Blogs
Santa’s Rejects: A Plan for Managing Taxes On Returns
In 2014, Americans returned $68.8 billion worth of holiday goods, which amounted to 11.2 percent of all holiday sales. If the trend repeats itself...
Blogs
Blogs
An Open Letter From The CEOs Of Staples And Office Depot
The chairmen and CEOs of Staples and Office Depot have issued an open letter to customers in the wake of the FTC’s move this...
Blogs
Why Cyber Monday Matters Now More Than Ever
As the battle for e-tail escalates, Cyber Monday has taken on a new significance. Case in point: Target, which is going for broke Nov....
Blogs
Why The CEA (I mean, CTA) Changed Its Name
Earlier this month the Consumer Electronics Association announced that it was changing its name to the Consumer Technology Association. Now, normally this would not...
Blogs
AdWeek Names Most Viral Ads Of The Year
AdWeek has released its annual list of the “Most Viral Ads Of The Year,” and four technology-related spots made the top 20, including an...
Another View
Has Black Friday ‘Jumped The Shark’?
When did Black Friday cease being the official Opening Day of holiday discounts and shopping? Was it in 2013 when the trend to open...
Blogs
6 Ways To Improve The Checkout Experience
Retailers are losing $18 billion annually due to shopping cart abandonment. Research shows over two out of three users who add items to their...
Blogs
Where the Puck is Going to Be
Being the chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association does not provide many financial perks; however, my experience has been life changing. Both personally and...
Blogs
Happy Birthday Amazon: An Anniversary Memoir
What a long, strange trip it’s been. The world was so much different 20 years ago, when a fledgling Amazon.com first when live online....
Blogs
Forget Wait-And-See, The Smart Kitchen Is Already Here
I’ve read numerous articles recently suggesting that consumers aren’t rushing to embrace the technology of the connected kitchen, and that many manufacturers have adopted...
Blogs
Bet You Don’t Know Who’s Selling Your Brand, Or For How Much
It’s prime time for consumer electronics retailers. The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and according to the latest research from the Consumer...
Blogs
Are You Ready For The Holiday Rush … Of Returns?
Consumer electronics will once again top holiday wish lists this year, and while they are highly sought-after, they also boast one of the highest...
Blogs
The One Thing Retailers Of Oversized Items Can Do Now To Win More Sales
The new on-demand economy can be a powerful friend for both consumers and smart retailers. Transit companies like Uber and Car2go can get more...
Blogs
Facebook Testing In-App Shopping
Commerce is fueling the next wave of mobile innovation. There has been a flurry of recent activity from leading companies across the mobile eco-system...
Blogs
The Holiday Season Is Here. Are You Mobile-Ready?
It’s that time of the year again. The back-to-school buying season is now a distant memory, and the biggest and busiest time of the...
Blogs
BDA Roundtable Adds Color To Ultra HD Blu-ray Launch
Will your Ultra HD Blu-ray player have to be connected to the Internet to play 4K discs? How will consumers transfer 4K content from...
Blogs
5 Ways To Revamp Your Approach To Customer Service
Balancing a diverse product profile and increasingly global consumer base brings new and more complex service challenges. The increasing number of consumer touchpoints, and...
Blogs
Can Video-Chat Kiosks Help Cure Retails’ Ills?
There’s a new wave in retail that’s attempting to take the best aspects of the digital landscape into the physical world: live video-support kiosks...
Blogs
Polaroid Does GoPro One Better By Revisiting Its Roots
If there is one truth in the world of consumer technology, it’s that nothing stays in one place. Change is the one constant, whether...
Blogs
Are Curved TVs Just A Gimmick?
John Sciacca is one of the principals of Custom Theater and Audio in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and a frequent contributor to TWICE sister publication...
Blogs
Automatic For The People: How POS Can Save Your Business
Holding onto the customer is crucial in all of retail, but for the small business sector, it’s of the utmost importance. The time and...
