To the detriment of already shaky retail economics, statutory wage minimums are increasing at various rates across the country. This variation in state and municipal minimum wage rates creates challenges for retailers that operate across multiple states. While the outlook is good for employees, it is grim for employers, as the wage rates are set to increase radically over the next two years.
In the upcoming March/April 2018 issue of Retail Executive, I dedicate my Viewpoint article to voice commerce, a topic we’ll be covering more diligently as the technology progresses. As such, I caught up with Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center and Retail Executive Editorial Advisory Board member to get his take on the progression of the technology and how retailers should utilize it.
Here are the top three trends happening in retail this year and our predictions for what’s going to be big next year.
Coach has recently announced that the company will no longer be selling fur products for ethical reasons. The decision came after similar announcements from other fashion retail competitors such as Gucci, DKNY, Versace, Burberry and Columbia Sportswear. The decision to drop fur, or any other category/sub-category of product, isn’t an easy one for retailers, especially those in high-end fashion retailing. It means asking a lot of questions to understand what would happen and what the implications could mean for the business. Questions that involve the kind of data that people can’t process without the right tools and solutions. Generally speaking, we know that there are two main routes dropping fur could go for a fashion retailer:
Online shopping can actually be quite stressful but leveraging a chatbot with strong functionalities can relieve shoppers of these stresses and make shopping productive, timely, and enjoyable once more.
Modern retailers understand the core benefits of leveraging the power of Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. Predictive Analytics accounts for all of your company’s relevant data at a micro-level, identifies your business’ trends, opportunities, and influencing factors. It makes recommendations to retailers that will help them increase forecast accuracy, reduce inventory costs, increase in sales, and maintain high customer satisfaction levels.
Mobile point of sale (mPOS) systems are experiencing explosive growth in the retail sector. For smaller retailers, mPOS represents an opportunity to expand the flexibility of their POS options, and to reconfigure customer interactions and fundamental store design concepts. Learn how mPOS may eliminate the need for a traditional cash wrap, while improve the entire in-store experience for customers.
New research reveals that 88% of retailers with new supply chain initiatives said it has helped them exceed customer expectations; and 84% claim these efforts allow them to give customers more control over their shopping experiences.
"Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints are becoming ubiquitous thanks to a predicted compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% from 2016 through 2021, according to Gartner research published in December 2017. These endpoints have the potential to disrupt order-to-cash processes and will enable digital optimization by creating new ways to serve and collaborate with customers and channel partners." Despite the expected disruption, the new report also revealed that only 22% of respondents have already or are currently investing in IoT. "However, in terms of the dollar value of spend on supply chain IT, only 18% of budget spend is put toward supporting innovation and agility to transform operations and create sustainable advantage."
Succeeding in today’s ever-changing digital commerce world requires mastering a complex mix of people, process and technology innovations that must all work seamlessly together. Organizations face myriad of choices — from developing the right strategy to building a high-performing team and laying a solid foundation of the right technologies.
To keep pace with growing consumer expectations, retailers must be equipped with modern order management systems that greatly expand their fulfillment capabilities. However, many still lag behind. To gain insight into these challenges and retailers’ top priorities for a future OMS investment, Radial partnered with Incisiv to conduct a quantitative survey of retail executives spanning key business functions across the retail supply chain.
Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Long Beach, CA, Epson America, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration, and energy efficiency.
Retalon is a leading provider of Retail Predictive Analytics solutions for Retailers. Retalon is a transformational approach to the retail industry. From inception, our solutions were built on an integrated analytic platform that takes into account the entire retail business process which produces the highest accuracy possible. Our predictive analytics technology empowered retail businesses with advanced analytics that uncover hidden opportunities, and significantly increase bottom and top lines.
Datalogic is a global technology leader in the automatic data capture and process automation markets, specialized in the designing and production of bar code readers, mobile computers, sensors for detection, measurement and safety, vision and laser marking systems.
Radial, a bpost company, is the leader in omnichannel commerce technology and operations, enabling brands and retailers to profitably exceed retail customer expectations. Radial’s technical, powerful omnichannel solutions connect supply and demand through efficient fulfillment and transportation options, intelligent fraud detection, payments, and tax systems, and personalized customer care services.
In order to deliver the best cross-channel shopping experience, future-thinking retailers must go beyond buy online pick up in-store (BOPIS) and push the envelope with inventive new tactics.
As Founder and CEO of UJET, Inc., Anand Janefalkar has 15 years of experience in the technology industry and has served as a technical advisor for various startups in the Bay Area. Before to founding UJET, he served as Senior Engineering Manager at Jawbone, and also previously contributed to multiple high-profile projects at Motorola. Fadi ElTal is the head of Customer Support and Insights at Noon Home, and is behind the program’s overall launch strategy and bring up. These two recently spoke with Retail Operations Insights about customer experience, consumer loyalty, and the future of retail.
In order to deliver the best cross-channel shopping experience, future-thinking retailers must go beyond buy online pick up in-store (BOPIS) and push the envelope with inventive new tactics.
(AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies will completely transform customer service over the next five years. Watch this webcast with DestinationCRM and Radial to learn how AI can transform your customer service paradigm.
With a 200% expected increase in digital gift card sales projected for 2018, it’s essential for retailers to have the right fraud management strategies in place to tap into this lucrative market, while minimizing risk. View this insightful webinar with Brett Glass, CEO at GCI, an Incomm company, KC Fox, Senior Vice President, Technology Services at Radial, and DJ Murphy, Editor-in-Chief at CardNotPresent to uncover actionable strategies to turn high-risk gift cards into profit.
In this on-demand webinar, Radial and Chargebacks911 offer expert advice and insider tips on how to achieve the most effective and efficient fraud prevention, leveraging both automated fraud management tools as well as a manual review team. We answer your questions and offer insight on why both are important, and how to use them together to stop fraud without turning away legitimate orders.
For consumer goods companies with omnichannel sales, downstream demand is a key signal to consider when thinking about inventory allocation, new product launches, demand planning, and other decisions. However, not all downstream demand is created equal.
This high quality printer offers fast label and barcode printing in one compact unit. With its software utility you can quickly design custom labels and barcodes and print in one- or two-colors on a variety of print stocks. It supports continuous printing on liner labels and cost-effective one- and two-color thermal labels are available from Epson in a variety of sizes
The TM-H6000 multifunction printer with ProofPlus ID scanning combines high-speed, two-color receipt printing and superior slip handling with a fast and powerful ProofPlus ID scanner. It is the only printer with an integrated check and ID scanner that allows retailers and supermarkets to implement ECC, capturing check and ID images at the point-of-sale to lower check costs and reduce fraud and liability.
eCommerce fulfillment has become an increasingly complex and competitive market, largely driven by consumer expectations for faster, cheaper, and more convenient delivery options. Radial’s ongoing investment in technology, capacity, and resources makes us a market-leader in the Logistics space, ensuring industry-best performance levels, quality, and consumer satisfaction. In addition, we go above and beyond our competitors, creating highly- personalized direct-to-consumer experiences unique to your brand.
