We just launched the Cisco at NRF 2013 website.

Cisco will be at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention and Expo 2013 in New York City from January 14-15, 2013.

I’d like to invite you to come visit the Cisco booth #252 to see live demonstrations of Cisco’s new innovative solutions for retail including:

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Tags: Big Ideas, byod, Cisco, consumers, customers, mobility, network, NRF 2013, omnichannel, remote expert, retail, shopping

Have you  walked into a retail store lately and seen someone use his or her phone to “scan” a product’s bar code to get immediate access to reviews from consumers who have bought the product? This customer might also (to the chagrin of retail store owners) be looking for cheaper prices offered online or in a physical store around the corner!

This is the new “omnichannel” reality that retailers have to face nowadays—one where virtual and physical channels come together to enable in-store access to web-based customer reviews and price comparisons, while also taking some physical store capabilities to the virtual channel (for example, Remote Deposit Capture in banking). Read More »

Tags: banking, branch, Cisco, IBSG, media, mobile, mobility, omnichannel, research, services, social, survey, video

My colleagues Jon Stine and Lisa Fretwell with Cisco IBSG recently published research about consumers that are constantly channel hopping in their shopping journey.  We all have personal experiences shopping on the web, in the store and on mobile devices. 

I recently in the middle of a conversation during lunch, made a reservation on Open Table app, purchased a case for my phone on amazon app and bought a music album on iTunes  (Doctor Who Series 6), and pulled up directions to the local home improvement store, all in 10 minutes.  Obviously the consumer trend is shopping across multiple channels, and some retailers are succeeding in this new world, and some are not.

I sat down with Brian Kilcourse, managing partner of Retail Systems Research and this was one of the topics we talked about.

Some of the areas we discussed are:

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Tags: brian kilcourse, Cisco, multichannel, omnichannel, retail, retail systems research, retailing

At the National Retail Federation conference and expo this past week in New York, Cisco released its latest study on how consumers are hopping across multiple channels and how retailers can catch ‘Em and keep ‘Em. On my way from San Francisco to New York this week, I was shopping at the airport and did an e-book purchase and downloaded it to my tablet using the onboard wireless Internet service at 30,000 feet.

Think about the impact of this new consumer reality to retailers such as Sport Chalet, who needs to build a strong foundation to support customers anytime anywhere.

Sport Chalet CEO, Craig Levra, and CIO, Ted Jackson, discuss how they are satisfying shoppers and improving operations with Cisco technology.

Some of the capabilities that retailers need to provide going forward in the omnichannel world include:

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Tags: Cisco, Cius, customer experience, National Retail Federation, NRF, omnichannel, retail, retailing, Sport Chalet, Sports Chalet, UCS

 Using stores as showrooms for online purchases is the “new normal” for today’s tech- and Internet-savvy shoppers. So how do retailers “catch” these channel-hopping customers and “keep” them buying within their own brand?

The Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) believes retailers can increase sales both in stores and online by creating “mashops” that combine immersive online content with engaging in-store experiences. This idea is backed up by Cisco IBSG’s latest research, which revealed that digital content has reached a new level of influence.

Surprisingly, shoppers now prefer online sources to people when making buying decisions. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, IBSG, mashops, NRF, omnichannel, retail, retailing