Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

What did the shopper do right after scanning that barcode? If the answer can be found in mobile analytics data, you're fine. But if the answer can only be found by overlaying that mobile data with in-store CRM data, most won't see it. What about synching E-Commerce activity with calls to the call center two minutes later? Or linking an E-Commerce search to an in-store POS action 20 minutes later? How about social activity matched with any of the above?Read more...

Seems that it missed the fun social elements of physically shopping together. This week, it was British department store chain John Lewis' turn.Read more...

And Amazon's CFO offered two interesting stats: One shows that Amazon is collecting a lot more state sales taxes than is generally perceived, and the second reports that almost 40 percent of Amazon's sales these days are not from products the E-tailer directly sells.Read more...

That defendant is using the litigation to collect consumer information. It is learning the names, addresses, E-mail addresses and some purchasing habits of not only actual consumers but, presumably, about people who never bought the product and yet are interested enough (in either the product or the $20) to lie about having bought the product. There doesn't appear to be any limitation on how that information can later be used for marketing.Read more...

Unfortunately, system resellers and integrators formerly fell in a governance gap in PCI, and their actions were outside the PCI Council's jurisdiction. PCI Columnist Walter Conway says "were," because that situation is about to change.Read more...

Every so often, an opportunity arises to fill an open IT role with someone from Operations who has "technical aptitude." In an effort to keep the peace, a lot of IT leaders make the mistake of accepting a transfer from the Operations team rather than hiring an outside IT resource. Although it sounds almost "romantic" in design, in my experience, it almost never works out.Read more...

Beyond new security holes on the risk side, the reward side is equally huge. While everyone seems to have focused on the general unbanked audience, a much more interesting prospect for this program is teenagers. Plus, this is sort of an anti-showrooming move, where online shoppers are being lured into the stores. Revenue sharing between Walmart channels is also a point of nervousness with this program. And a store's inability to cancel such online orders—even if the customer then finds the item on the shelf—is problematic, too. This is a rare example of the kinds of compromises—between online and in-store operations—chains must make these days.Read more...

The geolocation opt-in alerts are an interesting twist, especially when a consumer is walking in a city (locally or when traveling) and has no idea that a particular retailer has a store three blocks to the right.Read more...

Google is trying to expand its Google Trusted Stores program—where participating retailers give Google average shipping times and Google grades them on customer resolution issues—by letting merchants display the results in Google ads. But there’s an issue with the Trusted Stores program itself, and it speaks to trust.

The idea that this is a good guide for consumers to find responsive retailers has two hurdles. First, retailers who know they have issues would simply opt to not participate, which itself skews the results, along with the fact that many merchants (especially smaller ones) are unaware of it. Second, there is little to no verification of the results. Beyond delivering misleading or outright wrong figures for customers, it does a disservice to honest retailers. Without verification and a much more representative sampling of retailers, it’s not clear how meaningful these declarations—whether or not they are on Google ads—can be. …

On Tuesday (April 24), Walgreens rolled out what it calls the “first online find your pharmacist” search tool. The idea is that different pharmacists have different backgrounds, different specialties, and this approach enables customers to connect with someone best suited for their medical issues. Whereas this specific app is narrowly focused on drug stores, could the concept work in other areas of retail?

What if chains asked all associates to pour into a database their specialties and backgrounds? What if a Best Buy site could steer you to a store and a specific associate who owns—and is, therefore, highly familiar with—your specific surround-sound system? What if you are a cross-country athlete and want to find a Sports Authority associate who is an expert in that specific sport? Perhaps the database might reveal a much more narrow area: A Macy’s associate who is familiar with Irish wedding gift traditions. A Home Depot employee with experience restoring Victorian mansions. The idea of creating an extensive, searchable database—Web-accessible, too—of all of your associates’ experience and expertise seems relatively low cost with two huge upsides. One: Possible new sales. Two: The very act of creating such a database sends out the message of credibility and a true desire to help the customer. …

One of the problems with Web ads that try to be clever or funny is that they are rarely strategic. So they might be really funny—and get passed along to many prospects—but customers remember the situation and not the brand. Or they remember the brand, but not any positive attribute. IKEA, though, has crafted an almost unreadable Web ad that is positively brilliant at making its point.

