Shoppers Head to Stores for Potential Record Black Friday
Joe Keenan
Discount hunters searching for Black Friday deals have officially kicked off the holiday shopping season. Consumers are forecasted to break spending records in 2024, with the average person expected to spend a little over $1,000, up 14 percent from last year, according to data from …
Consumers Spend Record $6.1B Online on Thanksgiving
Consumers spent a record $6.1 billion online on Thanksgiving, up 8.8 percent year-over-year (YoY). Growth outpaced last year (Thanksgiving 2023: $5.6 billion, up 5.5% YoY), driven by big discounts across the board. Mobile shopping hit an all-time high on Thanksgiving, with 59.5 percent of online sales coming through a mobile …
How Lowe’s Has Prioritized its Tech and Innovation Strategy
Kristina Stidham
Lowe’s Innovation Labs imagines, explores and accelerates the future of home improvement through the lens of emerging technology. Josh Shabtai, senior director of ecosystem at Lowe’s Innovation Labs, spoke at Total Retail Tech earlier this fall to detail the work he and his team are …
Walmart Makes Sweeping Cuts to DEI Initiatives
Walmart on Monday confirmed that it’s ending some of its diversity initiatives, removing some LGBTQ-related merchandise from its website, and winding down a nonprofit that funded programs for minorities, reports CNBC. The nation’s largest employer, which has about 1.6 million U.S. workers, joined a growing …
How Suburban Propane is Using AI to Factor Weather Into its Forecasting
Artificial intelligence (AI) is seemingly disrupting everything in today’s world, including retail businesses. At Total Retail Tech earlier this fall, retail martech leaders shared their experiences using AI, from implementation to execution to measurement. Nandini Sankara, vice president of marketing and brand strategy and spokesperson …
Target’s Stock Tumbles Upon Weak Sales Report
Target on Wednesday missed Wall Street’s quarterly earnings and revenue expectations and posted only a slight uptick in customer traffic, despite the discounter’s price cuts on thousands of items and its early holiday sale. The big-box retailer reversed course and cut its full-year profit guidance, …
3 Reasons Why Autonomous Mobile Robots Are Better Than Drones for Inventory Management in Distribution Centers
Zeena Keshwji
Optimized inventory management is essential to retailers and CPG (consumer packaged goods) brands throughout the supply chain, with each touchpoint impacting operational efficiency and profitability. At times, drones have been at the forefront of discussion around inventory management within distribution center environments, notably for their …
How System Failures Could Crush Your Cyber Monday Profits. Here’s What the World’s Biggest Retailers Need to Consider
Mehdi Daoudi
The CrowdStrike incident this past summer sent ripples across industries, exposing cybersecurity vulnerabilities that affected businesses of all sizes. Here’s how retailers can learn from the incident ahead of the busiest season of the year. In the Wake of CrowdStrike … With Cyber Monday just …
Key Findings and Trends Revealed in the 2024 Retail Technology Report
In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail’s Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss Total Retail’s recently released 2024 Retail Technology Report, an analysis of market trends, buying behaviors, and future opportunities. They share key findings from the survey of technology decision-makers from across …
How SoLoMo Fits Into Retail’s Future
During a keynote presentation at Total Retail Tech 2024, Sucharita Kodali, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, shared an analysis of industry data and consumer insights. SoLoMo, or social, local and mobile, has been a term used by retail marketers for years. In this …
