Featured Articles

1. Retailers Take a New Approach to Addressing Out-of-Stocks - Part 2
   6/13/2013

   Retailers have sought to balance the need to secure high-theft items with their desire to keep those items on display for customers, rather than locked away in cabinets or in other defensive merchandising tactics, which discourage consumers from shopping and leads to lost sales. The desire for secure, “open merchandising” solutions has led to the development of innovative high-theft packaging solutions such as Keepers™, CableLoks™ and SpiderWraps™, as well as attractive, yet secure, display merchandising solutions for electronics and other high-ticket items.

2. Three Key Considerations For Implementing A Successful Video Analytics Program In The Retail Market
   6/4/2013

   Five years ago, video analytics for retail applications offered a lot of potential, but not a lot of delivery. Not everyone knew what to expect and the idea that you could just push a button and all kinds of value would come out never came to fruition. However, with an application specific approach and the progress in technology, video analytics can now deliver useful information from both a loss prevention standpoint, and a merchandising and business management front.

3. 2013 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper™
   6/3/2013

   This year’s study explores what customers expect during their online shopping experience, how mobile and social are changing buying trends and how retailers can benefit by offering an integrated sales experience. For a second year, UPS has worked with comScore to identify what options consumers want before they buy, during check-out and delivery and, if needed, returns.

4. Is Your Network Ready For The Retail Store Of The Future?
   5/29/2013

   The world of retail is changing at a rapid pace. Is your retail strategy changing in parallel?

5. PCI Compliance: Protect Your Business From Data Breach
   5/29/2013

   Retail businesses are particularly vulnerable because of the volume of credit card information, the fact that this information is distributed among many locations, the lengthy amount of time it can take them to detect a breach, and the often inadequate staff and safeguards they have in place.

6. Key Factors To Consider When Selecting Your MPLS Provider
   5/29/2013

   Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), once the sole domain of major corporations and telecom carriers, has gone mainstream and enterprises are increasingly developing strategies to migrate to MPLS-based WAN services. The growing need for companies to reduce costs, increase productivity, support more applications, and ramp up security is driving today's shift to MPLS.

7. When Disaster Strikes, Will Your Critical Applications Continue To Run?
   5/29/2013

   In a perfect reality, “application and service availability” would be a meaningless term. All business services would run as reliably as the planets orbiting the sun. In our reality, unfortunately, such is not the case. Organizations know that it’s not a matter of if operational events or disasters strike, but when — and how well they’ll respond to mitigate the business impact.

8. Digital Customer Experience Trends To Watch, 2013
   5/16/2013

   Digital touchpoints support an increasingly large percentage of the overall customer experience. 2012 saw the emergence of several important digital customer experience trends that will gain momentum as firms look to unify the cross-touchpoint experiences they deliver in 2013. This report outlines key trends that will make up the landscape that customer experience professionals will be working in as they take strides to improve their digital customer experiences in 2013.

9. Retailers Take A New Approach To Addressing Out-of-Stocks
   5/16/2013

   Retailing has always been a tough business, marked by demanding consumers, tight profit margins and intense competition. Retailers – even the most successful ones – also have had to confront and overcome various operational challenges such as managing inventories, controlling shrink, representing their brands in an innovative and attractive manner and maximizing every square foot of selling space, while improving shoppers’ experience.

10. Scheduling For Outcomes
    5/15/2013

    Employee scheduling is one of the most poorly supported HR-related tasks performed by retailers. Schedules, which are typically created two to three weeks in advance and modified on the day of operation based on in-store conditions, are often built by managers without any automated support.