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Bose is moving to e-commerce by closing more than 100 retail stores in the US

Bose retail stores
Bose retail stores

We are sure that you must have heard of a brand named Bose which is quite famous for its earphones, headphones and speakers. Basically, Bose is a brand which makes equipment for the music industry and enthusiasts in general. One of the most popular products in recent times from Bose is its noise-cancelling headphones as well as earphones.

Also, we know that they are selling quite well and in numbers recently too. So there is no reason why Bose would need to shutter more than 100 of its retail stores all of sudden. But that is exactly what is happening if a new report from CNN is to be believed.

Yes, the CNN report mentions that the company is looking to shut down and cut its retail presence all over the world. It has already moved to close 100+ retail stores worldwide including a majority of them in the US. As per the company statement, this is because of a “dramatic shift” in online shopping which has reduced footfall in their retail stores.

The official statement from Bose reveals that “it’s closing 119 retail stores worldwide across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia”. However, it will continue to operate 130 stores around China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and other Asian countries. Now, we believe that these stores are seeing better footfall as per the company’s records which is why they have decided to not shutter them down as well.

Bose also said that they no longer see the need to have brick-and-mortar stores since their customers are buying their products online anyways. Apart from selling online, Bose also sells via online retailers such as Amazon, Target and Best Buy so it generally does not make sense to have a retail presence of their own now that the online sales are dominating retail sales.

Australian Company Stockinstore Makes its Foray into U.S. Market at NRF 2020 Retail

Following its success in Australia, stockinstore will make its U.S. debut, bringing its seamless omnichannel retail solution to the NRF 2020 Retail Show in New York City.

Having recently been crowned as winner of NORA’s 2019 Best in Store Retail Technology Solution, the technology provider lands stateside to exhibit their groundbreaking solution and connect with more international partners. In the Asia Pacific region, stockinstore is providing better customer experiences, driving more sales in-store and online, and giving retailers invaluable insights through its reporting suite.

“stockinstore was always developed to be a global solution,” says CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Maver. “We’ve seen retailers all around the world with the same issues when it comes to integrating their online and physical stores and setting customers expectations.”

“We know stock-outs cause walkouts, with 60% ending up as lost sales,” explains Maver. “This is the principle which stockinstore seeks to solve for retailers, by serving as the mitigation between retailer and shopper. By bringing the two together in the most mutually beneficial way, we unite people with the products retailers want to sell at the moment both want the interaction, helping to secure more sales and improving brand loyalty as well.”

What started as a find in store solution for corporate retailers has expanded into much more, providing an omnichannel platform for franchises, manufacturers and wholesalers. The Product Suite includes:

  • Find in store for Retailers
  • Find in store for Franchises
  • Find in Store for Manufacturers and Wholesalers
  • My Nearest Store Email Widget
  • Store Locator
  • Special Trading Hours

stockinstore’s Reporting Suite provides insights into customer demand which retailers never thought possible. The development team are set to extend the suite with the launch of ‘Click & Collect’ in Q1 and ‘Reserve in store’ in Q2 2020.

stockinstore prides itself on the nimble way it has been designed and built to integrate with any POS system and work seamlessly with all eCommerce platforms. This is optimal for retailers such as Rohan Penman, Global Head of Technology for T2, who says, “I thought it was a no-brainer straight away, especially due to the fact that there was no development work necessary. It was an immediate and affordable Op-x.”

The demand for a solution like stockinstore is on the rise. Retail is seeing 85% of customers browsing online before shopping in store and 90% of transactions still occuring in brick-and-mortar stores.

stockinstore’s Find In Store solution fosters better customer experiences through its intuitive two-click platform, which results in higher purchase rates. By measurably connecting online and brick and mortar stores, stockinstore delivers real-time insights so retailers can quickly react and respond to customer demands in an on-demand world, yielding more sales, better foot traffic, and ultimately, higher profits.

 

“stockinstore is the B2B partner that ends the B2C disappointment consumers face when they’ve purchased a product in their mind, but can’t find it in store,”says Co-Founder Gil Blackstone. “We create happy retail endings for consumers and provide the data retailers want with a unique reporting suite that gives valuable customer analytics on demand for products.”

Merging the data analytics sphere and consumer concerns, the stockinstore interface fosters brand loyalty and integrity, by creating satisfied shoppers who find what they need when they want it, seen in the company’s more than three-times engagement rate. At NRF, stockinstore will be presenting the possibilities of a world of matching in-stock products and happy consumers to retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers alike.

Currently, stockinstore is used by leading retailers across Australia including Adairs, T2 Tea, Guess, YETI, 2xu, PetStock, Sheike, Early Settler, Kookaï, Toyworld NZ, Florsheim, 99 Bikes, The Upside, INTERSPORT, Tentworld, and many more.

To learn more about stockinstore, visit its website or stop by booth 1713 at NRF, the largest international retail trade show. For more information about stockinstore in action, view the Guessand INTERSPORT case studies, or experience how the system works here.

ABOUT STOCKINSTORE:

stockinstore was born in 2016 as a way for retailers to tell online shoppers which stores nearby have the item they’re looking for. Since its launch, this award-winning technology has continued to bridge the gap between online and in-store; and gives retailers valuable insights into customer demand for products across their store network. To learn more about stockinstore and join a growing list of retailers who are all using stockinstore to improve their retail businesses, visit https://www.stockinstore.com.

DATALOGIC VISION TECHNOLOGY FOR SELF-CHECKOUT HIGHLIGHTED AT NRF 2020

Eugene, OR, January 8th 2020. Datalogic, a global leader in the automatic data capture and process automation markets, is pleased to announce new vision technology for self-checkout that help eliminate shopper frustration and fight checkout shrink – major areas of concern for retail enterprises, grocery stores and store operations. These self-checkout technologies will be shown at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show 2020 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City in Datalogic’s booth #5337.

