While the Wild West didn’t have anything like Amazon’s upcoming drone delivery program, the crisscrossing network of trains served as a primary means of transportation for both passengers and valuable cargo throughout the 1880s. However, strings of boxcars packed with goods and supplies traversing the...
On the surface, beacons appear to give consumers everything they want — targeted, personalized deals and product recommendations based on context that makes sense. However, the dearth of public support for beacon networks proves that something is being lost in translation when the concept of...
After nearly a decade of waiting (or three for diehards that don’t count the prequels), fans are flocking to theaters to watch a new Star Wars movie. With millions of tickets sold months in advance for “The Force Awakens’” opening weekend, it’s a fair bet...
If one listened closely enough, right behind the marketing hype surrounding deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts was chatter that the vast number of online shopping options have made those once-official retail holidays obsolete. Now, new data is proving the latter right. Get...
It’s no secret that brick-and-mortar retail is playing a high-stakes game of catchup against its online counterparts. It can seem like digital marketplaces have so many built-in advantages to running their businesses through the Internet — a medium where detailed data on shoppers is the...
To the casual observer, it would seem like hoverboards’ moment in the sun is finally starting to end. When the gadgets burst onto the scene in the summer, it seemed like nothing could stop the six to 12 miles per hour of momentum the little...
When consumers grumble about “Christmas creep,” they’re usually referring to how the once-contained holiday shopping season has started to sneak its way earlier and earlier into November — and, sometimes, even October. However annoying a premature commercial or radio jingle may be for the shoppers,...
There’s no denying that in terms of cutting-edge innovations, online retailers are usually quicker on the uptake than their in-store counterparts. However, while eCommerce-centric businesses may have pulled ahead on fronts like omnichannel and dynamic pricing, more and more brick-and-mortar merchants are stealing pages from...
When Black Friday still was the unchallenged official start to the holiday shopping season, retailers only had to worry about performing on that day to ensure strong sales for the entire quarter. Now, however, those anxieties are spread across weeks and even months of shopping....