From The Editor's Desk
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Saving Abercrombie
2/25/2016
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) dealt Abercrombie & Fitch some bad news last week. According to its 2015 Retail Report, based on data collected from more than 9,000 consumers in Q4 2015, the once-hip apparel retailer scored a 65—the lowest score in the entirety of the retail sector. That’s a point lower than Walmart, and almost 10 points below the entire industry’s overall average score of 74.8. A&F fell a full seven points behind the next-lowest scoring specialty retailer in the study.
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Prioritizing Order Management
2/18/2016
According to a report by Boston Retail Partners (BRP), in the next 3 years, 250 percent more retailers are transitioning to a single order management solution (OMS) to support a unified commerce experience across all channels. BRB explains in its report that integral to unified commerce is a unified commerce platform — a single centralized commerce platform for all channels, combining traditional POS, mobile, Web, clienteling, order management and fulfillment into a consolidated, real-time platform.
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Role Reversal: Amazon Opens Stores, Merchants Open Marketplaces
2/11/2016
Amazon is neither confirming nor denying the swirl of rumors about its plans to add more physical stores on the heels of the Seattle brick-and-mortar location it opened in 2015. In early February, some insiders were throwing numbers like 400 around, while others have since shared more conservative estimates. If one thing is certain, it’s that the well-heeled company could grow its physical presence if it chose to. Physical stores could go a long way toward building the brand. Amazon has already mastered the science of digital personalization, and with the right people in its stores, the human experience could strengthen its customer-centric prowess.
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What Surprised Me At NRF?
1/28/2016
What’s jumping out at you on the show floor? Has anything surprised you? What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen? It’s a question I’m invariably asked in one form or another a few dozen times at the NRF BIG Show and at least 100 times in the weeks following. When I answer honestly, I simply reply that if anything surprises me at NRF, I haven’t been doing my job for the other 362 days of the year.
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It’s Time To RISE: A Recap Of One Of Retail’s Newest And Best Events
1/26/2016
The 2016 NRF BIG Show may be in the rear-view mirror, but the countless data attendees gathered before, during, and after the show will help retailers improve their businesses in 2016 and beyond. I had the pleasure of attending a few pre-NRF events, including RISE (Retailer Innovation & Shopper Expertise Symposium) held The Gansevoort Park Avenue. RISE’s tagline, “to unite the most experienced, accomplished, and respected leaders in the industry … and to celebrate the future of retail, diversity, and innovation,” exceeded expectations.
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Why Omni-Channel Isn’t Ready For Retirement
1/14/2016
Retail Systems Research (RSR) analyst Nikki Baird wrote a great column for last week’s issue of RSR’s Retail Paradox Weekly. In her post, she predicts 2016 will be a breakout year for consumer-held mobile retail apps, that the term omni-channel will continue to fall out of favor, and that the IoT will prove a disruptive force on retail this year.
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What To Expect At The 2016 NRF BIG Show
1/11/2016
The 2016 NRF BIG Show is within reach, and you’re probably just as excited as we are to see what the event has in store.
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Making Lemonade With EMV
12/29/2015
I was quite surprised to find an EMV terminal at Brian’s Country Market a few weeks back. Sure, the store missed the October 1 deadline by a few months, but its adoption of such a disruptive technology happened at warp speed by Crawford County, PA standards. For context, Brian’s is a wooden-floored, independently-owned general store in a “town” down the road from me called Little Cooley. You can go into Brian’s and walk out with fishing lures, a dozen Amish-raised eggs, a bottle of milk, and a handful of electric fence insulators to keep the cows in the pasture. The tiny United Methodist Church notwithstanding, Brian’s is the only cause to stop in Little Cooley on any day but Sunday. There’s not even a stop sign on the main drag.
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Walmart’s Entry Into The Mobile Payments Arena
12/10/2015
Walmart just threw its hat in the mobile payments ring in a big way. Walmart launched the rollout of Walmart Pay, a free smartphone-based payment solution that will work with all credit cards, debit cards, and Walmart gift cards at U.S. stores. A loyalty feature overall, Walmart Pay is the retail giant’s newest effort to streamline the shopping experience.
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What Black Friday/Cyber Monday Tell Us About 2016
12/3/2015
Guns are the big news coming out of Black Friday. The FBI reports that it ran a record 185,345 background checks—federally mandated for buyers of new guns at licensed gun shops—on Black Friday 2015. That equates to about two background checks per second, and it’s making all the headlines coming out of brick-and-mortar retail’s biggest day of the year.