Datalogic vision technology helps eliminate customer frustration by detecting products, interpreting shopper behavior and providing retailers with new ways to make self-checkout hassle free. As more retailers deploy self-checkout lanes to speed up the checkout process, many consumers are left to figure out scan and checkout. Shoppers often lack the experience to efficiently scan items, which can lead to multiple scan attempts, frustration, shrink, and longer queue lines; the exact opposite of personalized service.

Datalogic vision technology can identify items at checkout and recognize shopper behavior. Rather than only rely on a barcode, Datalogic solutions can detect and recognize items using packaging information.  This technology protects retailers when shoppers alter barcodes. Scanning the barcode of a $2.00 bottle of bulk wine when $80.00 of premium wine is detected can generate an instant exception for the POS system.

Datalogic vision technology speeds up the shopping process by being able to identify types of produce at self-checkout.  This greatly reduces the time shoppers spend looking for produce items on the self-checkout display. Often, an item is presented to the scanner with an obscured barcode causing re-scanning and slowing the checkout. Datalogic vision technology can detect the item without the use of the barcode making scanning faster and easier. Moreover, this technology can be used to alert store personnel when shoppers are scanning items without a barcode detection, so staff assist the shopper.  This feature also protects retailers when shoppers feign scanning to take items without payment.

“Retailers of all types are adding self-checkout registers in response to consumer preferences, with an eye on redirecting personnel to help shoppers throughout the store. This trend makes for an improved shopping experience but can negatively impact both shopper and retailer at the checkout if the technology isn’t fast and efficient,” said Nick Tabet, Fixed Retail Scanner Product Marketing Leader of Datalogic. “Technology that makes scanning easier can help eliminate shopper frustration at the self-checkout and speed up the process to move consumers out the door faster.” Shoppers with smaller baskets are looking for a quick checkout experience. Datalogic vision technology is focused on providing shoppers and retailers really want.

Alibaba.com Launches “B2B Tuesday” to Spotlight U.S. B2B Companies + New Survey Data

Today, Alibaba.com, the B2B business unit of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), shared the results of its brand new “Alibaba.com U.S. Small and Medium Business (SMB) Confidence Survey” and introduced “B2B Tuesday,” a major new awareness initiative to spotlight, celebrate and support B2B-focused U.S. SMBs, highlight their contributions to the U.S. economy and help them capture the global ecommerce opportunity.

What is “B2B Tuesday”?

B2B Tuesday will be celebrated every Tuesday by Alibaba.com and other like-minded organizations. Together, the B2B Tuesday community promotes the successes of U.S. B2B SMBs, share insights and resources to help them grow and make it easier for U.S. SMBs to access the $23.9 trillion global B2B ecommerce opportunity – which is six times the size of the B2C ecommerce market. B2B Tuesday will feature B2B success stories, in-person events, new platform offerings, educational content, and more.

 

Highlights from the Alibaba.com U.S. SMB Confidence Survey

Alibaba.com commissioned an independent research company to conduct the Alibaba.com U.S. SMB Confidence Survey, of 5,000 U.S. SMBs conducting B2B business (more details on methodology below). Key findings of the research include:

U.S. B2B SMBs are optimistic:

  • A strong majority (62%) of B2B businesses are optimistic about the economy, saying the economy is gaining momentum or on its way up with a bright future – while only 4% believed the economy is at risk of a downturn.
  • 46% of respondents are expecting their online B2B businesses to increase in volume – with 27% of those expecting an increase of 25% or more. 72% anticipate increased revenue and 60% expect increased procurement budgets.
  • 57% hired employees to support their online B2B buying and selling, and, among the 46% of companies that expect online growth over the next year, eight in ten of companies surveyed plan to hire at least one employee as a result of their online activity.

U.S. B2B SMBs are digitizing:

  • 54% of companies recognize the impact ecommerce platforms like Alibaba.com can play in their businesses, but the bulk of their online business activity is still done by email and website order forms.
  • 90% of U.S. SMBs surveyed reported doing at least some of their B2B selling or sourcing online.
  • The top benefits sellers cite from selling online are: reaching more customers (59%), finding customers more quickly (47%) and increasing profit margins (44%).
  • Buyers cite the top benefits for online sourcing as finding suppliers more quickly (53%), reducing the need for travel (44%), greater purchasing power (38%) and higher profit margins (38%).

U.S. B2B SMBs are globalizing:

  • The majority (59%) of B2B companies surveyed by Alibaba.com report conducting some cross border trade – a far greater rate than the 1% of U.S. businesses that are cross border1.
  • Cross border business makes up an average of 17% of the business of B2B companies surveyed.
  • Surveyed businesses cited the following key benefits of cross border trade: more customers and more choice in suppliers (50%); revenue growth (47%); and increased profit margins (41%).
  • The top three regions generating the most interest among U.S. B2B businesses surveyed include the neighboring North American countries of Canada and Mexico (45%), Europe (21%) and China, Japan and Korea (17%).

“Strong SMB confidence among American business owners and entrepreneurs, plus the growth from digitizing of their business and doing business globally means the future is bright for U.S. SMBs,” said John Caplan, head of North America B2B at Alibaba Group. “Less than one third of businesses we surveyed have been doing business online for more than five years. That means there is an enormous opportunity for U.S. SMBs to digitize and grow their businesses globally with ease. And B2B Tuesday is one more example of how Alibaba.com is here to help.”

Additional data, analysis and insights from the first Alibaba.com U.S. SMB Confidence Survey will be shared on future B2B Tuesdays.

Calling All U.S. SMBs

The first B2B Tuesday will be celebrated with an “Alibaba.com Build Up” event, featuring a turbocharged line-up of SMBs and industry experts held at Alibaba.com’s NYC office in the Meatpacking District. Alibaba.com will present the results of its U.S. SMB Confidence Survey. Attendees will hear directly from Alibaba.com’s SMB customers who are already driving business success using the platform during a panel discussion with Chad Michael, CTO from LTA International, an Alibaba.com seller (who made $1.4 million in sales on Alibaba.com in the last 12 months) and Owen Franklin, founder and CEO of Blue Summit Supplies, an Alibaba.com buyer who has globalized his supplier base and expand his margins. The panel will be moderated by global ecommerce influencer, Nicole Reyhle, the founder and publisher of Retail Minded. Register here to attend in person.

