May 2020
May
27
Retailers have a unique opportunity to shoot for the moon and re-engineer their businesses after coronavirus.
May
06
Store associates have become heroes by supplying essential items during the pandemic. Now, as stores reopen, retailers need to live up to the high bar set by their frontline workers.
Retail matters today like never before.
April 2020
Apr
22
Will stores be able to sell spring inventory when they fully open? Unfortunately, no, and, moreover, surplus inventory will have long-lasting effects.
Apr
08
The urgent question among retailers today is, who’s doing it right? Fortunately, best practices for responding to the pandemic are emerging. Here’s a smart, targeted list.
March 2020
Mar
25
There are two big questions in retail today: What can we do now and how can we plan for the future? Here are answers provided by experts in a follow up blog that incorporates insider feedback.
Mar
16
An altered landscape will emerge for both consumers and retailers after Covid-19 passes. Here’s a look at some long-lasting effects to plan for.
February 2020
Feb
26
Despite store closings and ghosted malls, one strategy in retail is experiencing a period of high times.
Feb
05
Three regional grocers declared bankruptcy in a week – Earth Fare, Lucky’s Market and Fairway. Here’s why this turmoil will likely spread to the big national chains.
January 2020
Jan
29
Say “goodbye” to the 2010s with its brick-and-mortar turmoil and “hello” to the 2020s when the essential beauty and strength of stores converge with the intelligence and efficiency of digital technology.
Jan
27
Change agents Sharon Leite, CEO, and Andy Laudato, COO, of the Vitamin Shoppe offer an inside look at how the 750-store retailer transformed its business model and reinvented its stores.
Jan
15
The NRF Big Show is the world’s greatest showcase for technology designed to create exceptional shopping experiences. Retailers go to the show to listen and learn.
December 2019
Dec
15
Say adios to a record number of stores that failed in 2019. They will not be missed except as an example of what not to do. Find out specific steps to take to avoid making 2020 another record year.
Dec
09
Customer feedback is critical to every retailer and essential to the "2020 RIS Software LeaderBoard." Based on retailer feedback, here are the top-10 software vendors of the year.
November 2019
Nov
20
Digital transformation and the store of the future are impossible without advanced data networks. Fortunately, the rollout of 5G will be a gamechanger that supports the next generation of retail services and in-store innovations.
October 2019
Oct
28
By taking a stand on social issues retailers risk alienating 30%-40% of their customers, so why do it? Because taking a stand adds a layer of meaning to a retailer’s brand image and deepens engagement with shoppers.
Oct
02
Whenever Iron Man gets into trouble he requests data-backed options from Jarvis. Jarvis is not a superhero. He is an advanced analytics engine, a futuristic example of real-world technology retailers can use to win their battles in the marketplace.
September 2019
Sep
25
Everything about the American Dream complex is wildly ambitious including its massive connectivity needs. To solve them, the cutting-edge megamall is pioneering new wireless technology that promises to be a game changer.
Sep
16
When I met Jon Stine I immediately knew he was thinking several moves ahead in the retail tech game most of us were playing. Now Jon has moved to the Open Voice Network. Here’s why that matters.
August 2019
Aug
22
One of the hottest trends today is the expansion of fresh products in virtually every segment of retail. The trend is a perfect case study of how the art of merchandising should (and should not) work.
Aug
07
Emotional connections are the secret to success for retailers who have strategically built deep relationships with their customers. Find out which retailers, strategies and technologies are the keys to making emotional connections.
July 2019
July
15
The mad rush to capitalize on the Amazon Prime Day juggernaut is the latest proof that retail is a copycat industry. But can copycats beat the leader? Here's how retailers can steal Amazon Prime Day's thunder.
July
01
After cutting through hype about the role of artificial intelligence in retailing one thing is certain – it will drive a stake through the heart of linear merchandising processes and managing by averages.
June 2019
June
05
Fear of falling behind omnichannel shoppers is driving grocers to deploy new technology at a furious pace. This tipping point is analyzed in depth in the recently released "2019 Grocery Tech Trends Study."
