Technology

Should you evaluate the performance and efficacy of a physical retail store the same way you evaluate an ecommerce store or a mobile game? The short answer is not exactly – but the gaps are not that big. By applying methodologies and disciplines from one platform to the other, we can better understand what makes our users and visitors return to our store, app, or platform, and gain a deeper understanding of successful customer engagement. Measuring What Matters KPIs such as ARPU/ARPPU, Retention Rates, Stickiness, and LTV are widely used …

(Stop) Measuring Sales Per-Square-Foot in an Omnichannel WorldRead More

Location, location, location. How many times have we heard this when measuring the intrinsic value for a property? In shopping malls, location is everything for any store focused on attracting the maximum number of shoppers. If a store is sited in a high-traffic area, chances are more shoppers will enter that store to browse its products. Leasing teams equipped with Spatial Intelligence technology can quantify the relative value of each location based on foot traffic and impressions in real-time, placing value on their leasing strategies …

The More Customers Walk Your Store, the More Your Space Is WorthRead More

The jury is still out on the long-term value of NFTs as a digital ownership model, but SXSW 2022 was steeped in NFT hype. The conference hosted 20+ sessions anchored in serious consideration of the topic, while in another room NFTs of digital art objects were available (to download) for a price. A quick NFT refresher: "A non-fungible token is a blockchain-housed identifier (or piece of individual code) that represents the terms of a smart contract granted upon the exchange of a singular digital object. This object could be a virtual property …

What’s in Your Vending Machine?Read More

Winning sports teams have great playbooks. In the age of AI, coaches and teams have access to immense amounts of data, from discovering key insights on plays to understanding every action on the court. This data allows them to evaluate and improve how their team plays the game, all towards reaching the goal of winning. Just as sports teams leverage these digital tools to stay one step ahead of their competition, retailers too can take advantage of these same types of tools to drive their business to succeed. For a store operations manager …

Retail Playbooks to WinRead More

Everyone knows shipping is costly. Return shipping can be even costlier. In an effort to give consumers what they want, when they want it (aka good consumer service), retailers are running up costs for labor and packaging by shipping one item at a time. This practice may be great optics for the consumer, but it is inefficient, and the excess packaging and energy required for delivery harm the environment and retailers’ bottom lines. This puts retailers between a rock-and-a-hard-place with no clear solution … yet. Consumer expectations and …

Is Free Shipping Dead?Read More

The masked and the unmasked joined forces in Austin after a two-year South by Southwest (SXSW) drought. The sidewalk terror normally caused by the Lime scooter brigades was diminished by smaller crowds overall, yet the conference was surprisingly robust. An array of 15 tracks were staged this year. Retail and fashion didn't earn stand-alone track status but held sway in selected technology and futures talks. Megatrends A few megatrends dominated the conference sessions. I will briefly describe the trend, then consider the implications …

SXSW Rises AgainRead More