Holiday returns can add up to big losses. But big data can give retailers a competitive advantage and reduce shrinkage and fraud.

Holiday sales are the lifeblood of many retailers. But holiday returns can put a damper on end-of-year celebrations. Reportedly, 17.8% of holiday gifts were returned last year according to the National Retail Foundation.

With more people shopping online than ever before, more gifts arrive without try-ons or inspection. So... the shirt is the wrong size. The speaker isn’t compatible with the computer. Or he already has a socket wrench. That’s why rates for holiday returns are typically higher than the rest of the year, according to the National Retail Federation.

The biggest shopping event of the summer starts on July 12th.

We've written about Amazon Prime Day before and you may be asking yourself, why are they so obsessed with an online sale? The short answer is that Amazon is the biggest retailer on the planet and everything they do sends ripples across the entire industry.

Diverse consumers of every age have come to love omnichannel shopping.

This month we celebrated the Chinese lunar new year, which reminds us of that ancient Chinese proverb: "may you live in interesting times." 

Frankly, it's hard to imagine how times could be any more "interesting" than what we've endured for the past two years. The reality is that we've had enough excitement for a while, thank you very much. We're all ready for the pandemic to be over so we can go back to our ordinary (a.k.a. less stressful) lives. 

For many retailers, the big question now becomes, what happens next?

What if this year is just like last year?

Much as we wish the pandemic was over, the beginning of this year feels a lot like the end of last year. Many of us are still wearing masks, still working from home, and still trying to remember what it felt like to buy something on a whim without thinking about the supply chain. 

So it's possible that we already know what to expect in 2022. But what if we're wrong? What if this turns out to be another year of continuous disruption for the logistics industry? Our best approach to the year ahead is to stay flexible and keep building on what we've already learned.

And why walk-in customer pick-up centers are a gift that keeps on giving.

We thought about posting this blog last month, but the Autumn sun was still warm and it seemed too early to talk about Christmas before we’d even had a chance to enjoy Halloween. 

Retail planners, however, have been thinking about how to prepare for a successful holiday shopping season for months now, and industry analysts have been crunching their numbers for 2021 holiday sales forecasts. 

2020 was a confusing year for retail, but at least it ended better than it began. And as the world slowly reopens for business in 2021, all evidence suggests that consumers are ready to reopen their wallets as well.

It may seem like credit card processing fees are an unavoidable part of doing business today, but many people still prefer to make cash transactions. To thrive, merchants need to get creative about accepting cash for online purchases. 

In this post, we take a look at why cash is still king when it comes to cutting operational expenses like credit card processing fees and why it still matters to your bottom line.

It turns out that all commerce is local commerce after a year of global pandemic.

By now, it shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows retail trends that “omnichannel” was the biggest buzzword of 2020, largely due to the fallout from COVID-19. Why did omnichannel retail suddenly come to the fore? Because last year’s rogue virus made everything about our everyday lives harder, so we appreciated and rewarded any business that made it easier to keep buying things we still needed and wanted.

What once made malls a favorite shopping destination is holding them back in the age of buy-online-pickup-in-store 

For people who love to browse the racks of their favorite retailers, there’s no place more exciting than a mall. Social time with family and friends, and easy access to physical stores with actual merchandise you can see, touch, or smell — these are the experiences that make the heart of a true shopper beat a little faster.

Black-owned businesses lead the movement to meet customers where they are

February is Black History Month, so it's only appropriate to devote this month's blog to issues of diversity and inclusion.