Sat.Dec 25, 2021 - Fri.Dec 31, 2021

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What Can and Should Retailers Do About Climate Change?

Retail TouchPoints

The risks of climate change took center stage during 2021, as UN scientists linked global warming directly to human activities. With global attention focused on mitigation, adaptation and resilience, how are retailers managing related risks and considering possible business opportunities? In 2021, Breckinridge Capital Advisors completed a program of engaging with retail sector issuers in the dollar store/general merchandise and aftermarket auto parts subsegments to learn about how they are respo

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Apple closes, then reopens NYC stores for ‘limited’ walk-in shopping

Retail Wire

Apple closed a number of stores nationwide due to spiking Omicron infection levels and, as of Monday evening, had shut down its NYC stores to everything but order pickup and same-day delivery. But after an online backlash to the decision, the retailer said it would instead offer “limited” walk in service at it’s NYC locations.

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Year in Review: The Top 10 Wiser Blogs of 2021

Wiser

Phew! 2021 was a busy year for Wiser Solutions. We launched our Commerce Execution Suite , welcomed new teammates in our Paris and Monterrey offices, added more in-store and online solutions, and rolled out a bunch of features and services to make your job easier. We also published 70 blogs in 2021! We covered pricing tips, in-store execution, eCommerce ideas, shopper behavior, and much more.

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The Best Commercial Coffee Maker for Your Small Business

Small Biz Trends

In today’s world where coffee has become a part of our culture, finding the right commercial coffee maker for your restaurant or café is super important. It could be the difference between attracting more customers or losing your loyal regulars. The use of commercial coffee machines has grown beyond cafes and restaurants to salons, car dealerships, bars, hospitals, and many more areas.

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Smart Tools & Strong Teams: A People-First Approach to AI in Sales

Speaker: Matt Sunshine, CEO at The Center for Sales Strategy

AI isn’t replacing salespeople—it’s empowering them. The most forward-thinking sales organizations are using AI to enhance human performance rather than eliminate it. From coaching and messaging to prospecting and pipeline accountability, artificial intelligence is giving managers and SDRs the new tools they need to work smarter, sell better, and close more.

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4 Imperatives for Impactful Store Design

Retail TouchPoints

The pandemic has changed the in-store experience, possibly forever. After spending months with home delivery and curbside pickup as the norm, shoppers have developed a greater taste for convenience than ever before, which in turn has changed how retailers need to look at their stores. Omnichannel is no longer just about connecting digital and physical offerings but about removing friction from the entire operation, from the warehouse to the front of the store.

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Alexa falls prey to misinformation, endangering 10-year old

Retail Wire

Kristin Livdahl and her daughter were trying some physical education challenges they had found on YouTube when they decided to ask Alexa for more activities. Amazon’s AI-powered agent answered, “Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.” Apparently, Alexa got the (bad) idea on the internet.

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15 Best Apps for a Business Selling Clothes

Small Biz Trends

If you happen to do some spring cleaning or did a little closet purge to declutter and happen to have a pile of old clothes that you have no need for? Well, the good news is this pile of clothes can be a good money-making opportunity. There is a huge demand for vintage clothes, shoes, and accessories, and tapping into this untapped demand can prove lucrative.

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The Future of Retail Takes a Digital Shift to Omnichannel Marketing

Retail TouchPoints

Finally, the once-static world of retail marketing is transforming. One by one, retailers are finding that their marketing models — co-op driven, lacking in transparency, and largely traditional in form — are secondary options when compared to the self-serve, data-driven models of digital marketplaces. In the face of rising acquisition costs, these marketplaces have replaced DTC as the go-to platform for effective media spend, burying retailers further down the list.

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Robots and automation replace workers at retailers and restaurants

Retail Wire

Sam’s Club is using robots to scrub floors and scan product. Walgreens uses automation to fill prescriptions. Tablets are replacing cahiers at some Starbucks. White Castle and Buffalo Wild Wings are testing robots that flip burgers or make chicken wings. The Sprinkles cupcake chain has replaced cashiers with self-checkout kiosks. A consultant says impatient customers are ok with it all.

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It Was a Really Virtual Year: Top Five NVIDIA Videos of 2021

Nvidia

What better way to look back at NVIDIA’s top five videos of 2021 than to hop into the cockpit of a virtual plane flying over Taipei. That was how NVIDIA’s Jeff Fisher and Manuvir Das invited viewers into their COMPUTEX keynote on May 31. Their aircraft sailed over the city’s green hills and banked around its tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101, on the wings of Microsoft Flight Sim running on an NVIDIA RTX 3080 GPU.

