Evan Schuman

/zimages/6/85052.jpg Self-service retail checkout systems are among the hottest growing technology segments, but the new devices are still in an experimental phase and suffer from the startup hiccups of any new technology. Some of the challenges are technological—such as incompatible databases—while others are either legal (proving the age of a customer wanting to buy tobacco […]

Envision opening a refrigerator, making a tuna-fish sandwich and using the last of the mayonnaise. You scan the empty jar on the freezer door for two seconds and then recycle the sticky jar. Three days later, you walk into your local grocery store and grab a cart, which displays a list of everything you need. […]

A recent study by IHL Consulting Group indicates that self-checkout and other self-service systems generated almost $128 billion in sales last year, up about 80 percent over a year before. Projections are that these sales figures will continue to grow exponentially–up 73 percent this year and then a projected 88 percent next year. Although the […]

When youre a retail executive in todays razor-thin-margin environment, you do what you can barely afford and then pray it supports your strategy. Pricing is no longer something most retailers can determine, as a strict competitor reality often dictates whether your per-item profit is one or two cents. Wal-Mart is the paraphrase of that very […]

Putting control of checkout into the hands of the consumer is nightmarishly frightening for many retail executives—including that part where the consumers figure out how much money they are going to give the retailer. “Loss Prevention would love to have security gates and frisking” at the self-service terminals, said Dusty Lutz, the FastLane product manager […]

At the very heart of any robust retail CRM system are the benefits consumers—and retailers—receive when the retailer knows as much about a customer as possible. But what happens when the customer doesnt want such an intimate relationship? Not unlike romantic relationships, professional ones need to be based on either trust or a more calculated, […]

Pity the poor retail CIO who is a CRM advocate. In acts of backstabbing betrayals worthy of the ancient Roman coliseum, our hero finds himself having to deal with a host of villains: Overzealous software sales reps, who conveniently forget to mention the money and person-hours the retailer will have to spend to make the […]