“B2B Tuesday marks a major acceleration of our momentum since opening our platform to U.S. sellers,” said John Caplan, “Since July 2019, we have connected with more than 10,000 CEOs, entrepreneurs and innovators around the country. With hundreds of events in the pipeline, we are eager to have face-to-face conversations to share our understanding of the global B2B ecommerce opportunity and provide real, hands-on support from Alibaba.com experts in accessing growth globally online.”

 

Alibaba.com is actively seeking and will announce new members of the B2B Tuesday community on coming Tuesdays, rallying this community around the #B2BTuesday hashtag and the B2B Tuesday website. Additional information on upcoming events in other cities can be found at Alibaba.com/buildup.

Based on the 2016 U.S. Census Bureau report, “A Profile of U.S. Importing and Exporting Companies, 2015-2016” with total U.S. importers and exporters (413,325) in relation to the total number of U.S. businesses (32.57 million) as reported in the U.S. Census Bureau’s “County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics Combined Report”.

 

The Alibaba.com U.S. Small and Medium Business (SMB) Confidence Survey: Research Methodology

Alibaba.com commissioned leading B2B research firm, Lucid, to conduct the first-ever Alibaba.com U.S. Small and Medium Business (SMB) Confidence Survey on behalf of Alibaba.com. The sample was collected using a double opt in online panel sample and conducted anonymously from December 23-30, 2019. The survey targeted decision makers at U.S. companies that buy or sell some amount of goods and materials with other businesses. The study has an overall margin of error of ±1.20% at the 95% confidence level.

 

About Alibaba.com

The first business unit of Alibaba Group, Alibaba.com is a leading platform for global B2B e-commerce that aims to make it easy to do business anywhere. Launched in 1999, Alibaba.com is engaged in services covering all aspects of commerce, including providing businesses with tools that help reach a global audience for their products and helping buyers discover products, find suppliers, and place orders online fast and efficiently. It serves millions of buyers and suppliers from over 200 countries and regions around the world.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.

ACCEO Retail-1 Executives and Global Retailer BESTSELLER Take the Stage at New York City’s NRF 2020 to Discuss How Sustainability in Retail Spurs Brand Loyalty

ACCEO Solutions Inc., leading North American IT company recognized for innovative retail management software including ACCEO Retail-1, along with global retailer BESTSELLER, will offer insights and empowering expertise on how retailers can build and foster stronger customer relationships through responsible and conscious retailing at the NRF Big Show in New York, January 12, 2020.

Today’s consumers increasingly favor sustainable companies that minimize their impact on people and the planet. The rise of social consciousness has each generation of consumers expecting companies to take a stand on current relevant issues such as sustainability, transparency, and fair employment practices.

With the rising trend of sustainability quickly becoming tomorrow’s expectation, retailers are under pressure to become “purpose-driven” brands. BESTSELLER will present and discuss how their business is driving success with its “Fashion Forward Strategy.”

“I’m so excited to share the lessons learned through BESTSELLER’s ambitious sustainability journey and hopefully help inspire some of you to take the next step in transforming our industry into becoming more ecologically and economically responsible.” – Stephanie Bleau, Head of Marketing & eCommerce, BESTSELLER, North America

The session will also explore how technology plays a role in supporting retailers throughout their journey of becoming a sustainable business and will highlight how positive initiatives can impact brand reputation and value, customer loyalty, and future best practices.

“I look forward to presenting on such an important topic at NRF2020 alongside Stephanie of BESTSELLER and am pleased to discuss how technology can play a role in supporting retailers in their sustainability initiatives.” – Ian Holland, Vice President, Development, ACCEO Retail-1

Learn more about ACCEO Retail-1 products and read the latest blogs.

About ACCEO Solutions Inc.

ACCEO,  a fully owned subsidiary of Constellation Software Incorporated (“CSI”), specializes in the design, implementation, and integration of, and support for, management software, e-business development, and payment, professional, and technical services. With approximately 60,000 clients, ACCEO partners with businesses throughout the United States and Canada. ACCEO Retail-1 is a powerful retail chain management suite designed to optimize store operations by leveraging management solutions created specifically for their industry.
For more information, go to www.acceo.com or retail-1.acceo.com.

About BESTSELLER

BESTSELLER is a family-owned clothing and accessories company founded in Denmark in 1975 by Merete Bech Povlsen and Troels Holch Povlsen. BESTSELLER provides fast, affordable fashion for women, men, teenagers, and children via a portfolio of over 20 different brands. BESTSELLER brands are marketed in 70 markets across most of Europe, the Middle East, Canada, India, and globally via e-commerce. We have more than 3,000 branded chain stores across 38 markets worldwide, and our products are sold in approx. 15,000 multi-brand and department stores. Our products are available online, in branded chain stores, in multi-brand and department stores.

About NRF Retail Big Show

The world’s largest retail conference and expo isn’t just a conference; it’s a community. Filled with a global audience and exhibitor base that could only come from NRF. It’s a marketplace for ideas and relationships. A chance to forge new partnerships, try out best-in-class experiences, and learn from some of the biggest players transforming retail today. An event guaranteed to drive impact.

SimpliField Announces $10.5 Million Series A Funding, New US Headquarters in NYC

At the kickoff of the NRF 2020 Conference, retail-performance platform provider SimpliField announced a $10.5 million Series A funding, led by U.S.-based growth equity investor Five Elms Capital. The company also announced today the opening of its new NYC-based U.S. headquarters in SoHo.

Launched in Paris in 2016, SimpliField helps leading brands and retailers like LVMH, L’Oreal, Estée Lauder, Samsung and Sony reduce costs, increase sales and drive deeper, longer-lasting customer relationships. The company’s mobile-first platform combines a one-stop-shop for real-time collaboration between store teams, field teams and leadership at HQ with a powerful analytical tool set, including customizable dashboards.

