Evan Schuman

Frustrated by what some see as IT executives hoarding CRM information, retail store managers are starting to do an end run around corporate with their own customer-information-gathering systems. One result of this retail technology revolt are smart store kiosks, which today do a lot more than display electronic brochures. As the technology has become much […]

Its a common complaint within retail circles. Store management is given the most hard-line responsibility—your store beats its numbers or youre in serious trouble—along with much of the work of executing every corporate IT decision, but yet those store managers have virtually no say in what those systems will be or how they will be […]

In an attempt to fend off retail moves from SAP AG, PeopleSoft Inc. and JDA Software Group Inc. have announced an alliance that they say better serves retailers. Under the deal, the companies will integrate PeopleSofts Enterprise Financial Management with JDAs Portfolio Merchandise Management. The move follows PeopleSofts alliance with IBM, announced earlier this week. […]

One of the most logistically challenging situations for any large retailer is the return. Newgistics Inc., a Texas retail service firm, this week launched a tracking service intended to alleviate some of the uncertainty involved in the process. When it comes to returns, there are questions on both sides. The retailer might wonder: Is the […]

As RFID stories start appearing in the consumer media and on the television network news shows, were starting to hear the same death and despair stories that were all the rage when the consumer media first discovered the Web. My personal favorites were the early stories of shock when a reporter found out that government […]

As the industry slowly moves ahead with RFID integration, one of the critical issues has been the need for retailers to seamlessly work with both bar-code and RFID readers. Its difficult enough for 20-year-old point-of-sale devices to handle RFID, let alone handle RFID while still working with bar-code devices. A Canadian technology startup called Intelletto […]

An oft-heard complaint about retail CRM programs is that they are a waste of money when—as happens frequently—the retailer never uses them to connect with customers or even uses individualized information at all. The naysayers who said privacy resistance could backfire were given a lot of ammunition recently when $40 billion grocery giant Albertsons was […]

A dairy truck driver pulls up to a 7-Eleven convenience store and is preparing to deliver crates of milk when the store manager greets him. “Hold on a moment,” the manager says, as he looks at an RFID readout on his PDA. “These crates over here are bad. Sure, theyre registering a good temperature now, […]

Historically, the two most difficult technology decisions involve migration. Put simply: when to get into a technology/platform and when to get out. A senior Best Buy executive this week gave a much needed reminder that while exit/entrance issues get all the headlines, its the detail-ridden implementation/execution issues that usually decide success or failure. /zimages/7/28571.gifTo read […]

Best Buy has gone public with its RFID plans, pledging to move all of its major suppliers to start delivering RFID-compliant tags for all product cases and pallets by Jan. 2, 2006. The deadline for those suppliers to support all product cases and pallets is May 2007. But the $25 billion Fortune 100 retailer said […]