Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet 5/6/13: Walmart.com’s New Look | Sears Sought-After Geek

 

“Walmart Launches National Advertising Campaign to Show “The Real Walmart”  “Walmart today announced the launch of a national television and digital advertising campaign and accompanying website (www.therealwalmart.com). The campaign demonstrates how people across America count on Walmart to save money on the products they want and need, how the company provides tremendous career opportunities for its associates and how it creates efficiencies and works directly with manufacturers to help deliver low prices.”  Read more:  https://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=6788014&access=EH

 

“Top 10 ideas from Retail over the last 12 months”  at Springwise.  “#3: In China, virtual reality stores turn open spaces into a supermarket.  With the aim of providing a more interactive shopping experience, Yihaodian in China developed augmented reality stores that can only be accessed in certain public locations. When customers point their smartphone in the right direction at locations such as public squares, a virtual store is displayed where items sit on shelves or hang from the walls.”  Read more:  https://www.springwise.com/top-10-ideas-retail-12-months/

 

“Walmart.com has a new look” by Allison Enright at Internet Retailer.  “The top navigation bar now includes a “trending now” button. Clicking it takes consumers to a page where they can see which Walmart.com products are being shared on Pinterest and which products are selling the most on Walmart.com. The Walmart.com trending information is categorized as best sellers, top-searched, just-reviewed and best-rated. It also includes “just sold” products, displaying the name and photo of the product and how recently it was purchased.”  Read more:  https://www.internetretailer.com/2013/05/03/walmartcom-has-new-look

 

“In Tomorrow’s Retail Universe, the Destination Is ‘You’” by Doug Stephens at Street Fight.  “The future will see consumers move between anywhere convenience and only-here experiences. Increasingly it will not be the consumer who travels to the store, but the products that travel to the consumer in a completely seamless, serendipitous and relevant way. Consumers will regulate their interests, control their privacy and dictate many of the terms of engagement. And if a brand doesn’t like it, consumers will simply move down the list until they find a one that does.”  Read more:  https://streetfightmag.com/2013/05/01/in-tomorrows-retail-universe-the-destination-is-you/

 

“Staples First Major U.S. Retailer to Announce Availability of 3D Printers”  “The Cube® 3D Printer, ready to use right out of the box, features Wi-Fi, is compatible with Mac or Windows, and comes with 25 free 3D templates designed by professional artists, with additional templates available online. With its ultra portable design, the Cube® fits easily in the office, classroom or living room, making it the perfect 3D printing device for designers, small businesses, students and kids.”  Read more:  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20130503005116&div=-1245645151

 

“Bait-and-Switch: Beware Low-Price Guarantees” by Brad Tuttle at Time.  “Retailers love that price-matching guarantees attract shoppers. At the same time, they hate it when customers actually try to take advantage of these policies…Bloomberg News recently rounded up many of the gripes consumers have regarding the price-matching policies of national retailers such as Walmart and Toys R Us. Mostly, the complaints center on how confusing and frustrating the policies can be, especially because the decisions inside stores to allow or shoot down price-match requests can seem arbitrary.”  Read more:  https://business.time.com/2013/05/04/the-bait-and-switch-behind-low-price-guarantees/#ixzz2SVlPViyQ

 

“While Sears Struggles, It’s Little-Known Big Data Division Is Gaining Heat” by Sandra Guy at Chicago Grid.  “CEO Phil Shelley, who is marking his one-year anniversary leading the venture, and as Sears chief technology officer, has become one of the most sought-after geek therapists on the IT leadership speaking circuit.  “People want to learn how Sears is using its innovative techniques to manage and drive value from data,” he says. “People are asking us, ‘What did you do? Can you help us get started?’”  Read more:  https://www.chicagogrid.com/news/sears-struggles-little-known-big-data-division-gaining-heat/

 

“Walgreens April Sales Increase 3.8 Percent”  “Total front-end sales decreased 2.9 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2012, while comparable store front-end sales decreased 4.3 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 5.9 percent while basket size increased 1.6 percent.  For the combined March/April period that includes the Easter holiday season, comparable store front-end sales decreased by 0.2 percent, while customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 4.0 percent and basket size increased 3.8 percent.”  Read more:  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20130503005154&div=-1245645151

 

“Thousands queue up for Berlin’s first Apple Store” by Phillip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune.  “After openings in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg Alster, Hamburg Jungfernstieg, Dresden, Cologne, Oberhausen, Augsburg, Sindelfingen and Sulzbach, Apple (AAPL) finally built its first store in Berlin, and the faithful turned up in droves. The store — the country’s largest, with a full-sized auditorium on the second floor — opened Friday at 5 p.m.”  See the video:  https://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/05/03/apple-store-berlin/?iid=SF_F_River

 

“On Rekindling A Sense Of Mystery” by Notasha Lomas at Tech Crunch.  “A little disconnection goes a long way.  In the tangled web of digital social networks that we weave one thing is increasingly absent: a sense of mystery.  We are so wrapped up in our digital social graphs there’s rarely room for gaps. Our networks offer the promise of being entangled with ever more connections — reaching out to grasp the hands of friends’ friends (and so on to the edge of the digital universe) – reminding us how few degrees of separation there are between citizens of the wired world.”  Read more:  https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/05/falling-down-the-rabbit-hole/

 

Thanks for reading…

 

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