“If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that consumers have evolved. Delivering a consistently excellent customer experience across all your stores is an absolute criteria for success. Industry leaders are getting the message that, in order to survive, they need to empower everyone – from the leaders at HQ to employees in stores and in the field – with the critical tools, guidance and insight they need to execute flawlessly,” said Benjamin Zenou, CEO of SimpliField.

“SimpliField is the only platform on the market that drives improved performance for retailers and brands by making the right data actionable by the right person, at the right time, in the right store — while also giving them the tools to take direct action on the data,” said Zenou.

Where most retail execution platform providers focus exclusively on providing tools to manage team tasks and workflow, SimpliField is different. The SimpliField platform gives team members at all levels the critical data and game-changing insights they need to make smart decisions, while also providing them with the easy-to-use planning, communication, execution and performance-management tools they need to deliver meaningful impact on store and team results.

Fueled by rapid global growth, SimpliField plans to use its most recent fundraising round to significantly increase hiring in sales, marketing and product development — with a strong focus on expanding in the U.S. and continuing to build out a comprehensive suite of advanced performance and analytics solutions. The company will also open up its new NYC headquarters at 116 Elizabeth Street, on the border of Manhattan’s Nolita and SoHo neighborhoods, in early February.

The investment was led by Five Elms Capital, a leading growth investor in founder-owned software businesses that users love. Early investors Cap Horn and Runa Capital also contributed to the Series A round.

“Retailers today all too often rely on disparate, outdated manual processes that simply don’t work, built on spreadsheets, emails and informal, insecure chat platforms, and guesswork,” said Ryan Mandl, Managing Director at Five Elms Capital.

“The SimpliField platform solves that pain with a simple, secure mobile and web-based platform for streamlined communications, improved visibility and insights they can use. We invested in the company because we believe in Ben and the leadership team, we believe in the product and we heard incredible feedback from the company’s customer base who is evangelical about the platform. Five Elms is excited to help SimpliField continue their path of growth and innovation.”

About SimpliField

Founded in Paris by by Benjamin Zenou (CEO), Georges Plancke (CTO) and Jonathan Attal (COO), SimpliField makes it simple for over 120 clients in over 30 countries — including leading retailers and major brands like LVMH, L’Oreal, Estée Lauder, Samsung and Sony — to deliver exceptional in-store customer experiences at scale through a mobile-first retail performance platform that combines in-depth analytics with an easy-to-use collaboration tool set for leadership, stores and field teams. Visit us online at www.simplifield.com.

About Five Elms

Five Elms Capital is a leading growth investor in founder-owned software businesses that users love. Five Elms provides capital and resources to help companies accelerate growth and further cement their role as industry leaders.  For more information, visit www.fiveelms.com.

Western businesses need to gain trust to succeed in China’s ecommerce market: Study

Chinese e-commerce
Chinese e-commerce

You might be aware that two of the biggest countries in the world are China and India, both in terms of population as well as the area it consists of. Now, we know that the Indian e-commerce market is already thriving due to the emergence of the internet in the country.

However, China’s e-commerce market has already boomed in the last decade because of the technology advancements. Since we know that China is a huge market for e-commerce, it is obvious that businesses outside of China will also want to operate there.

For this reason, we are now seeing that many western businesses have tried to enter the Chinese markets, especially its e-commerce market. However, it is also quite noticeable that most of these western businesses have failed to make an impact apart from the likes of Apple and some other firms. According to a new study from Econsultancy, the publication tries to understand what is causing the western businesses to fail in China and what they need to do in order to succeed.

One of the big outcomes of this study is that western businesses need to gain trust from the Chinese people in order to succeed there. It is obvious that any business needs a trust factor to achieve success but it is a big influencing factor in the Chinese markets. The study finds that western businesses just don’t understand what Chinese customers are looking for.

They think that adding payment options available in China such as Alipay will make Chinese customers buy their products which is not the case. While the US and UK users do their own research before buying a product, the Chinese customers rely on word of mouth such as a recommendation from their friends and family who have trusted the brand previously. Also, the absence of Google in China does not help western brands as they rely on the platform for their website visits.

Honeywell Brings Secure Communications and Messaging Software to Mobile Workers

Honeywell
Honeywell

Honeywell today announced a new unified communications software solution to help mobile workers better collaborate with each other, allowing them to enhance productivity and provide superior customer experiences.

Honeywell Smart Talk allows businesses to be positioned for the next generation workforce that expects a robust set of communication services. Smart Talk empowers workers in environments such as stores, hospitals, trucks and distribution centres using mobile devices with voice capabilities to make voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls, have push-to-talk conversations, send instant messages to one or a group of colleagues, launch video calls and more. The all-in-one communication solution gives instant mobile communication capabilities to workers, allowing them to better serve customers on-demand, where they are, providing immediate customer service to better improve profitability.

The cloud-based software solution is an operating system and hardware agnostic, supporting Android, iOS and Windows operating systems across mobile and desktop devices from any manufacturer. Honeywell Smart Talk will come pre-loaded and optimized for select Honeywell Mobility Edge mobile computers with voice capabilities, including the CT40 and CT60 and will be available for all Honeywell devices that support voice capabilities.

“Workers today are being challenged with knowing more at a moment’s notice than ever before,” said Kevin Dehoff, president of Honeywell’s Productivity Products business. “Honeywell Smart Talk software, combined with our powerful mobile devices, enables these mobile workers to use a single device to access critical information, make calls and send messages to other employees, getting answers in an instant.”

Third-party industry studies have shown that 48% of Millennials use real-time messaging tools for daily work. Connected and collaborative employees can increase productivity and improve employee and customer satisfaction. Training times for new employees can be reduced by providing them instant access to all the information across the network of existing employees.

