The No. 1 retail trend for 2014 will be innovation powered by advanced analytics. Why? Because retailers with the ability to surface and validate new ideas from customer data will be able to test new ideas faster, launch them faster in stores, and roll out profitable programs faster. Transformation today
Blockbuster recently announced it‘s throwing in the towel and closing its remaining 300 stores in early 2014. My how times change! Blockbuster, bought by Dish Network in 2011, was an integral and intimate part of our lives for years. Teens gathered at the neighborhood Blockbuster to rent movies and hang
In the days before the Internet, I’d pull a promotional flyer or catalog from one of my favorite retailers out of my mailbox or newspaper like an excited kid hoping it contained something I coveted. And at price so amazingly low that I’d feel no guilt in buying it. More
In a retail market where new customers are thin on the ground, keeping hold of existing ones becomes even more important for powering growth. But how do retailers and consumers view customer loyalty? And what is the most effective way to use the now ubiquitous loyalty card? Asking the right
My headlines for Honduras were not like the frightening ones that we often see in the news. My headlines include the beauty of the people I met, the children I grew to know, and the country I experienced. I went to Honduras with a group from Cincinnati, Ohio to spend
Amazon, Apple, eBay, Facebook and Google – known as the Tech Titans to some – continue to set the agenda with their continuous stream of mobile business initiatives. In fact, consumers embrace and, in some cases, expect many of the same mobility resources they’ve experienced through the Titans from the
According to a recent article from Forbes, the three hottest trends in retail for 2013 are: Mobile -- 93 percent of mobile developers anticipate that it is “likely to very likely” that most retail companies will have enabled mobile commerce in 2013, and 2/3 of developers believe that consumers will
We all know the holiday shopping season is paramount to a retailer’s annual results. As we enter the 2012 holiday shopping season, customers’ expectations of retailers have never been higher. One thing that can plague retailers, especially during the hectic holiday season, is out-of-stocks. Whether you are a fashion retailer
Recent SAS-sponsored research by the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed large enterprises on a number of questions about "big data" and its value. The most prominent finding was that companies with a strategic data plan were much more likely to be financially successful than those who treat data as a tactical
Thanks to Illumino, the citizens of Datapolis are still able to get their medicine and Frackture is being kept at bay; however we both have our hands full and a new crisis is on the horizon. Our data scientists and engineers have informed me that a new evil force is
