Holiday spending rose to the highest level in years during the 2017 season amid widespread economic gains, and retailers in Houston got an extra boost from the rush to replace what Hurricane Harvey destroyed.
Fourth-quarter sales rose 5.5 percent from the same period last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Friday. In December alone, sales increased 5.4 percent.
Many retailers this month reported positive same-store sales during November and December, driven in part by investments that encouraged crossover between online and in-store shopping. Even department stores, which have for years fought to turn around declining sales, had a brighter season.
The results exceeded the National Retail Federation’s highest forecast.

Source: www.houstonchronicle.com

115 pickup towers installed by Walmart

New self-serve technology at one East Valley medical clinic is allowing patients to quickly receive prescriptions and over-the-counter medications from a kiosk immediately following an appointment.

Source: www.eastvalleytribune.com

Why does your retail business need in-store pick up to stay relevant this year? Find out all the details in our new blog.

Source: www.orderdynamics.com

Nice article laying out benefits. Everybody is doing it now.

Retail industry news, voices and jobs. Optimized for your mobile phone.

Source: www.retaildive.com

Walmart is boosting the minimum hourly wage for its U.S. employees to $11 and dishing out bonuses of up to $1,000.

Source: www.usatoday.com

The go-to-market plan, revised, reexamined and reimagined over the past two years, will begin with an experiential website and expand to kiosks, store-in-stores and ultimately showrooms.

Source: www.twice.com

Retailers are giving more consumers the option to shop without interacting with a cashier.

Source: www.cnbc.com

Introducing FACE by The Cali Group www.caliburger.com Directed by Ashley Avis a Winterstone Pictures production | www.winterstonepictures.com

Source: vimeo.com

NEC Corporation of America (NEC), a leading provider and integrator of advanced IT, communications, networking and biometric solutions, today announce

Source: www.businesswire.com

Facial recognition coming to the forefront more and more.

Teaser Text -Walgreens’ digital efforts are paying off with record-setting results. Learn about the cutting-edge tech the retailer has in place to spur pharmacy sales and its plans to test a new store format in 2018.Click here to edit the content

Source: risnews.com

The gist is 20% of refills flow thru digital channels.  That seems low to me actually. Also the IVR system is more of initial blockage/delay for service the way it is set up and responds.