For the past few years, Amazon has been working on plans that would unleash a fleet of drones to handle some deliveries – from unveiling a prototype that acts more like a “horse than a car” and a patent for propellers that tell bystanders to “look out.” Now, another recently released patent shows what those little flying machines might be doing while they aren’t ferrying your Prime deliveries: sitting on a lamppost. [More]
Retail Services
GameStop Says Pokémon Go Has Boosted Some Stores’ Sales By 100%
By 7.18.16
As we know, some businesses have embraced the Pokémon Go craze as a way to drum up business. That became more evident over the weekend as GameStop used its status in the game to increase sales at some stores by 100%. [More]
Citi CEO Determined To Fix Customers’ Complaints About Costco Card Deployment
By 7.18.16
Costco recently ended its long monogamous relationship with credit card partner American Express, leaving to only accept Visa cards and partner with Citibank for a store-branded card. AmEx could lose up to 10% of its customers over the switch, since the number of people who had cards with them just for Costco is huge. The switch went badly for some Costco customers who didn’t get their cards, couldn’t activate them, or had other problems with the switch. Citi’s CEO promises that he’s going to fix this. [More]
Prime Day Deal Expires Early, Amazon And Chase Make Good On It
By 7.14.16
On Tuesday, during Amazon’s Prime Day, festivities, the online retailer’s credit card partner Visa joined in the fun with a promotion where customers who made a $150 purchase using their Amazon-branded Visa card would receive a $30 discount. That’s an appealing bargain, and plenty of customers prepared to take advantage of it. What they didn’t do was read the fine print, or take it seriously, and a lot of customers missed out. [More]
Why Does Walmart Think That Its Payment App Will Be Such A Hit?
By 7.13.16 — Updated: 11.3.16
Walmart hasn’t signed on to accept any mobile payment platforms, including dominant Android Pay and Apple Pay. It was one of the merchants behind the now-dormant CurrentC payment app, and launched its own barcode-based payment service tied to customer accounts on the retailer’s website. While the company claims that their goal is to provide a unified Walmart experience, why isn’t it also willing to let customers use the mobile payment app that they already have? [More]
Amazon: This Year’s Prime Day Was “The Biggest Day Ever” For The Company
By 7.13.16
Despite some customer complaints and competing discount events offered by rivals, Amazon says yesterday’s Prime Day was “the biggest day ever for Amazon.” Even bigger than the day it first learned to ride a bike. [More]
Retail Rivals Pulling Out Their Own Deals In Effort To Compete With Prime Day
By 7.12.16
Just because Amazon is calling today Prime Day doesn’t mean other retailers can’t offer their own discounts and deals, too. As such, a whole bunch of retailers are pulling out specials designed to lure shoppers today, while carefully avoiding any mention of “Prime Day” [More]
All That’s Left At The Oldest Remaining Sears Are Fixtures And Khakis
By 7.12.16
The Sears store on Lawrence Avenue in Chicago is winding down operations. That’s a normal part of the retail cycle: when a store is no longer making money, you shut it down. What’s different about this store closure is that the Lawrence location was one of the oldest still-operating Sears department stores, open in that location for 91 years. It survived the Great Depression, but not the era of e-commerce and of Eddie Lampert. [More]
Amazon’s New Seattle Buildings: Part Workspace, Part Arboretum
By 7.11.16
Some companies provide employees with rooms full of ping-pong or foosball tables, TVs, and comfy napping pods as a way to relax or kick-back for breaks during the day. Amazon is reportedly taking a more zen approach to inspiring workers: creating a garden/jungle/conservatory-like new workspace. [More]
Customers Literally Rally Around Displaced Walmart Greeter With Cerebral Palsy
By 7.11.16
A few months ago, Walmart announced that it was bringing the greeter position back to all stores, and that the job in more busy locations would change. People standing at the doors would have more responsibilities in addition to greeting customers and checking receipts, and their new title would be “customer host,” with yellow vests to make them easier to spot. At least one longtime greeter reports that the change means that he lost his job. [More]
Target Makes Changes To Coupon Policy
By 7.11.16
Have you ever had trouble using a coupon at the Target checkout line, only to have the cashier work some keyboard magic to get you the discount? Expect to see less of this after the retailer’s latest update to its checkout system.
[More]
Walmart Responds To Amazon Prime Day By Offering Free Shipping For All Orders
By 7.11.16
On the eve of Amazon’s second annual Prime Day sale, Walmart is once again trying to play spoiler. The nation’s largest retailer announced this morning that it is dropping shipping fees for all online orders this week.
[More]
5 Things You Should Know About Amazon’s Issues With Counterfeits
By 7.8.16
When you see a brand-name handbag or laptop being sold on Amazon for well below its retail price, it’s hard to not hit the “Buy” button. But is it a good deal or just a counterfeit in brand-name clothing? [More]
Target And CVS Still Not Really Sure How Sales Work
By 7.7.16
When retail pricing defies common sense, that’s what we call Target Math. Sometimes it’s putting an item on sale for more than the original price, and sometimes it’s making items cost more per unit to buy in bulk than to buy just a few. They aren’t exclusive to Target, but for some reason these errors happen very often there. Here are some examples, which aren’t all from Target. Most of them are, though. [More]
Amazon Echo Users Can Now Set Spotify, Pandora As Their Default Music Service
By 7.7.16
Until now, if you wanted to tell Alexa to play a certain song using a music service other than Prime Music, you’d have to say something like, “Alexa, play ‘Hotline Bling’ by Drake on Spotify.” Those days are gone, as Amazon Echo users can now set their default music services to either Spotify or Pandora. [More]
Amazon’s Audible Creating Network Of Subscription-Only Podcasts
By 7.7.16
If you’re a big podcast listener, you may have wondered whether it would be possible to just pay up instead of listening to one more rambling ad spot for Audible, Blue Apron, or Stamps.com. There’s a growing number of options out there, and the newest one happens to be from Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook services. The company’s new service, Channels, charges a subscription fee for curated ad-free audio content that the company won’t actually call “podcasts.” [More]
Target Closes Several In-Store Portrait Studios
By 7.7.16
Years ago, when you wanted to have a family portrait taken you’d hop in the car with the family and head to your local department store — Sears, JCPenney, and others. While some of these studios have closed their doors over the years, Target stepped in to fill the void. Until now: the big box retailer announced this week that it would close a handful of its in-store portrait studios in favor of other initiatives. [More]
Walmart Taking Its Proprietary Mobile Payment App Nationwide
By 7.6.16
Two months ago, Walmart took its mobile payment app, the logically named Walmart Pay, live in 590 stores in its home state of Arkansas and in the neighboring state of Texas. The test apparently went well: the retailer is bringing the app to customers in the rest of the country as of today. [More]
