Looking to further enable digital experiences in the store, Microsoft and Intel announced availability of a platform specifically for digital signage:   http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/reference/ScreenExpo-TechBulletin5.3.10.pdf

Microsoft recently released a simple digital marketing assessment tool that includes access to a whitepaper.  The whitepaper provides a point-of-view on the intersection of enterprise technology and the need to create consumable digital experiences...

For those of you spending big dollars on SEO you are not alone.  Retailers for whom the search path is the most common way to attract eyeballs are spending an increasing share of their marketing and IT budgets on SEO.  A good free tool from...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704055104574652742982646768.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_tech

Good primer on seven game-changers in Retail IT: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/jan10/01-11FutureOfRetail.mspx

As we think about where the future of commerce experiences will lead us, I think it is important to understand that consumer entertainment paradigms will continue to intersect with opportunities for brands to transact with customers.  There are a...

An article on Digital Marketing (“Getting Personal”) appears in the Winter Edition of RetailSpeak.  RetailSpeak is a publication focused on technology for the retail and hospitality industries that I often contribute to.  The magazine can be...

http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=33012 Highlights :  Online retail sales this holiday season—Nov. 1-Dec. 24—totaled $27.12 billion, a 4.9% increase compared to $25.85 billion a year ago… 2009 had the heaviest online spending day in...

Cactus Commerce, a Gold-Certified Microsoft partner, recently announced a new offering entitled CommerceLive.  Commerce Live is unique in that it sits firmly in the middle between the ASP-model eCommerce offering and the traditional on-premise offering...

Amid all of the increasingly academic discussions of the power of social media, next generation eCommerce technologies, groundbreaking cross-channel retailing initiatives, etc, etc, I am detecting a bit of “strategy fatigue” across the industry. ...

Consumer expectations for immersive digital experiences are clearly ramping up.  I love this example by Razorfish as an illustration of emerging store experiences.      http://emergingexperiences.com/2009/11/razorfone-simplifying...

Retailers are increasingly seeking out innovation in customer experience.  In an era where consumer discretionary spending is challenged, retailers are looking for differentiation that not only demonstrates the value of their brand but most importantly...

Razorfish has published its annual Digital Brand Experiences Report, in coordination with is blog nicknamed “FEED”.  It is a really good read and will provide a level-set on how Razorfish sees the evolution of digital impacting retail and consumer...

I have blogged before about the increased importance of eCommerce to the business of retailing as well as the resulting complexity of solutions retailers have attempted to buy and develop to deliver to the needs of the business.  eCommerce is no...

One of the really fun aspects of my job is the frequency with which I get to interact with retailers.  This enables me to have a good view to trends from a very grassroots perspective.  While I spend a great deal of my time working with retailers...

As retailers continue to attempt integration of social media into cross-channel commerce strategies there is now a heightened awareness of the labor involved in ‘good’ social media monitoring practices.  In some retail and CPG organizations teams...

Microsoft will again be participating at Shop.org’s Annual Summit in Las Vegas.  The event runs from September 21st through September 23rd at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.  More information on the event can be found here:  http://www...

RIS News recently published a report based on research from FitForCommerce indicating that 50% of online retailers plan to replace their existing eCommerce platforms in the next 12 months.  Here is a link to the article: http://www.risnews.com/ME2...

Expanding on a previous post, I wanted to unwrap the discussion of "Digital ERP” a bit.  I likened the maturation of the Web business - from a disparate silo of business and technical functions, to a set of standardized business processes and...

An article I contributed to in the Fall edition of RetailSpeak (starting on page 21): http://www.onwindows.com/Portals/0/images/retailspeak-issue-25.pdf

As with any business that grows in significance and value, Web business is evolving.  I would argue that the developments we are seeing are positive for the industry and will usher in a corresponding evolution from technology and service providers...

So I suppose this blog post might seem a little confusing to those of us thoroughly convinced of the march toward supremacy by the Web in the area of customer experience.  Without question we have seem some real innovation in the last several years...

I spend a lot of time speaking to customers about re-freshing their customer-facing Web experience. A hot topic is rich internet applications (RIA), including things like drag-and-drop check-out, embedded video, rich product imagery, etc.  An objection...

Is it that time of year?  Is it merely an odd coincidence?  In the last 6 months there has been a major ramping up of seemingly happy and successful retailers looking to see “what else is out there” in the rapidly evolving universe that is eCommerce...

I am a huge fan of the Gartner Hype Cycle.  If you are not familiar with it, the Hype Cycle attempts to place in context where certain technologies and strategies exist, with the assumption that all appear, grow in popularity, mature, and decline...