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First Edition

Shinola leverages AI to predict future product trends

It’s a conundrum buyers face every season. What do I buy? How many? What about colors, sizes and related items? For decades, answers to these questions were divined from studying recent historical data and customer surveys. The challenge is that all this information is derived from the past, and the decisions that follow represent educated — but still risky — gambles.

Where fast food meets fit living

The discrepancy between exercising as part of a healthy lifestyle and snacking on sweets and sugary drinks between workouts has inspired a new type of convenience store. Named after a tomato variety that grows well on the West Coast, Green Zebra opened its first location in 2013.

Jenzy takes the frustration out of shopping for kids’ shoes

Of all the things a traveler might expect to take away from a trip to China, frustration with ordering shoes online is probably not high on the list. But after a two-year teaching program overseas, it’s one lesson Carolyn Horner and Eve Ackerley brought home.

Retailers make the best use of a key component of a great customer experience — store employees

One day in Arkansas in 1984, a 17-year-old high school basketball player named Doug McMillon took a job unloading trucks at a Walmart distribution center. He’s still there, only now he’s the CEO. And he’s not alone; a lot of retail careers began when a teenager took a part-time summer job working behind a counter (or loading trucks or arranging merchandise) and discovered there was something special about this business.

City Furniture finds a seamless way to prevent credit card fraud

With credit card companies no longer requiring signatures to approve transactions and refusing to enable the use of personal identification numbers with their new chip cards, retailers are increasingly looking for ways to determine whether the customer with a card in their hand is the legitimate cardholder. Intellicheck has a solution that some retailers say is helping address the problem.

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.

You’ve proven your retail concept is reproducible.

Now, can your network keep up? The first few stores were actually fun. Several hundred is a whole different animal. That’s why, as stores and devices multiply, leading retailers rely on SageNet to connect, manage and protect the enterprise.

To learn more, download our Guide to Managed Network Services.

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.

Trends

"Embark" on a journey of pet discovery

Many folks would list dogs among their favorites. Oprah, in presenting her own 2018 collection of Favorite Things, took that a step further: She included the Embark Dog DNA Test, which lets owners discover their beloved pet’s breed, ancestry, health and more.

While we’re talking dogs ...

They’re just like us; they are what they eat. Petco recently announced it would stop selling dog — and cat — foods and treats containing artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. Petco CEO Ron Coughlin likens it to “taking the nutritional high ground,” with shelves and the website cleared of such items by May.

NRF News

Poshmark challenges traditional retail

Poshmark is the largest social marketplace for fashion, a place where millions of people come to buy, sell and share their personal style. Founder and CEO Manish Chandra joins the NRF Retail Gets Real podcast team to talk about the passionate community on Poshmark and how the accessibility of the platform is creating a new kind of entrepreneur. Listen and subscribe.

How young adults celebrate Easter

Consumers under age 35 are more likely than the average adult to celebrate Easter and are the only age group that’s seen a consistent increase in those celebrating compared with a decade ago. Read more on the three ways young consumers are changing Easter celebrations.

Unify physical in-store data with digital customer data

Are you looking for ways to take personalization to the next level? The Arm retail solution can help you capture customers’ in-store, item-level shopping behavior, and unify that physical shopping data with their digital journey. This holistic view provides the foundation for delivering personalized experiences across digital and physical properties.

Learn how to make your shopper's experience personal!

3 things to know about consumers in 2019

Evolution doesn’t stop in retail — as consumer behavior shifts and changes with every new technological advancement or cultural shift, retailers must rise to meet new demands. Here are three ways smart retailers are striving to not just meet, but exceed customer expectations.

Retail Deals

Working with RELEX Solutions, Retail Business Services, the services company of Ahold Delhaize USA, which manages supply chain operations for its local brands (Hannaford, Food Lion, Giant Food, GIANT/MARTIN’s, Stop & Shop and Peapod), is implementing an innovative, end-to-end forecasting and replenishment solution to provide even fresher produce to customers.

Wayfair Inc., one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home, will open its first full-service physical retail store later this year in Natick, Mass.

Salsa, the Portuguese denim brand, is working with Neogrid, a technology provider of end-to-end supply chain management solutions, to optimize inventory at the store level and maintain product availability.

Cut TCO by 15% on barcode devices

Retailers have relied on rugged handheld devices for over 30 years to boost efficiency and productivity. All along, devices have suffered from failures due to charging contacts that get dirty, corrode, or break. Wireless charging prevents device failure, drastically reducing TCO. An enterprise can easily reduce TCO by 15% or more deploying wireless charging devices.

Download the White Paper

Pottery Barn Kids and Mark & Graham, members of the Williams-Sonoma Inc. portfolio of brands, has debuted an exclusive collection of stylish and functional diaper bags and changing pads. The collaboration combines Pottery Barn Kids’ industry knowledge and craftsmanship with Mark & Graham’s expertise in the personalized gift category.

Springbot, a data-driven marketing platform for ecommerce retailers, has launched Facebook Messenger Marketing as part of its all-in-one marketing automation platform.

At Home Group Inc., the home décor superstore, opened three new stores in February including Chicago, Indianapolis and Madison, Wis.

Opterus Inc., a global provider of cost-effective, web-based store communications and task management solutions, has announced that Porsche Design of America, an exclusive lifestyle brand, has chosen Opterus’ OpsCenter solution as its centralized communications and task management tool.