Qualcomm Technologies is using NRF 2022, the retail industry trade show at New York’s Javits Center, to showcase “how IoT technologies are helping retailers digitally transform their environments and processes,” blogged Art Miller, global head-retail IoT. “Our solutions improve in-store experiences by bringing the best of ‘online’ to the offline world, reducing friction at each stage of the retail journey and providing inspiration and advice to consumers, ultimately enhancing their shopping experience.” Examples include deploying robots for cleaning store floors, or using augmented-reality devices for training store employees, said Miller on Friday. NRF 2022 was to open Sunday and run through Tuesday.
Federal and state prosecutors in Oklahoma charged 29 people with taking part in a large-scale organized retail theft ring staged out of the Tulsa area and operating in six states, that netted the defendants $4.5 million in profits from the sale of stolen merchandise and caused more than $10 million in estimated losses to Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart and other retailers, said DOJ Thursday. Police arrested 24 defendants for allegedly stealing goods from retailers in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Texas, plus Oklahoma. Five defendants remain at large. Best Buy CEO Corie Barry cited product theft on a Nov. 23 earnings call as a rising retail industry concern, “particularly organized retail crime” (see 2111230051), though Best Buy wasn't among retailers named by DOJ as being victimized in the Tulsa theft ring.
Holiday season retail sales -- in store and online -- spiked 14.1% to a record $886.7 billion Nov. 1-Dec. 31, near the top end of the National Retail Federation’s revised forecast range of 11%-15% growth, it reported Friday. Holiday sales last year were $777.3 billion, at 8.2% growth. Average holiday sales growth over the past five years was 4.4%, it said. Retail sales as defined by NRF -- excluding automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants -- were down 2.7% seasonally adjusted in December from November but up 13.4% unadjusted year-over year vs. a 0.3% month-over-month slip in November, which was up 14.8% from November 2020, it said. NRF forecast in October that 2021 holiday sales would increase 8.5%-10.5% over 2020 to $843.4 billion-$859 billion, then bumped the forecast in December to potential growth of 11.5%. Online and other nonstore sales spending was up 11.3% at $218.9 billion, the low end of NRF’s forecast of 11%-15% growth to $218.3 billion-$226.2 billion. “Despite supply chain challenges, retailers kept their shelves stocked and consumers were able to fill their carts both in-store and online,” Kleinhenz said. Holiday spending in 2021 showed “continued consumer demand that is driving the economy and should continue in 2022,” said the economist: “Nonetheless, we should be prepared for challenges in the coming months due to the substantial uncertainty brought by the pandemic.” Clothing and clothing accessory stores led holiday retail growth with a 33.1% increase; electronics and appliance stores had 15% growth year on year, it said.
Fiserv will showcase its Carat omnichannel commerce ecosystem at NRF 2022 this weekend in New York, as a way to mitigate customer returns, it emailed Thursday. By using payments data to identify consumers with a high propensity to return items, retailers can incentivize “high returners” in real time to not send items back, the company said. With the Fiserv systems, merchants can identify credit or debit cards at the point of sale that have historical payment activity matching an anonymous profile of high return activity, it said. When those cards are presented online or in store, the merchant can present the customer with a discount or digital gift card in real time before the purchase is made, if the consumer agrees to make the sale final, with no option to return. If a consumer planning to price shop between two websites for the same pair of shoes is provided an incentive, “the chance of unnecessary items being purchased or returned is mitigated,” it said. For some merchants, as much as 60% of their return volume comes from just 1% of their consumer base, it said.
