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First Edition

A focus on customer experience, productivity and flexibility

As retailers strive to remain competitive, many are turning their attention to the sales associates who work in their stores. Store associates are key to a shopping experience that leaves consumers satisfied and interested in returning. More than half — 54 percent — of respondents to the 2017 Retail Trends Report by customer experience management firm InMoment said they value knowledgeable sales employees.

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.

Spinning a yarn

In 2012 Matt Scanlan was working as an analyst at a private equity firm and wanted something different. He made a break for Mongolia, where he met nomadic goat herders who produce cashmere — and inspired the launch of Naadam, a maker and seller of cashmere fashions.

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.

When others manage, Loomis solves

Introducing Titan R by Loomis. Part of our industry-leading SafePoint ecosystem, these cash recyclers combine the latest cash-handling technology and streamline cash management for cash intensive businesses in one end-to-end solution, all backed by our best-in-class customer support.

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Trends

Uptick continues with TikTok

TikTok may be the biggest trend people have never heard of. The app, which allows users to easily create 15-second videos with sound clips, filters and effects, is said to be available in 154 countries, and as of December, was the fourth most popular non-game app downloaded worldwide overall according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence. It was the most downloaded app worldwide, however, from the App Store, thanks to China.

NRF News

The beauty of Sephora’s omnichannel strategy

"Stores are a powerful way to bring experiences to life for people," Sephora Executive Vice President of Omni Retail Mary Beth Laughton tells NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast team. In this episode, Laughton describes how to look at the customer journey holistically and create a seamless shopping experience — whether in-store or online — through the expertise of beauty advisors, tech that solves a pain point and no-hitch transactions. Listen and subscribe.

Father’s Day

Father’s Day spending is expected to reach an all-time high of $16 billion this year, according to NRF’s annual survey. The biggest drivers are growth in spending by consumers ages 35-44, along with spending on clothing, special outings and gift cards. Learn more about celebration and purchasing trends over time, including demographics and trends related to non-typical gifts, in NRF’s Father’s Day headquarters.

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.

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How retail powers Maine’s economy

NRF’s store tour program connects members of Congress with retailers to learn how retail powers the economy and creates jobs in the states and districts they represent. In March, Representative Jared Golden, D-Maine, visited the L.L. Bean manufacturing facility in Lewiston to learn how retail jobs contribute to the economic development of Maine and the United States. Learn more about NRF’s Store Tour program.

Retail Deals

The dominant grocery brands in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), Mercator and Konzum, have upgraded to the latest merchandising solution by Oracle, automating the merchandising process and offering best practices to associates to assist with strategic tasks that impact the bottom line and improve daily operational efficiency.

JOANN, the nation's leading craft and fabric specialty retailer, has partnered with Impact Analytics, one of the fastest-growing advanced analytics SaaS companies in the United States, to drive incremental EBITDA impact through promo optimization.

Steve Prebble has been named president of Appriss Retail, an industry leader in retail performance improvement solutions.

Decathlon, the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, has deployed the mobile self-checkout solution by MishiPay across all its stores in the Netherlands, which will allow customers to scan and pay for items using their smartphone, automatically disabling the RFID security tag so they can exit the store without waiting.

Food City has selected GlobalWorx, the first industry collaboration platform for the store-level control of fast-moving consumer goods, to help increase revenue and strengthen customer satisfaction by communicating out-of-stock situations and other store service-related issues.

Natuzzi Italia, Italy’s largest furniture house, recently launched its first augmented store in New York City using Microsoft HoloLens, allowing visitors to see an endless virtual showroom with a 360-degree view of all Natuzzi furniture.