The all-in-one communication solution’s advanced security features including secure message and voice encryption can ensure worker communications are protected. Because the software integrates with all call servers and major private branch exchange (PBX) business telephone systems, enterprises of all sizes can overlay any existing hosted or premise-based infrastructure, future-proofing their investment.

With intelligent centrally-managed provisioning, users can be configured to a profile that allows them to communicate with a peer or group of peers enabling the appropriate levels of collaboration. Whether workers are assisting a customer, or a patient at their bedside, or navigating to the next delivery, Smart Talk ensures they can provide the best level of service at the right time.

The Honeywell Smart Talk solution is powered by CounterPath. With nearly 20 years of experience, CounterPath is an industry leader in VoIP applications and has more than 20 million activations worldwide.

“Technology is being driven by the consumer’s demand for faster response times and improved experiences,” said Todd Carothers, Chief Revenue Officer of CounterPath. “We are proud to be powering Honeywell Smart Talk as it provides workers with the tools they need to meet the changing requirements of today’s customers.”

Honeywell Smart Talk will be available later this year on the Honeywell Marketplace, an enterprise app store designed to provide businesses with direct access to software and solutions developed by Honeywell and third-party developers.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos all set to face protests from traders during his India visit

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos

One thing that we have seen with e-commerce’s rise is that the retail sellers and traders are not happy and it is also not that they have not shown their disappointment. Because we have protests from retail traders in various countries around the world including the US, China and India too. One of the countries where traders were doing good business offline was India but e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart have greatly reduced their business too. Also, they are opposed to the deep discounting that is being done by global e-commerce players in order to attract customers.

At first, we saw that the traders were telling customers to stay away from e-commerce players as there was a chance of counterfeit products and being scammed. However, this tactic from traders has also failed and they have had to fall back on protesting once again. Now, it is known that Amazon’s CEO and founder Jeff Bezos will come on a visit to India. As per the reports we have obtained from Indian publications, it is revealed that Jeff Bezos will not have the best of times in the country. Because we are told that he will face nationwide protests from Indian traders during his visit.

It is also known that the Indian traders’ associations have planned huge protests in the country during Amazon CEO’s visit. And that, we should expect more than 70 million traders protesting against the founder of Amazon. Having said that, we know that the security for Jeff Bezos will be top-notch which means that the protestors will have to be dispersed so as to not have any threats in Jeff Bezos’ security at any cost. As far as Jeff Bezos’ visit is concerned, he has already sought to meet the Indian Prime Minister as well as other officials in the government.

Facebook, eBay pledge to tackle the fake review problem in eCommerce

fake reviews
fake reviews

If you have ever visited any eCommerce website be it eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, or any other website, you would have seen that there are some common things inside the website.

First of all, you would notice that every eCommerce store has a product listing, price and description section which helps you know what the product is and in detail. Then you scroll down and you will see that there is also a reviews section which is customer’s opinion that they can write down after buying the product.

We have also noticed that reviews are a big factor in helping people decide if the product they are looking at is fake or not. People also see the number of reviews as well as the ratings that nay product has received so as to decide whether they should buy it or not. Therefore, sellers have understood that reviews are a big factor which would affect their sales.

And for this reason, we have seen that the fake reviews problem is increasing on the platforms. Basically, fake reviews are a method in which the product is praised even without buying them. For this, the product owners pay those who post a review and want a good review in return.

Basically, this is a clearly illegal way of making customers buy the product by faking reviews from real people and Facebook, as well as eBay, are now doing their part in tackling this problem. However, this move comes only after they got pressure from the UK regulator to act on this issue. Competition and Markets Authority last year revealed that they had “troubling evidence” of a “thriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews”.

As per TechCrunch’s report, CMA reveals that both Facebook and eBay have agreed to “better identify, investigate and respond to” these fake reviews and Facebook will have “more robust systems” set in place while eBay will try to “better identify and block listings” from now on.

Department stores report lower sales in holiday season because of e-commerce

Department stores empty
Department stores empty

While the world is moving towards e-commerce, we are also seeing that the slow death of the retail business is taking place at the same time. In the earlier times, we had seen that people wanted to see how their products are before buying which is why the retail business was thriving. For this reason, we also had department stores from different brands in every mall and even retail outlets were set up for this reason.

But now that the trend of buying from department stores has gone out of fashion, we are seeing that the stores are reporting lower sales even in the peak holiday season which falls in November and December.

As far as the latest report from PYMNTS.com is concerned, the department stores in the US saw a drop in sales even during the holiday season of 2019 which they claim is due to the e-commerce business. This report also says that mall-based chains and department stores have suffered despite the robust consumer spending.

The companies which are reporting lower sales in the holiday season are L Brands, JCPenney, and Kohl’s. But it is also observed that not everyone is reporting a drop in sales in their department stores as people are moving towards off-priced retailers such as TJX and others.

Also, department stores such as Target and Walmart have reported increase in sales which is a testimony of the fact that their work in the in-store pickup and online ordering services has paid off in bringing people to the stores.

Having said that, this does post a gloomy image of what is to come for the retail business as the e-commerce industry grows even more in the coming decade. There might be a time when there would be only one department store in the whole area which would serve their customers instead of the multiple ones we see currently.

Black Box to Unveil SimplEdge at NRF 2020: A New Approach to Digital Transformation for Retailers

Black Box, a global information technology solutions provider, today announced the release of its SimplEdge™ managed branch network-in-a-box offering, set to make its debut at NRF 2020. Uniting state-of-the-art technology with extensive managed services, SimplEdge makes it feasible for organizations with hundreds or even thousands of sites to undertake the enterprise-wide digital transformation essential to providing compelling customer-focused experiences.

“Enabling smart IT deployment and management at the edge, SimplEdge empowers retail organizations to roll out, maintain and scale technology with speed and consistency across all of their remote locations,” said Kevin Swank, product management and marketing director for Black Box. “Through partnerships with leading technology suppliers and our own global team of certified technicians, we ensure that SimplEdge users benefit from network standardization without the burden of multisite system design, deployment and management.”