OnQ added touchless capability to its Coverage retail display platform, it emailed Thursday. Converge Display Control lets shoppers control interactive experiences on a connected TV by scanning a QR code with their smartphone. After a consumer scans a QR code, their phone acts as a remote to select and control content displayed on the TV, a spokesperson said. A retailer could let the customer search product specifications, watch demonstration videos and scroll through product reviews, he said. He gave the example of sound bars on display in a store, where instead of pressing physical buttons to compare the sound, a customer would enable the same comparison via phone. He also cited an “omnichannel tie-in” that integrates a mobile shopping experience: When a customer scans a code, she can purchase online while still in the store or select from a broader range of products than what’s displayed in the store to create an “expanded aisle” experience. Customers could also choose to buy a product in store and have it delivered to their home. OnQ designs manages CE category displays for retailers including Target, Walmart, Costco and Fred Meyer.
Silicon Labs technology will be featured in smart retail demonstrations by Rainus, Zliide and ThinkIN at NRF 2022, scheduled to begin Sunday at New York's Javits Center. Rainus' InfoTab electronic shelf label (ESL) technology, used in department and grocery stores globally, allows retailers to update pricing in real time. Silicon Lab’s indoor positioning technologies let Rainus track smart shopping cards and ESL tags. Zliide, with ThinkIN, will demo Bluetooth loss prevention tags. The Zliide allows shoppers to access interactive product information on their smartphones and perform instant self-checkout from anywhere in the store. The tags are being used in Europe and are expected to reach U.S. retailers this year. Smart retail systems increase retailer efficiency, reduce labor costs, improve merchandising, strengthen loss-prevention, and provide valuable consumer insights to retailers, Silicon Labs said.
A December Clarus survey found 36% of consumers expected holiday shopping returns to take longer than normal in the 2021 holiday season, while 13% expected to have fewer returns “because they don’t want to deal with the return process at all." A tenth of consumers said returns are often not worth the trouble, so they keep the items, which Clarus said could lead to dissatisfaction with the brand. Some 73% of consumers are unlikely to return to a retailer if they had a bad return experience, 34% very unlikely, it said. The top three features consumers are looking for in the returns process are a free label, box or parcel (71%), payment returned to their preferred method (51%) and fast turnaround for a refund (46%). A quarter of consumers are looking for no-receipt returns; 26% want return tracking, it said. Over half of shoppers are less likely to shop at a store that provides only store credit or a store gift card for a return, said the survey of 2,600 consumers.
Chico’s FAS, parent company of fashion brands Chico’s, White House Black Market and Soma, is using Walmart’s GoLocal white-label fulfillment service for same-day delivery in select markets, the companies said Thursday. It launched with the Walmart delivery service in Chicago and Fort Myers, Florida, with plans to expand to other markets next year.
Target flexed its fulfillment muscle Friday, reminding customers they can shop in stores and online “until the very last minute, once there’s no longer time to ship,” using its drive-up and order-pickup services until 6 p.m. local time Christmas Eve. Same-day fulfillment from Shipt has a final delivery window of 5-6 p.m., Target said, reminding customers it doesn’t charge a membership fee as its competitors do. Apple deals remaining in the final week before Christmas included $70 savings on Apple AirPods Pro to $179, $50 off the series 7 Apple Watch to a starting price of $349, and a $30 discount on series 3 Apple Watches for a $169 starting price. TV deals for top brands were modest vs. previous years: a Vizio D-Series 40-inch HD smart TV was down $20 to $249, and a Samsung 55-inch TU7000 4K model was $100 off to $399. Discounts on Element and Hisense TVs were 10%.
The National Retail Federation will continue convening with law enforcement and work with the Biden administration and Congress on a “variety of proposed legislative measures” on the recent spate of mass “smash and grab” thefts across the country that are “incredibly challenging” for retailers, said CEO Matthew Shay on a Tuesday call. “I can’t tell you how concerning this is for our members,” he said, and NRF will take a “much more aggressive position" on the events, he said. The trade association convened a group of members Monday to address the trend and has “hundreds” of people participating in calls about the incidents, Shay said. NRF wants more resources and "greater coordination between federal, state and local authorities,” Shay said. Efforts to combat the crimes have been stymied by factors including “different approaches by different prosecutors” and by a reluctance of law enforcement to prosecute in some cases. Shay wants involvement by DOJ and federal law enforcement.