not too distant future. What…