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AI In The Aisles: The Executives Guide To Better In-Store Experiences

Speaker: Steve Worthy, MBA

The rapid rise of AI-powered displays, touchless technology, and sensory marketing is reshaping the future of in-store engagement. Yet for many retail executives, the real challenge is not identifying new tools - it is knowing which signals to trust, which inputs to prioritize, and how to architect decisions that elevate in-store leadership rather than dilute it.

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The Backroom: Our traditional interview with the retail prophet, Doug Stephens

Retail Dive

While the pandemic isn't over, 2021 seemed to show that physical locations remain important to retail. But each store must have something to offer.

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Address Labor Shortages by Creating Attractive Retail Career Paths

Retail TouchPoints

Labor shortages in industries that had previously relied on multiple job seekers — even for low-paying jobs — have been one of retail’s biggest challenges in 2021. It’s not just a seasonal issue: several industry experts believe the dearth of employees could extend into 2022, forcing retailers to rethink not just recruitment but their entire approach to hiring, training and employee retention.

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COVID outbreak forces temporary closure at NJ Walmart

Retail Wire

The number of infected workers at the Walmart store in Linden, NJ, remained unclear as of yesterday — described in a news report as “dozens” and by one unconfirmed worker report as over 90 — but the outbreak was serious enough to prompt Walmart management to follow “an ongoing company-initiated program … for a third-party specialist to further sanitize the store.” The store reportedly closed to shoppers on Tuesday evening and remained so yesterday for cleaning and r

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GFN Thursday Says ‘GGs’ to 2021 With Our Community’s Top Titles of the Year

Nvidia

It’s the final countdown for what’s been a big year for cloud gaming. For the last GFN Thursday of the year, we’re taking a look at some of the GeForce NOW community’s top picks of games that joined the GeForce NOW library in 2021. Plus, check out the last batch of games coming to the cloud this year, with seven new additions streaming this week. Bringing Gaming to Gamers.

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Breaking The Commerce Bottleneck: Your SAP Exit Plan Starts Now

Speaker: Jason Cottrell and Gireesh Sahukar

Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.

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How Much Do You Trust Your Customers?

Hyken

One of our loyal subscribers, Darrell Grant, The CXO at Hightower Wealth Advisors, shared a great story that provides an excellent learning opportunity. . Darrell stopped by a local bakery to pick up some treats for a client. There was a longer than usual line, and some of the customers were becoming frustrated. Apparently, the internet was down so they couldn’t ring up sales.

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What Brands Can Learn From D2C Trendsetters

Retail TouchPoints

D2C as a business model has always been around. We’ve seen it from the street sellers to the door-to-door salespeople who knew us by name and preferences. In current times, D2C refers to brands selling directly to consumers rather than the more traditional approach of selling through retailers. The D2C business model no longer only represents the value proposition for brands, but now also encompasses the tactics that they have creatively employed to grow their market share (while tailoring to ea

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Revelers this year will greet the new year from the metaverse

Retail Wire

New York City is drastically curtailing the number of Time Square revelers this year due to the Omnicron outbreak, and across the country, many are refraining from parties and gatherings as well. But not to worry — the owner of One Times Square has teamed up with a cryptocurrency firm to produce a virtual replica of the iconic NYC celebration, hosting the “MetaFest 2022” party.

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Top 10 MuleSoft Community blogs of 2021

Mulesoft

This year, our MuleSoft Community showed up like never before, championing collaboration and creativity on the daily. Though most of our community events were online this year, we still felt such a strong sense of togetherness with this group in seeing how they supported one another with resources, insights, and expertise. From how-to’s to community […].

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Humans + Agents = Rethinking Enterprise Commerce with AI

AI agents already analyze trends, draft content, and trigger actions across leading commerce platforms. Yet most organizations still rely on workflows built for human‑only teams, losing speed, margin, and customer loyalty. Humans + Agents: Rethinking Enterprise Commerce in the Age of AI Collaboration shows how to close that gap. In one concise read you’ll see where agent gains surface first, how early adopters prove ROI, and which lean controls keep innovation moving without risking data or bran

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Guest Post: Why You Should Rethink Your Customer Service Goals

Hyken

Karen Hertzberg is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Siege Media. She shares 5 customer service strategies that improve customer retention. People may cut companies some slack if a product doesn’t quite work as expected, but only when the customer service experience makes up for these missteps. . It’s no secret that customer service is a critical component of any successful company’s strategy.

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Does Customer Age Matter for Fraud Prevention?

Retail TouchPoints

In 2020, consumers spent approximately $630 billion on online shopping, and merchants lost $12 billion to fraud. Federal data indicates that impostor scams and ecommerce fraud topped the list. Account takeover fraud, which is driven by impostor scams, increased by 50%, with no signs of slowing down in 2021. Consumers in every age bracket are in fraudsters’ sights.

