retailers

Back to school (BTS) 2017 is officially in the books, and retailers are getting ready for the upcoming holiday season. Now is the time to reflect on key lessons learned for retailers. This year’s back-to-school sales were projected to be the most successful in the last five years, with total combine…

Long wait times. Out of stock challenges. Pricing inaccuracies. Dissatisfied customers. Operating in the physical world of retail can be tough. And more often than not, the retail associate takes the heat for painful situations like these given that they are on the front lines. Day after day the ass…

You want to create an amazing, customer-first shopping experience. You also want to empower your associates to do their best work. The two goals may be related, but they are separate. To accomplish them both together, you need the right customer, associate, and business data — together with the righ…

In my last blog post, we discussed how the Cisco SAFE methodology can help you to implement a reliable security solution for your store. This approach can help you define and address each threat to the retail branch with corresponding security capabilities, architectures, and designs – guiding you t…

Thousands of companies around the globe were affected this week by a major ransomware attack called WannaCry. Ransomware is a type of cyberattack that encrypts data until the user pays a specified fee, and is one of the industry’s top evolving cyberthreats. As these and other threats continue…

“In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.” – Mark Zuckerberg Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword, it’s happening today and in every industry. According to research from the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation,…

A few weeks ago at NRF 2017, we spoke with a number of retailers looking to improve the customer experience in their stores. Challenged by today’s online competitors, brick-and-mortar retailers are doing their best to reimagine their stores with new services and technology. However, we also found th…

Retailers are embracing and adapting to digital innovations to keep pace with rapidly-evolving customer demands. Online and mobile purchases continue to increase exponentially. According to Deloitte, 58% of consumers have used their mobile device to browse an online shopping website or app. In fact,…

One of my favorite hobbies is trying out the latest new technologies and services.   I have an Amazon Echo and Google Home (patiently waiting on Cortana from Microsoft).  I ride-share, home-share, and even bike-share. For me, combining my work in digital transformation with retail and other consumer…