As a managed, digital-ready, self-contained network-in-a-box solution, SimplEdge brings the healthcare, retail, financial services and hospitality sectors the IT resources needed to implement high-performing networks while reducing overall operations costs. Working with stakeholders within the organization, Black Box engineers ensure that critical business needs and IT values are reflected in the SimplEdge design.

Powered by Cisco Meraki and deployed and managed as a service by Black Box engineers and technicians, the turnkey solution contains everything required to build a modern branch network: structured cabling, switching, SD-WAN with carrier connectivity, security, Wi-Fi and analytics. The solution is supported by 24/7 monitoring, SLA-driven Day 2 services and a cloud-based help desk. New features are delivered seamlessly from the cloud to guarantee future-ready performance.

SimplEdge will be showcased on the Black Box booth (#859) at NRF 2020. Organized by the National Retail Federation (NRF), retail’s largest annual event will take place Jan. 12-14 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Further details on Black Box and its full products and services portfolio are available at www.blackbox.com and www.bboxservices.com.

About Black Box
Black Box is the trusted digital partner in retail transformation. By establishing Digital Retail Networks and enabling new in-store experiences, every day we help leading national and international retailers transform their stores into Intelligent Retail Spaces. The company also designs and manufactures award-winning Pro AV, KVM, cabling, and networking products known for their advanced functionality, flawless performance, outstanding reliability, and fail-safe security. Black Box delivers these end-to-end solutions through its global presence and approximately 2,500 team members. The world-class support and service provided by Black Box is as important to customers as the powerful products and solutions the company delivers. Black Box is a wholly owned subsidiary of AGC Networks.

Australian Company stockinstore Makes its Foray into U.S. Market at NRF 2020 Retail Show in NYC

Following its success in Australia, stockinstore will make its U.S. debut, bringing its seamless omnichannel retail solution to the NRF 2020 Retail Show in New York City.

Having recently been crowned as winner of NORA’s 2019 Best in Store Retail Technology Solution, the technology provider lands stateside to exhibit their groundbreaking solution and connect with more international partners. In the Asia Pacific region, stockinstore is providing better customer experiences, driving more sales in-store and online, and giving retailers invaluable insights through its reporting suite.

“stockinstore was always developed to be a global solution,” says CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Maver. “We’ve seen retailers all around the world with the same issues when it comes to integrating their online and physical stores and setting customers expectations.”

“We know stock-outs cause walkouts, with 60% ending up as lost sales,” explains Maver. “This is the principle which stockinstore seeks to solve for retailers, by serving as the mitigation between retailer and shopper. By bringing the two together in the most mutually beneficial way, we unite people with the products retailers want to sell at the moment both want the interaction, helping to secure more sales and improving brand loyalty as well.”

What started as a find in store solution for corporate retailers has expanded into much more, providing an omnichannel platform for franchises, manufacturers and wholesalers. The Product Suite includes:

·       Find in store for Retailers

·       Find in store for Franchises

·       Find in Store for Manufacturers and Wholesalers

·       My Nearest Store Email Widget

·       Store Locator

·       Special Trading Hours

stockinstore’s Reporting Suite provides insights into customer demand which retailers never thought possible. The development team are set to extend the suite with the launch of ‘Click & Collect’ in Q1 and ‘Reserve in store’ in Q2 2020.

stockinstore prides itself on the nimble way it has been designed and built to integrate with any POS system and work seamlessly with all eCommerce platforms. This is optimal for retailers such as Rohan Penman, Global Head of Technology for T2, who says, “I thought it was a no-brainer straight away, especially due to the fact that there was no development work necessary. It was an immediate and affordable Op-x.”

The demand for a solution like stockinstore is on the rise. Retail is seeing 85% of customers browsing online before shopping in store and 90% of transactions still occuring in brick-and-mortar stores.

stockinstore’s Find In Store solution fosters better customer experiences through its intuitive two-click platform, which results in higher purchase rates. By measurably connecting online and brick and mortar stores, stockinstore delivers real-time insights so retailers can quickly react and respond to customer demands in an on-demand world, yielding more sales, better foot traffic, and ultimately, higher profits.

“stockinstore is the B2B partner that ends the B2C disappointment consumers face when they’ve purchased a product in their mind, but can’t find it in store,” says Co-Founder Gil Blackstone. “We create happy retail endings for consumers and provide the data retailers want with a unique reporting suite that gives valuable customer analytics on demand for products.”

Merging the data analytics sphere and consumer concerns, the stockinstore interface fosters brand loyalty and integrity, by creating satisfied shoppers who find what they need when they want it, seen in the company’s more than three-times engagement rate. At NRF, stockinstore will be presenting the possibilities of a world of matching in-stock products and happy consumers to retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers alike.

Currently, stockinstore is used by leading retailers across Australia including Adairs, T2 Tea, Guess, YETI, 2xu, PetStock, Sheike, Early Settler, Kookaï, Toyworld NZ, Florsheim, 99 Bikes, The Upside, INTERSPORT, Tentworld, and many more.

To learn more about stockinstore, visit its website or stop by booth 1713 at NRF, the largest international retail trade show. For more information about stockinstore in action, view the Guess and INTERSPORT case studies, or experience how the system works here.

ABOUT STOCKINSTORE:

Stockinstore was born in 2016 as a way for retailers to tell online shoppers which stores nearby have the item they’re looking for. Since its launch, this award-winning technology has continued to bridge the gap between online and in-store; and gives retailers valuable insights into customer demand for products across their store network. To learn more about stockinstore and join a growing list of retailers who are all using stockinstore to improve their retail businesses, visit https://www.stockinstore.com.

