In his 2007 book, Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived, robotist and author Daniel Wilson took readers on a tour of some of the revolutionary technologies that were supposed to change everything, but didn’t. Something like that has happened in the retail industry, according to a new
Technology is rapidly changing the retail industry, but for now the fears of an apocalyptic impact on brick-and-mortar stores seem overblown. With Walmart, Target and many other mass retailers leveraging their physical stores to help them succeed with online customers as well as those that prefer to do their shopping in person, there is also
Anyone who questions whether the primary battleground for the world’s top retailers has shifted from brick-and-mortar stores to the omnichannel realm would do well to consider the series of significant developments that has unfolded in recent weeks. The lead story in the last edition of Mass Market Retailers was about Walmart’s $16 billion investment for
Editors’s note: In this article, the first of a new series on all things digital retail, the authors examine how retailers can prepare to lead in the space they occupy. Much has been said about the convergence of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar. Omnichannel finds its way into nearly every article about retail today. And why not?
The shuttering of brick-and-mortar stores and the continued explosive growth of e-commerce have led to an ongoing series of news articles suggesting that hard times are ahead for the retail industry. One of the latest appeared in Bloomberg earlier this month under the headline “America’s ‘Retail Apocalpse’ is Really Just Beginning.” The article argues that
The established order in mass market retailing has been shaken in recent years by the emergence and increasing prominence of Amazon and other e-commerce alternatives to brick-and-mortar stores. Online merchants continue to make inroads in one category after another — everything from books, (the foundation of Amazon’s business) and home entertainment to apparel and groceries.
SEATTLE — Extending the bounds of brick-and-mortar retailing, Amazon.com Inc. is debuting a mini convenience store requiring shoppers to neither scan nor check out products. Instead, items that consumers pick off shelves at the 1,800-square-foot Amazon Go store are automatically charged to their Amazon accounts through a free app, after they swipe their smartphones at
Amazon is once again jolting the status quo in mass market retailing. The e-commerce pioneer, which has done more than any other company to transform consumer expectations and the way people shop, early this month took the wraps off an experimental brick-and-mortar store format with the potential to revolutionize the grocery shopping experience. Amazon Go,
The struggles between brick-and-mortar retailers and their online offspring continue. More precisely, the competition shows no signs of abating — or reaching any conclusion. If anything, it has gathered momentum, with the insertion of Amazon as the target of brick-and-mortar retailers seeking to build a viable online business. Perhaps enough has been said and written
SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc. plans to open about 400 bookstores, according to an executive at a major mall. The online retailer ventured into the brick-and-mortar arena in November with the opening of a bookstore in its home city of Seattle. An expansion of bookstores, which the company has not confirmed, would be a reversal by