Proximity Marketing
Proximity marketing or hyperlocal marketing as it’s sometimes called, is on the upsurge this year. The fact that the smartphone market continues to grow with ~1.3B shipments in 2014 WW, and a CAGR of near 10% through 2018 (based on the IDC Smartphone Tracker) is a part of that of course, but also the technology […]
The Decline and Rebirth of Retail
Jeff Jordan has an interesting post that looks at long terms trends in retail and more recent news, suggesting an acceleration that is itself a tipping point to the benefit of online. It’s hard to argue with the trends he is pointing out, however that is not the entire story, or at least the interesting […]
News Analysis: New #IBMWatson Business Group Heralds The Commercialization Of Cognitive Computing. Ready For Augmented Mentality?
IBM Launches New Business Group In New York’s Silicon Alley On January 9th, 2014, on top of 51 Astor Place (i.e. World Trade Center Building 4), IBM CEO Ginny Rommety and long time veteran, but newly minted, IBM Watson Group Senior Vice President Michael Rhodin, announced IBM’s commitment to putting an entire business unit around […]
Event Report: #NRF14 Preview – Retail’s Big Show Hints At Lessons Learned In #MatrixCommerce
Retails Big Show Transformed For 2014 Over 29,000 people are expected to gather at the National Retail Federation’s big show (NRF) this Sunday, January 11th, 2014, in New York City. #NRF14 brings the intersection of new retail business models, products, store concepts, technology, society, and culture together! A few big trends emerge based on conversations […]
Ron Johnson Out: The Customer Experience Files
I was in a cab yesterday with my wife, who works in the fashion industry, and she casually mentioned that Ron Johnson was out at JCP. I can imagine that everyone in the retail and fashion industry was aware of this 12 hours before the rest of us. This morning I was watching Squawk Box […]
Amazon Rock Solid, Netflix Still Struggling With Customer Satisfaction
The latest results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index for retail and e-commerce show Amazon with a solid lead in customer satisfaction in both Internet retailing and across the entire department, discount and specialty retailer chain categories. Their score of 85 on the ACSI Index puts them ahead of Nordstrom (84), Target (81) and Kohl’s […]
Sales Productivity Kickoff
We are at it again and why not? It’s the start of another year and people are doing predictable things like having kickoffs of all sorts of things. I just launched a new website and several new initiatives in research and thought leadership so I am no exception. I am drinking the Kool-Aide, eating my […]
NetSuite deepens Retail presence
I have written about the attractiveness of NetSuite’s cross-channel “commerce-as-a-service” capabilities to fast growing retailers like Ibex. Ibex uses NetSuite to manage customer interactions across smartphones, tablets, PCs and brick-and-mortar stores. So, I am not surprised to see NetSuite acquire Retail Anywhere’s business. Retail Anywhere has sold Point of Sales functionality on traditional POS terminals […]
How Cloud Computing Is Accelerating Context-Aware Coupons, Offers and Promotions
Retailers and marketers often face the challenge of getting coupons, offers and promotions delivered at the perfect time and in the right context to their customers. The rapid advances in cyber foraging, contextual computing and cloud computing platforms are succeeding at revolutionizing this aspect of the retail shopping experience. Context-aware advertising platforms and strategies can […]
The Gap: System and process errors disrupt shopping experience
As author of the Beyond IT Failures blog, I am no stranger to problems that cause endless hassle to consumers, although usually I describe situations that happen to others. Today, however, I can offer a first-hand account of system errors at clothing retailer, Gap Inc., which owns major brands Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, […]