India’s competition watchdog unveils self-regulation guidelines for e-commerce platforms

Indian competition watchdog
Indian competition watchdog

Now that we have been in the e-commerce space for a long time, we have noticed how the governments around the world are trying to regulate e-commerce companies. Now, we are not saying that regulation is bad for e-commerce since some sort of regulation is necessary as well. However, there is a thin line between regulation and too much regulation which should not be crossed. As far as the latest update regarding regulation is concerned, the news is from India where the country’s competition watchdog has sprung into action.

We have reports from India’s Competition Commission or CCI who has drafted self-regulation guidelines for e-commerce sector in the country. It is believed that these guidelines can have a lot of impact on companies such as Amazon as well as India’s Flipkart which is now owned by Walmart as well. The main aspect of framing these guidelines by the CCI is to regulate e-commerce companies to become more transparent.

The watchdog organization reveals that the aim with these guidelines is to “Bring out clear and transparent policies on discounts, including inter alia (among other things) the basis of discount rates funded by platforms for different products/suppliers and the implications of participation/non-participation in discount schemes,”. One thing that we have heard against the ecommerce sector in India is the deep discounting that is done on products which is said to be killing the retail sector of the country.

CCI also says that e-commerce sector firms should increase transparency in search rankings, collection and use of data and user review and rating mechanisms. As per the report in The Economic Times, CCI also wants ecommerce firms to notify businesses if there is a change in their terms and conditions and that they should be given a sufficient notice period before those changes take place on the platform.

Lucidworks Acquires Cirrus10, Global Ecommerce Service Provider, To Deepen Domain Expertise and Become A Leader in Digital Commerce Solutions

January 7th, 2020 @ 7:15am PT, San Francisco, California — Lucidworks, leader in AI-powered search, acquires Cirrus10, ecommerce solutions expert with more than 100 ecommerce customers. Lucidworks and Cirrus10 have worked together as partners for the past two years and now combine their domain expertise to provide more targeted solutions for different domains in the fast-moving ecommerce market.

Ecommerce companies face stiff competition to win sales and customer loyalty across all channels. Lucidworks’ AI-powered search produces relevant results, recommends products that meet customer goals, and predicts shopper intent to create a more engaging experience. Leading companies realize that powerful search is an effective way to boost their bottom line. In response, Lucidworks digital commerce base has been growing rapidly, particularly among the Fortune 1000.

“As the experts in using search and AI to personalize user experiences, we want to be able to translate brand experiences to digital experience, which requires more subvertical knowledge. We realized that we could be doing even more for our customers,” says Will Hayes, Lucidworks CEO.

“The objectives of each customer whether apparel, home goods, travel, or hospitality, are unique, and we want to become a partner in understanding the strategic imperatives of those goals,” Hayes adds. “Cirrus10 has been integral in moving beyond Lucidworks Fusion AI-powered search capabilities to understand and impact what brands are doing in the verticals they serve. By acquiring Cirrus10, we can go beyond technology to understand the distinct demands of these organizations and move objectives forward more effectively.”

Cirrus10 was founded in 2010 by a team who shares decades of domain expertise working with search platforms including Solr, Fusion, and Endeca. The acquisition enhances Cirrus10’s impact on Fusion customers, and their expertise will drive Lucidworks’ roadmap, execution, and reach in the digital commerce field. They will help inform new product features to serve digital commerce customers while continuing to service their more than 100 existing implementations.

“We felt an instant kinship with Lucidworks when we began our partnership in 2018,” says Peter Curran, Cirrus10 co-founder. “Fusion is the world’s only platform for extensible AI-driven search. Fusion elevated our service offerings by giving us a framework for exploring machine learning with our customers, and using it, we can build personalized and scalable relevancy models without a black box or army of data scientists. By combining Lucidworks search and AI expertise with our deep experience in the ecommerce space we can cement our role as digital commerce solution leaders.”

The acquisition follows a record year for Lucidworks. The company received significant funding in August 2019 to support company growth, product development, and territory expansion. The acquisition enables both companies to provide even more value to customers and empower them to create an online customer experience that drives their bottom line.

For more information on Lucidworks, visit us at lucidworks.com.

About Lucidworks

Companies across all industries, from consumer retail and healthcare to insurance and financial services, rely on Lucidworks every day to power their consumer-facing and enterprise search apps. Lucidworks builds AI-powered search solutions for commerce brands including companies like ACE Hardware, Lenovo, and AT&T. Lucidworks Fusion combines customer domain knowledge with machine learning and AI-powered search capabilities to offer real-time hyper-personal digital shopping experiences, simplify shopper engagement and purchase paths, and increase retention and improve customer loyalty.

About Cirrus10

With over 100 clients and implementation stories, Cirrus10 has built trusted and impactful relationships across the world of eCommerce. Cirrus10 has a highly detailed map to that world and is skilled at helping companies achieve business goals by applying the best technology solutions.

Alibaba tries to undercut Amazon in Europe to attract brands

AliExpress in Europe
AliExpress in Europe

It is general knowledge right now that Alibaba, one of China and World’s biggest companies, is huge in the Chinese e-commerce space. If you ask anyone in China which their preferred e-commerce platform is, they will name you no other platform than Alibaba or its subsidiaries.

Talking about its subsidiaries, Alibaba is not only limited to e-commerce but it also provides payments solution in China along with many other services. However, we know that a company which wants to make it big globally needs to come out of its home country like Huawei did.

Therefore, Alibaba has also realized the same and is wanting to grow its business in European markets too. Now, Alibaba knows that the European market already has a strong presence of Amazon which is dominating the US, Europe and other markets.

Thus, it needs to create some sort of strategy to enter the market and attract brands to move away from Amazon and sell on Alibaba instead. So we have understood from Reuters’ report that Alibaba is trying to undercut the Amazon Seller fees to lure brands away from the platform.

If you have been an e-commerce seller, you would know that there is a fee which e-commerce platforms take to let brands use their platform. This is also necessary for the platforms to provide great service to their users as well as customers. Since Alibaba is entering the European markets, it can handle certain cut in profits to attract brands and once it does, it can then raise the prices once again.

