Amazon is planning to launch a wireless in-ear headphone to not only challenge Apple’s popular AirPods in the mobile wearables market, but to bring Alexa on the road. How important will developing a wireless earbud be for Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant ambitions?
Retailers, suppliers and third party service vendors continue to face significant challenges for the delivery of temperature-sensitive food to homes, keeping profitability elusive. What are the pain points retailers and suppliers need to address immediately to make home delivery programs profitable?
CVS yesterday has announced that it can make deliveries to customers within hours of prescriptions being filled. The drugstore chain is working with Target-owned Shipt to make deliveries from 6,000 CVS locations across the U.S. Do you expect the demand for home delivery of prescription medicines to grow significantly over the next decade?
A wide range of retailers rushed in to fill the gap left in the toy market when Toys “R” Us shuttered its doors. That’s where Walmart’s new baby registry comes in. Is Walmart on the right track with its baby registry?
With the uncertain trade climate, Williams-Sonoma is already assuming tariffs on a wide range of home goods imported from China will rise to 25 percent in 2019. What advice would you have for retailers and their vendor partners on managing the potential impact of the U.S.-China trade dispute?
A new browser add-on will let visitors to Amazon or Walmart’s websites know if they can get a better deal on a second-hand version of the product they’re searching for at Goodwill. Will Goodwill’s Chrome extension significantly improve its online sales?
Less than two years ago, Staples launched its campaign for business customers. Two days ago, the office supplies retailer announced it is rebranding itself as a “worklife fulfillment company” with a new logo and five private label brands. What do you see as the challenges faced by Staples in the current market?
At Patagonia, exit interviews don’t start by asking why the employee is leaving but what inspired them to join in the first place. Are exit interviews more practical and valuable at the store level or at the corporate level?
Walmart is going all-in on its online grocery business with store pickup options and delivery. Yesterday, Walmart announced that it was enabling its customers to place their orders by voice on any device that uses Google Assistant. Do you see adoption of voice-ordering picking up in any substantial way in the next year or two?
With churn rates seen as high as 40 percent, subscription retail has a serious retention problem. And there’s no simple one-time solution, either. Are high churn rates a chronic problem for subscription retailers or more easily solvable?
