NASHVILLE – August 30, 2017 – Retailers are opening 4,080 more stores in 2017 than they are closing and plan to open over 5,500 more in 2018, according to a new research report from IHL Group. The report, Debunking the Retail Apocalypse, was released today and is available here. The […]
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Late yesterday Amazon announced that they were going to close on the Whole Foods acquisition on Monday, August 28th. Not surprisingly, they announced immediate dropping of prices on a handful of items, the beginning integration of the IT systems, Amazon lockers in store for product pickup, and a few other […]
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If you go to any trade show or look up a technology directory you see hundreds of vendors that promise that their products help increase sales for retailers. But which ones, once deployed, can actually show a correlation to increased sales? We’ve done the research. We looked at 30 categories […]
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In out last video we talked about the Technology Innovation Gap in Retail and how retailers need to embrace and invest in Unified Commerce to succeed going forward. Today, we look at the 3 foundational systems that are required for retailers to have in place to ensure Unified Commerce success. […]
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Hi Everyone, we are thrilled to announce a new YouTube channel (First Light) that highlights key data from IHL’s Research in quick bite 2-3 minute format. Today’s installment is on the Technology Innovation Gap In Retail – TIGIR. Future episodes will outline the specific technologies retailers can deploy that have proven themselves […]
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US retail is undergoing some significant change, but not nearly the retail apocalypse that is being portrayed in the media. In fact, retail is growing – at a healthy pace. Part of this is the way that the government releases data (month to month growth), a good portion of the […]
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The news came down today on the blockbuster announcement of Amazon is purchasing Whole Foods for $13.7billion. Here are some initial thoughts. 10 Reasons Why This is Good for Amazon/Whole Foods? Amazon’s greatest Achilles heel right now is they are losing $8 billion a year on shipping costs. This gives […]
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I can confidently say that my very first exposure to artificial intelligence happened about thirty years ago. I was strolling through the computer engineering building on campus at Georgia Tech and happened onto a computer screen facing out onto the hallway. On the screen was a changing array of symbols […]
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Retailers continue to be challenged in the transformation of their business to compete with Amazon, Walmart and others. Yet one of the challenges we consistently hear from CIOs is that they are significantly challenged in the type and quality of bandwidth that they can get access to at malls without […]
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We want to do a shoutout to IHL VP of Retail Strategy Jeff Roster for being named one of the “Influentials: Top 10 Movers and Shakers in Retail” by RIS News. Below are some of the key highlights. “As the VP of retail strategy at IHL, Jeff Roster is conducting research […]
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