It is also revealed that “A flood of small businesses have joined its European platform, AliExpress, in recent months but some larger brands are holding back”. The report also reveals that Alibaba’s AliExpress has approached brands “including Mango, Benetton and Spanish fashion group Tendam, owner of Cortefiel, to appear on the site with limited success”

Forever 21 switches to e-commerce business after failure in retail

Forever 21
Forever 21

You might have heard of how the fast-fashion brand from the US, Forever 21, has filed for bankruptcy and has essentially failed. The main reason why Forever 21 became famous was due to its price which would attract more customers to the store. However, it looks like the fashion brand has seen the effect of changing times as people have started to shop more from online stores rather than going to retail stores. For this reason, the footfall at Forever 21’s stores decreased drastically and there came a time when the brand had to take this tough decision.

Having said that, we now have a new development in the Forever 21 story where it is revealed that the brand has a new plan for switching its retail business to an e-commerce one. Basically, the company has made a strategy targeting consumers in Canada, Asia Pacific and Latin America. This means that the brand once famous for retail stores across the world will now have its online presence. Last year, Forever 21 blamed substantial real-estate cost, and lagging innovation and sustainability efforts for the troubles it faced.

Now, the company has tapped e-commerce specialist Global-e to work on an improved and localised e-commerce experience for international shoppers. The company says that Global-e’s cross-border e-commerce solution will help them “provide their customers in Canada, APAC and LATAM with an enhanced online shopping experience based on local market’s characteristics and shoppers’ preferences”.

Announcing its venture into e-commerce space, as reported by The Drum, Forever 21 said that “With the continued increase in demand from international shoppers for our brand, we recognised that an advanced global online shopping experience is a fundamental part of our future growth. The seamless localised shopping experience our consumers around the world can now enjoy is a vital milestone in our mission to use the latest retail technology to bridge the online gap between the convenience of e-commerce and the local experience of in-store.”

Amazon might be looking to open retail stores in Germany: Report

Amazon Go retail stores
Amazon Go retail stores

One of the biggest ironies in the e-commerce industry is that while the companies are selling online, the next step for them is to open retail stores. We have seen companies which are moving from retails stores to selling online and some of them are even moving exclusively to online stores. However, we are seeing giant e-commerce companies such as Amazon and others opening retail stores. At the moment, you must have seen various retail stores from Amazon in the US which do provide a lot of new invention in the segment but are still retail stores.

For example, Amazon debuted its Amazon Go stores in the US where you don’t need to pay anything upfront as the money will be deducted from your Amazon account and the receipt will be sent to you. However, the fact of the matter is that they are still retail stores and it is something that Amazon was rivalling in the first place.

Nonetheless, we are now getting reports of a new country where Amazon is planning for its retail stores and we are talking about Germany. Yes, Amazon is already operating in the European markets online but it is now looking to get offline too. With the opening of Amazon’s retail stores in Germany, you will soon be able to buy Amazon stuff from the stores. We are also expecting Amazon to test Amazon Go facilities in Germany which should be a great addition to its fleet.

Amazon’s director for Germany said in a report, as picked up by IBTimes, that “The fact is that we know that customers shop offline and that they like variety,”. He also said in an earlier interview that “it’s not a question of if, but when” on questions of Amazon opening retail stores in Germany. So we feel that Amazon is now looking at markets on an individual basis to see where retail stores are still dominating sales and trying to capture that market too.

E-commerce Mobile purchases will reportedly continue to rise in 2020

If you have been following the e-commerce industry for a long time, you might have seen many trends emerging in the sector. One of the biggest changes that we have seen in recent times is the shift from PCs and laptops to mobile devices. At the start of the e-commerce era, everyone was very reluctant to purchase anything from their mobile devices as they felt it was very unsafe and the risk of getting hacked was there. However, as the security of mobile devices grew, we see that mobile device purchases have started to dominate.

At this stage, we can say that the mobile device users on e-commerce platforms have comfortably outgrown in number compared to the same on PCs. It is now considered a tedious process to open the computers just for making a purchase which was considered a must a few years ago. According to a new report from Forbes, they predict some trends in 2020 related to e-commerce. And one of those trends is that mobile purchases will continue to increase in the year.

They also say that shoppers will switch to mobile devices even more than last year which means platforms that do not have a great experience on mobile as compared to desktops will lose out a lot. Basically, it is a must that you care about your mobile users as you do for the desktop users to get the most of your sales.

This also means that your site should not take too long to load and that it should have an easy way to navigate around. Citing a Google research number, the report mentions that 53% of mobile users leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load which means your site should load much quicker than that for customer retention. Also, marketers will use behavioural data for campaigns going forward.

US holiday returns surge with its booming e-commerce resulting in lost sales

E-commerce returns
E-commerce returns

If you have been following the e-commerce world from quite some while now, you would know that the main difference between commerce and e-commerce is that you have some benefits. One of the major benefits is that e-commerce introduced the concept of returning products without any questions which were not available before.

Basically, if you are not liking a product after using it than e-commerce would allow you to return that product without them asking you the reason for returning and this is why people started to prefer e-commerce stores over other.

While this return policy also introduced the idea of people using products even if they didn’t want to purchase it and then return it before the return period expires, it has done positive changes too. For example, it is seen that people don’t get used to products and they have to live with it through their lifecycle even though they are not pleased. But with returns, you can send them back so that the burden of using a product you don’t like is not anymore.

Same goes for the US holiday season where we saw a record number of sales being achieved. However, we are now seeing the consequences of the record holiday sales where people are starting to return their products which they don’t like. It is believed that almost 10% of the products ordered on the US e-commerce stores during the holiday season get returned every year and this results in a sales loss of roughly $369 billion which is huge in itself.

However, January 2 which is termed as the “National Returns Day” has seen a surge in returns which are now at 26% increase year-over-year in 2020 as per ET Retail’s report. UPS, the largest delivery service in the US, expects to ship back 1.9 million gifts and items back to the U.S. retailers for either getting replaced or getting refunds.

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