May 2019
May
22
Resolving the brick-and-mortar dilemma of divergent shopper and retailer goals is an urgent task for retailers. Fortunately, there is one strategy where they overlap – self-service technologies.
May
06
The 2019 Aptos Engage conference hit many powerful notes currently resonating in retail, including AI, microservices architecture, personalization, digital transformation and more. But the most important may have been the embrace of an agile mindset.
April 2019
Apr
10
A tight labor market multiplies workforce management issues, which is bad enough, but even worse is struggling with shockingly inadequate labor forecast accuracy.
Apr
03
Reinventing retail is not an option. It is an obligation to the consumer. These takeaways from the 2019 RIS Retail Technology Study will help you chart a strategic course.
March 2019
Mar
20
Earth’s mass extinctions discovered in the fossil record are tragic. For the losers. Survivors, however, benefit and thrive. The same is true in retail.
Mar
18
Phase one of retail’s cloud revolution is well underway, but even as it gains momentum a second phase is emerging that will transform software architecture, platforms and infrastructure.
Mar
06
If you want a good snapshot of the the drivers of change in the retail industry directly from those doing the driving, go to ShopTalk. After three days in Las Vegas and participating in dozens of sessions and industry conversations, here is the best of ShopTalk 2019.
February 2019
Feb
11
Retail plays a decisive role in the economy in terms of revenue, labor and influence, which makes it important to give recognition to retailers that have weathered storms of change and disruption for more than 100 years.
January 2019
Jan
28
Target is surging right now and CEO Brian Cornell feels the need to explain why. At the recent NRF Big Show, Cornell said 2018 was the best year Target had in a decade and the reason was investment, reinvestment and disruption.
Jan
16
Exuberance and a superabundance of innovative technologies were defining characteristics of the just completed 2019 NRF Big Show. Here is my take on all the hottest trends, technologies and breaking news that came out of the amazing NRF Big Show!
Jan
10
Robots are no longer science-fiction fantasies. On the contrary, they have already transformed supply chain operations and entering the store is the next logical step. For some retailers it is happening today.
Jan
07
The most successful retailers today – the ones enjoying the largest revenue gains – began making substantial investments in digital transformation several years ago and are now reaping the rewards. Find out where they invested and why.
December 2018
Dec
05
The annual RIS Software LeaderBoard is one of the most eagerly anticipated and influential studies in retail technology. Now we can finally reveal the big winners for 2019.
November 2018
Nov
12
Want to devastate your financial performance? Simple. Get pricing wrong. And yet, 42% of retailers still primarily use spreadsheets for pricing and 34% use internally built software.
October 2018
Oct
31
Disruptive change was the clear focus of the just concluded GroceryShop event in Las Vegas, where grocers and food brands caught up with the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, computer vision, robotics, machine learning, voice command and autonomous delivery.
Oct
24
Amazon Prime is the most successful membership program the retail world has ever known. Amazon blew up the traditional model when it created Prime and launched something new and overwhelmingly successful.
Oct
15
Shoppers tell RIS they want retailers to reinvent boring mobile apps, reinvigorate dying stores, personalize offers, and add technology to the shopping journey to make it convenient and compelling.
Oct
01
Retailers have long known POS systems have become a tech problem looking for a solution – massive, expensive and difficult to upgrade.
September 2018
Sep
17
More has changed in retail in the last 10 years than in the previous 100. Nowhere is this more evident than in brick-and-mortar stores, which are currently undergoing reinvention.
August 2018
Aug
29
Exactly what is innovation?
Aug
08
Your business is what you do. Your reputation is what people think you do. This is a harsh truth of the marketplace and one that can be painful to retail tech vendors.
July 2018
July
09
Every so often technology emerges that is so far ahead of everything else it seems like magic. Ocado, builder of the Ocado Smart Platform of automated robotic systems for grocery warehouses, falls into this category..
July
02
Mega-retailers and mega-vendors are aggressively investing in ways to hack our basic human senses. They are using biological data and human emotion algorithms that fuse the physical, digital and biological spheres.