Blogs
All Hype, No Harm: e-Commerce Sales Tax Won’t Kill The Internet
The conversation over Internet sales tax has assumed an apocalyptic tone. Like doomsday prophets babbling on a street corner, some people continue to claim...
Blogs
7 Facts Every Retailer Needs To Know About Price Image
In this era of price transparency, you would think that it’s easy enough for a retailer to convey its price image to potential customers....
Blogs
hhgregg: Sixty Years Of Kitchen Culture
As hhgregg celebrates its 60th anniversary, the CE, appliance and furniture chain recounts the innovations that have revolutionized the heart of the home. The...
Blogs
A Transformative Emmy Awards
Over the last decade or so, the line between the technology world and the entertainment world has been blurring. Even CES has morphed into...
Blogs
Turning Home Automation Into A Must-Have
Home automation brings convenience and a certain measure of peace of mind to homeowners. From within the house or afar, you can check and...
Another View
How iPad Takes Me Out To The Ballgame
For this New York baseball fan there is nothing quite like both the Yankees and the Mets in pennant races during September. What I...
Blogs
Bad TV Audio: Beyond The Help Of Hearing Aids
The dirty secret of TV manufacturers is that they don’t care about sound quality. An even darker secret is that consumers don’t seem to...
Blogs
Vaporware Beware: Kickstarter No-Show Forced To Pay Backers
Washington became the first state to enforce action against a failed crowdfunding project. A King County court ordered the founders of the Asylum Playing...
Another View
Best Buy Taking ‘Departments’ To Another Level
News earlier this month that Best Buy will be partnering with Macy’s and operating shops in the department store’s locations is appropriate since the...
Blogs
How Retailers Can Make The Holidays Merrier
It’s that time of year again when retailers close the books on back-to-school sales and head into the season that will ultimately determine whether...
Blogs
Hold Your Horses, Jane Jetson
Word this morning of an AllJoyn-based common platform that could connect smart household appliances regardless of brand is welcome news for an industry that’s...
Blogs
Why Apple’s New iPhone Won’t Include Wireless Charging
Apple fanboys and fangirls are anxiously awaiting the introduction of the new iPhone on Wednesday, but wireless charging is one new feature that’s not...
Blogs
You Can’t Afford to Misread Elusive Millennial Shoppers
The back-to-school holiday (second largest revenue generating holiday for retailers) has grown a whopping 42 percent over the past 10 years. This year alone,...
Blogs
The Importance of Being (At) IFA
Each year, the global consumer electronics glitterati gather in a gleaming and exciting post-war playground for a must-attend/must-be-seen-at convention. If my clumsy literary vagueness...
Blogs
How Target Got Its E-tail Groove On
When Target released its Q2 2015 earnings report, shareholders were pleasantly surprised. The retailer surpassed Wall Street expectations and its own high-end forecast. The second...
Blogs
Consumers Slow to Embrace Apple Pay
Will Apply Pay ring the cash register for the most profitable company in the world? If indications are accurate of recent U.S. consumer reaction...
Blogs
How To Maintain Healthy Margins In A Cutthroat Category
Promotions have always played an important role in retailing strategy. Whether to clear the shelves of last year’s models (or slow-moving inventory in general)...
Blogs
Is The Apple Watch The New Steroids? (MLB, Ned Yost Don’t Think So)
Major League Baseball last month gifted Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost with an Apple Watch as a thank you for coaching this year’s...
Blogs
Klipsch/Dolby Atmos Demo: Duck, Dodge, And Hide
Dolby Labs and Klipsch co-hosted an impressive demonstration of the power of Dolby Atmos object-based surround at Dolby’s offices in Manhattan. Just one word:...
Blogs
Windows 10 More Of A Six
Apologies in advance to my new friends at Microsoft, Intel, HP, Asus, Toshiba and Lenovo, but Win10 has won mixed reviews at the Wolf...
Blogs
Death Of The Salesman?
With the explosion of online retail giants like Amazon.com, the new digital economy has turned traditional consumer buying behavior upside down, making your everyday...