Sizzle Toys: Yes, the last several months have been Toys R Us focused. But the wooden soldiers and dolls still march on, and game consoles still fly off the shelves. Beyond the banner bankruptcy of Toys R Us, NPD Group finds that the toy industry...
The biggest story this week in grocery came, as it often does, care of the new Whole Foods Market as operated by Amazon. Curbside delivery is coming to the grocery chain, starting with two test runs — one in Virginia Beach one in Sacramento. As a...
Billboards are not going gently into that good night. In fact, the old-fashioned form of outdoor advertising is winning over digital marketing heavyweights and finding ways to thrive in the online world. Examples abound. Amid data sharing and online privacy controversies, Facebook recently promoted on...
Sizzle Global retail connected market: It’s set to top $82 billion in just a few scant years. Not a bad haul, considering the fact that retail in general is growing at about 1.6 percent as measured annually through the first quarter of this year. But then again,...
Amazon — with the whole the Alexa/Echo ecosystem — is not an easy competitor to race with. Looking at the marketplace for Voice AI assistants at 2018’s halfway mark ,there is a lot going on and a lot of territory still to pursue. But even taking...
Sizzle Amazon’s Prime Day for Prime: Estimates are that the commerce juggernaut brought in $4 billion in Prime Day sales (according to Wedbush), up 33 percent from last year. Not a bad haul, considering the company had been initially been reported to be off to a...
Sizzle Self-checkout: Check yourself, as the song says. And in retail, the checking yourself is literal and increasing. As many as 70 percent of shoppers have used this option at grocers, per the PYMNTS Self-Service Kiosk report. Shows the lure of speed and choice in the checkout experience,...
The retail landscape is changing — and fast. Strategies that turned merchants into winners in the past largely fail to resonate with modern consumers, who expect to be able to buy the products from their favorite stores whenever and however they want. In response, merchants are...
Sizzle IPOs: See a renaissance of sorts, topping $35 billion in 2018, amid the fastest pace in 20 years and among verticals as far-flung as wholesale clubs and FinTech firms. The volume is the highest seen since 2014. Capital is flowing and investors’ pulses are...