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Low vaccination rates tied to holiday sales increases this year

Retail Wire

Although the direct correlation between the two metrics may be arguable, according to Mastercard data, some of the states with the highest in-store holiday period sales growth in 2021 have the lowest COVID vaccination rates. The states cited — Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia — all have less than 55 percent vaccination rates among the populace.

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How to align integration strategy and business objectives

Mulesoft

There’s a lot that IT decision-makers must take into account when they choose an integration platform: Team needs, use cases to solve for, value proposition, potential money and time savings, and, most importantly, return on investment. Once you’ve landed on an integration platform, the work isn’t done yet. From there, it’s time to identify the […].

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New Research-Backed Strategies to Empower Managers as Culture & Engagement Leaders

Speaker: Beth Sunshine, SVP, Up Your Culture

When culture isn’t consistently lived out across the organization, engagement suffers—and it often starts with a disconnect at the top. In this session, Beth Sunshine, SVP of Up Your Culture at The Center for Sales Strategy, will reveal how HR and executive leaders can close the gap between vision and execution by equipping frontline and mid-level managers to become culture carriers.

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Merry Christmas!

LS Retail

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney. All rights reserved. Wishing you a joyous Christmas! – Laurel J. Delaney, creator of The Global Small Business Blog.

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What Interior Design Will Look Like in 2022: Personalization, Nature and Augmented Reality

Retail TouchPoints

As with most industries, the pandemic accelerated processes that were well underway in the interior design sphere during the past few years. Thanks to the latest technological developments, the warehouse-first marketing approach has been losing steam, and online purchases are taking the lead. Virtual reality functions and applications are emerging as innovative solutions to fulfill customers’ demands, playing a crucial role when facing the industry’s most pressing challenges.

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Food manufacturers anticipate continuing price hikes in 2022

Retail Wire

Although the increase will vary by locale and distributor, IRI predicts that food prices will increase 5 percent overall in the first half of 2022. Major consumer packaged goods companies, from Mondelez to Kraft Heinz and Campbell’s Soup, have already warned of hikes affecting a broad range of categories. “There’s nothing immune from price increases,” said Tony Sarsam, CEO of SpartanNash.

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5 trending digital priorities for financial leaders

Mulesoft

One of the most apparent impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the financial services sector is the expedited digitization of products and solutions. However, COVID-19 forced more than just accelerated projects. Businesses had to ensure they could deliver end-to-end service solely on their digital platforms without switching between digital and legacy channels.

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5 Tips for a Winning Category Management Strategy in 2025

Category Management is a cornerstone of a successful retail strategy. While it promotes collaboration between manufacturers and retailers to optimize category performance, challenges persist in its effective implementation due to hurdles in communication and collaboration across teams and partners, and more. In this guide, we outline five essential strategies for success in 2025 that will touch on all the essential pieces of a successful strategy and implementation.

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Memberships are the New Loyalty Programs

Independent Retailer

Retailers have been using loyalty programs to turn new customers into returning shoppers for years. In 2016, the consumer loyalty management market was valued at almost $2 billion. By 2023, that figure is expected to reach nearly $7 billion — an annual compounded growth rate of nearly 21 percent. In the U.S. alone, consumers now collectively hold more than nine billion loyalty program memberships.

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Hit Hard by the Pandemic, Most Minority Business Owners Optimistic About the Future

Retail TouchPoints

In May 2020, McKinsey issued a report stating while the COVID-19 pandemic was shaking up small businesses across the board, it was disproportionately affecting minority-owned small businesses. Reasons cited were that the country’s 1.1 million minority-owned small businesses often face underlying challenges, making it tougher for them to run and scale successfully, plus they are likelier to work in industries most distressed by the global crisis.

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Day-after Christmas shoppers may feel cheated this year

Retail Wire

If the experiences of West Virginia residents Elizabeth and Shawna Fordyce are representative, many shoppers who traditionally wait for post-Christmas sales to do their real holiday shopping are feeling frustrated this year, finding instead empty shelves where they expected to see some of the best deals of the year.

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Innovation Inspiration: 5 Startup Stories From NVIDIA Inception in 2021

Nvidia

NVIDIA Inception is one of the largest startup ecosystems in the world — and its thousands of members achieved impressive feats in 2021, bringing AI and data science to an array of industries. NVIDIA Inception nurtures cutting-edge AI, data science and HPC startups with go-to-market support, expertise and technology. This year, the program surpassed 9,000 members — about two-thirds of the total number of AI startups in the world, as estimated by Pitchbook.

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What Your Financial Statements Are Telling You—And How to Listen!

Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker

Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.