This Friday starting at midnight marks the official start of the holiday shopping season for American consumers. After the traditional thanksgiving feast (Many Retail Stores are opening at midnight with specials) up to 152 Million Shoppers are expected to visit stores and websites this Black Friday Weekend, according to NRF Survey published in November.
As we approach this long weekend holiday, I thought I’d share a few articles that would make good reading while the turnkey is in the oven.
The publishing of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book is always noteworth and this year is no exception. Neiman Marcus generates a huge amount of press coverage and brand exposure for the holiday catalog.
Internet Retailer’s article “Thanksgiving is for Selling” examines the e-commerce promotions that will happen this holiday weekend.
I’d like to wish all the retail staff in the stores and web operations that I know will be working hard this weekend a Happy Thanksgiving.
For retailers and merchants, January 1st, 2012 is the deadline after which all audits for PCI compliance need to be at the Data Security Standards 2.0. At Cisco we have invested in education content as well as architecture designs for PCI 2.0 to help retailers address compliance and secure credit card data.
Need to learn about the basics of PCI 2.0? Check out the following Fundamentals of PCI YouTube Video
For a little more deeper education about PCI including navigating the ins and outs of compliance, dig into design and implementation, and tips for a successful audit, check out the following Cisco Techwise TV episode titled “Everything You Wanted to Know About PCI But Were Afraid to Ask”
Was reading the National Retail Federation’s forecast for Holiday 2011.
One topic caught my eye: the expected level of seasonal store-level employment.
The NRF expects that the industry will hire between 480,000 and 500,000 seasonal workers this year, roughly equal to last year’s 495,000.
We can expect a majority of those individuals to be in the stores – hired at the store, for the store.
A big question for retailers in this omnichannel world: What’s guiding the hiring? Comp-store forecasts or the needs of the omnichannel shopper? If it’s store-level revenue, there’s a good chance of a critical mismatch between the needs of the brand and the level of onsite support.
I recently had a pleasure of working on the team to delivera Cisco technology showcase for retailers, with the requirements that it is accessible from multiple remote locations and allow large or small parties to have an immersive demonstration experience.
The result is the Retail BDOT (Business Demonstrations over TelePresence). Leveraging Cisco TelePresence technology, we connect visitors to a day in life of a retailer made possible with Cisco technology.
Some of the questions the demonstrations are designed to address include:
Allow me to suggest a must-read volume for all retail technologists: How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer.
Good friend and UK colleague Lisa Fretwell tipped me off to this book, which explores – through entertaining narratives and occasional in-the-weeds psychology – the process by which we make decisions, and why certain decisions are made.
Obviously an important topic to those of us seeking to influence consumer behavior.
Two caveats: If you’re looking for a bullet-point guide on how to position your next in-store solution, this isn’t it. It also doesn’t (thankfully) boil down neatly into nifty PowerPoint slides.
