shopping

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…

How’s your holiday shopping going? Finding everything on your list? Sorry—shouldn’t have asked. I know the answer. Any other time of year, you can skip out the door on a whim, head to the mall, and see what treasures you happen to run across. No pressure. No obligations. No fear. You pick up an item…

Today’s consumers demand a more mobile, interactive and personalized shopping experience. Research shows that 64 cents of every dollar spent in store is influenced digitally (Deloitte). A few weeks ago, I hosted my first #CiscoChat event on Twitter together with Jeremy Witikko, Practice Advisor at C…

Earlier this year I had a bit of an “aha” moment. After a long day at Retail’s Big Show #NRF2016 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York 25,000 people wanted to get back to their hotel – all of them, all at once, at 5 o’clock. I looked at the taxi lines where people were queuing and preparing themsel…

As an omnichannel retailer, you are probably offering your products to shoppers both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. And, like most retailers, you are no doubt collecting online data and running detailed website analytics that help you track preferred products, pricing, shopper behavior, rati…

The key to retail today is customer understanding —where each customer stands on his or her personal shopping journey, whether in-store or out. Retailers must “know” each shopper as never before. And they must offer the kinds of contextual, personally relevant experiences that will optimize their m…

Today, mobile devices are everywhere — and vying for the attention of just about everyone. On a train, in a café, or in the park, people are gaming, connecting with far-away friends, and watching TV shows. Increasingly, they are also researching, browsing, and buying products. Such tech-savvy mobile…

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is driving remarkable change and opportunities across nearly all industries. But few are as visible — and rapid — as the upheavals affecting retail. Today, retailers aren’t just competing with the store across the parking lot. Industry leaders face an expanding unive…

Today’s retailers face a hard truth: their customers have embraced digital technologies faster than they have. But I believe that retailers have an opportunity to elevate the shopping experience in exciting new ways. By integrating the digital and the physical — in effect, merging clicks with bricks…