The pace of change over the past few years has been truly astounding. It's easy to forget, but most of us began our professional lives long before Al Gore invented the internet. Smartwatches were once only worn by Dick Tracy - and Maxwell Smart walked around on the world's only mobile phone. Fast-forward to today, and organizations of every size and in every industry have become wholly reliant on computers and data. From customer insights to logistics; from ecommerce to HR; from social media to financial transactions, every aspect of every …
Technology
Top E-commerce Predictions for 2020
In 2019, nearly half of all ecommerce sales happened on mobile devices. We'll get even closer to 50 percent in 2020 and should tip over the halfway mark by 2021 when the majority of e-commerce transactions will happen on mobile devices. To work in that format, e-commerce experiences must feel intimate, personal, and immediate. Mobile devices, after all, are where we go for up-to-the-second news and information about the people we care about most. Commerce needs to replicate that experience authentically and transparently. Here's what this …
Field Report on Startup Culture
How do you know when you're in the vortex of a retail tech summit? You're surrounded by stylishly dressed, enthusiastic, happy millennial-youngish men and women and their slightly older investors. These entrepreneurs exude optimism, possibility and irrepressible energy. They are living the dream of making their vision -- whatever it may be from customized haircare products and self-designed apparel to repurposed luxury handbags and sustainably sourced and produced home products - a reality in both a digital and brick-and-mortar marketplace. …
From Monsoons to Tech: The Shoptalk & Groceryshop Management Team’s Week in Pune, India
Last week, the Shoptalk and Groceryshop management team (Anil, Simran, Zia and Caroline) embarked on an 8,000 mile journey to Pune to spend the week with our rapidly expanding engineering team. Pune is one of India's fastest growing tech hubs, and an incredibly livable and green city. It's not every day that you can say you've been to India during the monsoon season, and the trek to Pune was no small feat. Time definitely flies when you're having fun--almost two years ago, we co-founded a new tech company in Pune called Personatech that …
From Monsoons to Tech: The Shoptalk & Groceryshop Management Team’s Week in Pune, IndiaRead More
The Tech Hunters
The next big thing is being rolled out by the thousands on almost a daily basis. To name them in the aggregate, we're calling them tech-driven startups. They sprout up overnight, fueled by billions of dollars thrown at their models by crazed, casino-addicted investors. These risk-takers are willing to lose millions on nine out of ten they're funding, hoping that one will be the next Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb and others who quickly have become unicorns and continually scale upward. However, the irony is that these accelerating …
Amazon Go Stores Will Go: Walmart Eats Their Lunch
For sure, Amazon took all the oxygen out of the room and the breath away from the entire retail industry. And it continues … except for one retailer. As it turns out, Amazon was but a tweak in the nose of the behemoth from Arkansas. But that's all it took. Like all of the Avengers combined, the roughly three-quarters of a trillion-dollar force, with CEO Doug McMillon at the helm, is crushing Amazon on the ground. And Walmart will just continue to accelerate, widening the gap to the point where Amazon will never catch up in the physical world …
Calling the Retail Innovation/Disruption Bluff
One of the debilitating downsides of having been a card-carrying futurist with Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve is learning the dirty little secret of big companies' off-stated quests for innovation and their vociferous lip service championing of disruption. Here it is: Like the weather, everyone talks a great deal about retail innovation, but nobody (in these big clunky companies) ever does anything about it. Except, of course, when they swallow up some startup and then dumb it down. Retail Woes Retailers, designers, manufacturers: You know the …
Data + 3D = Efficiency!
It's denim season again and we are anticipating what's next. How will trends in eco-responsible production and gender adaptability in styling and innovations deliver true consumer personalisation? What will be the big new denim story? More importantly, is the skinny jean dead yet? Whether it's the re-invented five pocket jean with wide or tapered leg shaping or a chino style sitting high at the waist, one thing remains constant: consumers demand a perfect fit, irrespective of design trends. As an industry, how can we best deliver fashion, …