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Will Best Buy win Christmas with free shipping, setup and live chat?
Competitors from Amazon to Walmart are on notice. Best Buy is serious about growing its business over the upcoming holiday season with free shipping, special early sales events and improved…
Virtual reality brings 3-D runway experience to retail
Tommy Hilfiger is bringing virtual retail headsets to select locations to enable shoppers to feel like they’re sitting in the front row of the designer’s recent runway shows. How do…
Does a ‘posh’ Aldi make sense in in the U.S.?
Aldi could someday shed the budget in-store experience that has made it famous in favor of something a little more upscale, that is, if its new layout currently being tested…
Fresh & Easy calls it quits
Before the first Fresh & Easy store opened in the U.S., Tesco was riding high and there were some who spoke of the new format in terms of transforming convenience…
Transforming market research with digital and social analytics
With people increasingly living their lives online, an enormous amount of information about them is already “out there,” replacing much of the traditional need for surveys, according to Larry Friedman,…
‘Made in U.S.A’ labels out on Walmart.com
A couple of years ago, Walmart began a high profile campaign to bring back American manufacturing jobs. While the chain has gotten a lot of credit for its efforts, it…
Amazon rebuts NYT article two months late – why?
An article in The New York Times back in August described the working environment at Amazon.com as driven if not downright treacherous. After CEO Jeff Bezos responded in an internal…
Are brokers losing significance?
Warren Thayer says “hey, don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger.” But many respondents to an annual survey about industry issues see the influence of brokers weakening next year. Do…
Huge shopping research lab analyzes customer behavior
At the recent Shop.org conference in Philadelphia, RetailWire spoke with IBM’s director of retail and CPG global industry marketing, and Scott Duby, director global retail solutions, to hear about a…
Is a drone Christmas too risky for retail?
With prices coming down to as low as $80 for some models, up to a million drones may be sold this coming holiday season. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an exuberant prediction…
Stop chasing loyalty program members — you have enough already!
The lure of something new is of pretty much universal appeal, so it’s no surprise that loyalty programs spend a lot of time and money trying to attract new members…
Amazon is legally serious about ending fake reviews
If at first you don’t succeed, sue, sue again. A little over six months after following suit against a group of companies it accused of posting false positive reviews on…
Will customers leave AmazonFresh over $299 membership fee?
From the very beginning, Amazon has been clear that following a free 30-day trial period, it would charge customers a $299 per year annual subscription to use its AmazonFresh grocery…
Apple to reward retail workers with stock
Under a new stock incentive program, Apple Inc. will allow all employees to be eligible for restricted stock units, including those at the store level. Do you see more pros…
Reports of the demise of the cross-channel shopper are premature
RSR’s most recent benchmark on retailers’ omnichannel strategies found the percent of retailers who report that their cross-channel shoppers are their most profitable shoppers is on the decline. Do you…
Does McD’s have a breakfast (civil) war on its hands?
You might have thought that when McDonald’s announced offering all-day breakfast at its restaurants around the U.S., it might set off a battle for the market with its fast food…
Stores let customers give the gift (cards) of stock
With some reports comparing them to giving saving bonds to kids, some stores are introducing prepaid gift cards that can be exchanged for common stock in public companies. What do…
Walmart preps in-store SMS shopping assistant
Walmart could soon roll out a new mobile feature that lets shoppers access customer service in stores through a simple text. Simple Text is, quite simply, a virtual personal assistant…
Has Walmart lost its way or has Wall Street lost its mind?
Walmart’s stock took a major hit yesterday following the company’s announcement that its profits could decrease by as much as 12 percent in the next fiscal year. Do you think…
Restaurants say no more tips
Do tips result in better performance by restaurant workers, or is it a dehumanizing tradition whereby the earnings of hardworking people are determined by customers? Perhaps it is some of…
Mobile purchases are up and so are ad blockers
M-commerce sales are growing and so is ad blocking on mobile devices. Analysts are attempting to make sense of this apparent contradiction. As consumers increase their use of mobile for…
