Almost a quarter of consumers own a voice-controlled device, according to the Walker Sands 2017 “Future of Retail” report, and one in five have made a voice purchase through a digital home assistant. Amazon Echo and Google Home are the driving forces behind voice-assisted shopping, though other brands are starting to experiment with voicebots.

The success of most products and the adoption of new behaviors often comes down to two things: what causes pain and what triggers delight. STORES Magazine editor Susan Reda has her money on the growing acceptance of mobile and peer-to-peer payments because options such as Venmo have proven that experiences that are easy, efficient and user-friendly win over consumers.

Jaimee Marshall likes to say she was recruited by a recruiter to become a recruiter, but it’s also a career route the retail veteran believes she was meant to take. With a diverse background in publishing, fashion and retail brands and a talent for problem solving, Marshall was recruited to help others connect the best people to the best positions.

Though L.L.Bean has deep historical data and internal institutional knowledge, the inventory management team still found it difficult to manage the changes they were seeing in product demand. With store-level detail, the company has seen customer service levels improve by 10 percentage points.

The new Volterman Smart Wallet includes a GPS tracking system and camera and can pair with the user’s phone to signal an alarm when the wallet and phone are separated; a built-in battery also charges the phone wirelessly.

Amazon is moving toward instant gratification, unveiling pickup points throughout the U.S. that stock fast-selling items. The first locations are on college campuses; users of Amazon’s mobile app have several hundred options at each site.

The digital edition of STORES includes must-read pieces, including the articles featured here. Read the current issue and browse the archives for issues you may have missed.

In today’s complex retail world, “retailing is just one big supply chain,” says Rick Schart, senior vice president of supply chain and ecommerce at Stein Mart. Schart joined NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast and discussed how technology has been the biggest catalyst to the industry’s evolution.

Holiday spending is on track to grow 3.4% this year, according to the holiday survey from NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics, and for the first time, online is consumers’ top holiday shopping destination. “With employment and incomes increasing, consumers are more confident this year,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.

Politics and policy may finally be aligning for the first time in more than 30 years, and voting on a tax reform proposal is closer than it has been in decades. Read about how different administrations have approached tax reform since the last time a bill was successfully passed.

Shop Direct, the UK’s second largest pureplay online retailer, has selected Revionics Price Suite to drive dynamic pricing and respond to market, shopper and competitive trends. The company has also selected Revionics Promotion Suite and science-based analytics on its promotion performance, allowing it to deliver relevant promotional offers that matter to shoppers while identifying and phasing out offers that are not compelling.

Destination XL Group Inc., a retailer of men’s XL apparel, has selected PlumSlice’s Product Experience Cloud to manage products across each of its brand channels. DXL will use this next-generation data command center to capture and maintain robust product data for all SKUs across its DXL, Casual Male XL and Rochester Clothing retail brands.

Alberta-based grocer Freson Bros. has chosen Clutch to help it learn more about its customers with a revamped loyalty program.

Italian hypermarket chain Bennet has deployed Oracle Retail Planning and Optimization solutions to increase efficiencies. Bennet operates 63 hypermarkets throughout northern Italy, focused on price, service, and selection. With a centralized view of inventory, Bennet can leverage Oracle Retail Regular Price Optimization to maximize assortments to anticipate and meet customer needs.