Starting with this issue, the Shop.org SmartBrief is now NRF SmartBrief: What's Next Edition. This redesigned brief will focus on retail's continuing evolution, customer engagement and companies to watch.
The Shop.org community was built by the pioneers that drove retail's digital transformation. You've always embraced “what’s next” first -- and we hope this refreshed newsletter helps you continue to push the boundaries of retail. It's the kind of content that will help inspire retail's future, because you're the kind of reader that's helping redefine the industry.
Amazon has wedged an 855,000-square-foot warehouse onto a smaller-than-usual site in New York City's Staten Island, giving it the infrastructure to compete in the area market. The two-level facility is highly automated with twice as many robots as human workers and uses vertical operations to make the most of the space.
The coming fifth-generation cellular system, more commonly known as 5G, will be a true game-changer. It will make data connectivity, analytics, IoT tools and communications seamless and allow retailers to truly connect with shoppers in real time. Read more.
Restaurant management platform startup Toast has raised $250 million in a new funding round that values the company at $2.7 billion. Toast will use the new capital to create new tech features for marketing, recruiting and increasing restaurant efficiency.
Savvy marketers know that technology is the way to reach target audiences with the right information at the right time to drive purchases. But with so much technology available, how do they know which tools are worth investing in? This report explores today's trends marketers should watch closely. Read more.
Brands courting Gen Z consumers will need to devise new marketing tactics to win over a group that doesn't care much about brands and depends more on word-of-mouth and social influencers than TV commercials and email campaigns, said JUV Consulting CEO Ziad Ahmed. The group is more likely than previous generations to spend money with companies that share their values, according to a Bloomberg survey.
Short, snappy video ads on Facebook and Instagram are part of Diageo's recent effort to update the Baileys brand image. The ads provide more content without upping the budget as the beverage company pursues an audience willing to indulge in Baileys year-round rather than just on holidays.
Marketers will now be able to add .SRT subtitles to Twitter videos that can be viewed via the web, Android and iOS. Publishers have been requesting the feature because videos autoplay on mute in Twitter's timeline, says Group Product Manager Matt Dennebaum.
Suman Bhattacharyya explains that 1-800-Flowers.com has succeeded in competing with direct-to-consumer brands by being quick to enter the e-commerce world, ensuring fast delivery and expanding into gift baskets and gourmet foods through its 2014 purchase of Harry & David. "Its growth is built off of its physical footprint combined with tech investments that yielded advances in online and mobile ordering, conversational tools like message-based commerce, and voice," he writes.
Sweden-based fast-fashion retailer H&M will sell online in India via Flipkart-owned e-commerce platforms Myntra and Jabong. H&M rolled out its own e-commerce site in India last year, and the retailer will continue to develop that site and focus on brick-and-mortar retail in India as well, the company said.
