If retailers thought millennials were a tech-driven, hard-to-understand generation, they might be in for a surprise with their kids. Members of Generation Z — already totalling 2.5 billion across the globe with 60 million in the United States alone — have access to $44 billion in buying power with a high ratio of discretionary spending.

There is no doubt that today’s consumers are increasingly demanding and fickle to boot. Now, they want to try on products in the comfort of their home and easily ship back what they don’t want. And you’d better not charge them for shipping or returns or bill them for an item until they decide they want to keep it.

NRF is proud to provide our members with the online Retail Buying Guide to search for trusted vendors, products and services in the retail industry. Our guide is a user-friendly forum designed to bring suppliers and purchasers together. You can search by keyword, location, company name or category. Available whenever you need it, the Retail Buying Guide makes it easy to locate products and professional services geared to the retail industry. Click here to visit the online Retail Buying Guide! To advertise, please contact Sarah Allen for more information.

The growing link between food and health continues to promote interesting partnerships. Grocery retailer Albertsons and medical tech company Genomind have made Genomind’s DNA testing kits available for purchase at select grocery stores.

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.

Data isn’t just an impersonal thing used by giant corporations. Many smaller companies making big waves right now use data in a very personal way. On this episode of NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast, ThirdLove Chief Creative Officer Ra'el Cohen discusses how the ecommerce company is tapping the power of digital data to transform the bra industry.

With nearly 130 speakers in the lineup and a packed three-day agenda, there is a lot to see and do at NRF’s Shop.org conference in Las Vegas this week. The NRF Education Team has curated a list of favorites, covering everything from business and technology trends to concepts and inspirations.

Retailers will be able to learn about cyber risks they face during NRF’s Cybersecurity Forum, which is scheduled to be held Sept. 24 in Washington. Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Christopher Krebs and former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff will speak at the NRF members-only event. NRF’s IT Security Council will also discuss third-party risk management and cyber-attack modeling.

Burger King Restaurant Co. Ltd. plans to expand its number of stores and increase revenue. It will use solutions from SAP Ariba and SAP to support them. Using the cloud-based procurement applications and business network of SAP Ariba alongside SAP S/4HANA, Burger King will create an efficient digital process for managing its spend from end to end in an integrated and intelligent way that fuels savings, efficiencies and business growth.

As part of its long-term growth strategy, Fred Meyer Jewelers recently announced a partnership with Synchrony to provide financial services programs for jewelry purchases.

Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Company has selected Ithaca, N.Y.-based Rosie Applications Inc. to implement online shopping at its more than 270 retail locations across the Southeast.

Hudson's Bay Co. has entered into definitive agreements with SIGNA Retail Holdings, a leading European retail and real estate operator, to form a strategic partnership for its European retail and real estate assets.

World Wide Technology, a market-leading technology solution provider, announced the successful completion of the first phase of a multi-year partnership with Schnuck Markets Inc., a third-generation, family-owned grocery/pharmacy retailer, in the development, launch and ongoing expansion of the Schnucks Rewards app and program.

Direct-to-consumer jewelry brand Mejuri recently deployed Tulip’s TurnKey Edition in its first physical store. This new offering captures the key clienteling features and best practices with an out-of-the-box mobile solution that is easy to install, configure and launch in stores.

Opterus Inc., a global provider of cost-effective, web-based store communications and task management solutions, announced that LoveSac, an American furniture retailer specializing in a patented modular furniture system called Sactionals, has chosen the Opterus Store Ops-Center as its centralized communications solution.

BTM Global, a premier provider of retail system integration and development services, announced that Perry Ellis International is live with one of the industry’s first Oracle Retail Customer Engagement v17 implementations in the Oracle cloud, which included converting and migrating data from a legacy CRM system. PEI and BTM Global have rolled out ORCE to approximately 70 stores in the United States and United Kingdom.

Standard Cognition, which is eliminating the hassle of retail checkout by removing it entirely, has opened San Francisco’s first public cashierless store. Located at 1071 Market Street, the Standard Market proof-of-concept store allows consumers to shop and pay without scanning or stopping to check out.

Visionet Systems Inc., a leading technology solutions company, announced the successful rollout of HauteLogic, its flagship supply chain management suite, for Michael Gerald Ltd, California-based casual lifestyle apparel company known for its popular brands including Retrofit, Xtreme Gear, Method, Commerce and Trash Nouveau. Built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations ERP platform, powered by Microsoft Azure Cloud, Visionet’s HauteLogic apparel industry solution will digitize and streamline MGL’s internal and partner-facing business processes, laying the foundation for long-term growth and success.

Certona, the leader in real-time omnichannel personalization for the world’s largest brands and retailers, announced an expanded partnership with Lamps Plus, the nation’s largest specialty lighting retailer. Lamps Plus utilizes Certona’s predictive targeting capabilities to personalize product landing pages from Google paid search campaigns.

Gristedes Foods Inc. and Allegiance Retail Services LLC announced that the Gristedes supermarket chain with 23 stores in the New York metro market has joined the ARS cooperative.

Paytronix Systems Inc. announced that Chicken Express, a family-owned, franchised group of 250 fried chicken restaurants, has deployed the Paytronix Gift Card system. Chicken Express selected Paytronix for its flexible platform that is integrated with the brand’s primary POS, NCR Aloha, as well as all other POS systems used by its franchisees.

Amazon Fashion announced the arrival of J.Crew Mercantile on Amazon. Customers in the United States who are shopping for fashion on Amazon have access to a wide selection of J.Crew Mercantile, further enhancing the fashion selection available on Amazon. The curated Fall ’18 assortment from J.Crew Mercantile focuses on great style at great value and is available to customers through a dedicated storefront at amazon.com/jcrew.

Williams Sonoma, a member of the Williams-Sonoma Inc. portfolio of brands, announced a partnership with Cadillac to bring the first-ever East Coast pop-up of The Charter Oak since opening in June 2017, with three-Michelin-starred Chef Christopher Kostow, to New York City. On Sept. 20 and 21, 2018, guests will be able to savor the flavors of the Napa Valley at Cadillac House New York beginning with hand-crafted cocktails on the veranda, followed by a celebratory, family-style dinner featuring dishes from The Charter Oak’s seasonal menu.