The point of the campaign is that IKEA makes a wide range of furniture to fit in almost any space. So in what the chain is calling “the smallest IKEA store in the world,” it has made a 10.5×8.8 centimeter banner ad that literally lists some 2,800 products. It’s done by mousing over parts of the ad to reveal more and more products. In this rare situation, the Web ad is ugly, difficult to use and utterly perfect at making its point. IKEA discussed it in a one-minute video.…

All this despite a rule that the kiosks are supposed to have the same policies as Best Buy stores. This situation also renews questions about how much—or how little—control retailers should have over kiosks that loudly proclaim their brands.Read more...

For Sears, though, the move made fiscal sense. With all of those dollars invested in IT systems—with more capacity than Sears needs—why not, in effect, lease out some of it? Put another way: Turn IT from a pure cost-center to a mostly cost-center that generates at least some revenue.Read more...

Oh, and Donahoe not only believes that NFC will never be adopted by large chains, but he has a specific prediction of when that adoption will happen—just in case he's wrong. And, no, we're not making any of this up.Read more...

eBay CEO John Donahoe said the upcoming app is designed to function with specific TV shows, where it markets items that relate to the show. "You enter whatever channel you're watching and the TV show that you're watching. eBay inventory associated with that TV show pops up, and it's a very compelling experience," he said. How far could this go?Read more...

How could iTunes refund an already listened to song or an already played game? That's not merely a business/profit question. From an IT perspective, there is often no mechanism to do it. What might start out as a legal problem will almost instantly morph into an IT problem.Read more...

The case revolves around a longtime legal reality: Minors cannot agree to a contract. If they pretend to agree, it's non-binding and can't be enforced, writes Legal Columnist Mark Rasch. But what if an adult gives the child their password and permission to make a purchase? It's still the child doing it and the contract, therefore, probably can't be enforced.Read more...

After many years in retail operations, Retail Columnist Todd Michaud is still surprised how little traction well-developed back-office applications receive. You would think that saving money on inventory, labor or marketing expenses would be all the motivation that a retail owner or general manager would need, but that rarely seems to be the case. That got Michaud thinking about some of the new social applications, like Foursquare, and what makes them successful: Gamification.Read more...

This is not merely an issue of violating the rules of a major search engine. A lot of these partners—carpet installers, for instance—have minimal E-Commerce teams, which means they rely on partners such as Home Depot for E-Commerce guidance. And when chains give advice that is false and endangers the ranking of the sites of those partners, it is a problem.Read more...

The fact that it was a thief who stole the funds is undisputed. However, the immediate next actions of Wal-Mart and Green Dot—which manages MoneyCard for Wal-Mart—is a textbook example not of what should not be done, but how it shouldn't be done.Read more...

But it won't address many of today's age-ID problems, including waiving license checks if the associate thinks the person is old enough, license photos often being bad enough to fool weak authenticators, and under-age consumers using the driver's license of an older sibling. Still, 7-Eleven has crafted ways to deal with some of those gotchas with the new system.Read more...

Several years ago, when Tom Peterson was general manager of RSS, it was a much larger group than the $1.15 billion in revenue reported in the release. Pretty much everything that wasn't mainframe or core supply chain fit under RSS, writes GuestView Columnist Greg Buzek.Read more...

Take the example of a bottle of L'anza brand shampoo, suggests Legal Columnist Mark Rasch. The manufacturer in California sells the shampoo for, say, $5 a bottle in the U.S., but sells the same shampoo overseas for only $3 a bottle. It is perfectly legal for a retailer to buy the genuine shampoo overseas, import it back to the U.S., and then resell it for a profit. But add a label to the bottle of shampoo, and the situation may change. Read more...

Retail Columnist Todd Michaud has a suggestion: Go pull out the last POS RFP you put together and see what percentage of requirements that were in the RFP are actually in use today. It's a safe bet you'll be surprised, especially if it was a long time ago.Read more...

Beyond IBM's history of selling out key areas (printers, laptops, disk drives, etc.) a year or so before the market is about to die, this time it's the popularization of in-store tablets along with the integration of mobile and E-Commerce that is aggravating POS's demise. Retail Columnist Todd Michaud predicted in January that this year would see the death of the traditional POS. IBM apparently agrees. (Related Story: Unhappy With Your POS System? Take A Peek At Your Last POS RFP. Don't You Feel Bad Now?Read more...