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First Edition
The pressure is rising for retailers to fine-tune their supply chains as they source and deliver more products than ever at an increasingly rapid pace across the globe. Retail supply chain executives are challenged on many fronts, from operations and sourcing to fulfillment and last-mile delivery. The growing uncertainty about global trade and tariffs also complicates the picture, and new technologies offer promise but can be difficult to pilot and implement.
Disruptive behaviors, workplace violence and vicious crimes are the situations retail loss prevention and risk management executives face daily. At NRF PROTECT, set to take place June 11-13 in Anaheim, Calif., content is designed to help retail companies develop robust plans for dealing with these issues and others, including crisis management, active shooter and facial recognition.
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. 
Friendly fraud. “What a terrible name!” exclaims Monica Eaton-Cardone, ticking off a list of online credit card and debit card fraud incidents. “With regular fraud, legitimate fraud, a human at a bank makes a decision” after investigating whether fraud actually took place, but with “friendly fraud” the bank simply takes the customer’s word.
Sherri Davidoff is the mother of young children. She drives to the grocery store in Missoula, Mont., in a station wagon. While she may seem positively ordinary — even bordering on uncool — don’t be fooled. Davidoff is a noted cybersecurity and digital forensics expert, an author, speaker and the CEO of LMG Security and BrightWise Inc.
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
The idea of counterfeit whisky might not be top of mind to most, but it is to whisky manufacturer Ailsa Bay. The Scotland-based company is using blockchain to capture its full distilling and manufacturing process — ensuring consumers both traceability and authenticity. At the same time, the company can collect information to help “maintain brand protection,” using mobile location services to see where it is being bought and consumed.
Instagram might not give life, but it can apparently give Nissin Cup Noodles and other prizes. Digital media influencer FOODBEAST has teamed up with Nissin Foods USA to create vending machines that use Instagram “likes” as currency. The first machines appeared in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in March; consumers can follow @foodbeastdreammachine on Instagram to see where the #DreamMachines will be next.
When it comes to generating buzz, exercise startup Peloton appears to be pulling ahead of the pack.
New data from internet-based market research and data analytics firm YouGov shows Peloton’s “buzz score,” which gauges if U.S. adults are hearing positive or negative things about a particular brand, rose from +4 to +10 in six months. At the same time, buzz scores for competitors such as Flywheel Sports, SoulCycle and NordicTrack remained relatively flat.
NRF News
Social media's powerful ability to reach consumers is a game changer for many businesses. Facebook’s Martin Gilliard is at the center of where social media and shopping meet. In his role at Facebook, Gilliard drives the development of data products for retail. In this episode of NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast, he dives into how Facebook works with retailers now and plans to in the future.
Creating a culture of equality, particularly in the Silicon Valley tech world, is not a spectator sport, according to Molly Ford of Salesforce. Her job is to develop and grow a diverse and productive technology workforce, and she spoke about how a culture of inclusion positively impacts IT teams during the NRFtech conference. Read more.
A retailer’s next crisis could be right around the corner. Judy Smith, founder and president of Smith & Company and the inspiration behind the hit TV series “Scandal,” will provide insight and expertise on crisis management issues during her keynote at the NRF PROTECT conference, which begins Tuesday in Anaheim, Calif. Retailers can save $200 on registration through Friday.
Retail Deals
Davis Elen, one of the largest independently owned advertising agencies on the West Coast, has been selected as the strategic and creative agency partner for Smart & Final, the smaller, faster grocery warehouse store.
The acquisition of ADS Security by Vector Security adds new branch operations for the latter in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as additional market presence for both in North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida.
PCMS, a leading global provider of retail commerce software and services, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with major South African supermarket brand Pick n Pay.
Foursquare has acquired Snap Inc.’s Placed, the leader in advertising-to-store visit attribution, and will add the Placed product to its bundle of location-based offerings. Mercatus, a leading provider in digital commerce solutions for grocery and other retail verticals, and ShopperKit, the first enterprise class software built specifically for in-store grocery fulfillment, have partnered to help grocers more efficiently execute click-and-collect and delivery fulfillment of online orders.
The Michaels Companies has partnered with Cricut Inc. to exclusively launch the Cricut Infusible Ink™ system which brings professional level personalization to the home. Zebra Technologies Corporation, an innovator that enables businesses to gain a performance edge, has completed its acquisition of Profitect Inc., a privately held, leading provider of prescriptive analytics for the retail and consumer packaged goods industries. |
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