Customer satisfaction and the customer experience has quickly emerged as the primary metric of success for retailers. Investing in new technology, staying abreast of fashion trends, and creating in-store experiences are all smart strategies, but the best brands always come back to the Why. Why are you investing in new technology? (To make the shopping and checkout experience better, easier, and faster for your customers.) Why are you mindful of trends (to keep your customers interested.) Why are you offering yoga classes in your stores (to entice your customer to open the door). The answer is always about the customer experience.

6 Retail Stories Making Headlines—and Why You Should Care

“Retail isn’t dead, bad retail is dead,” said CVS Pharmacy president Kevin Hourican at NRF’s Shop.org conference in Las Vegas last week. It was a common theme throughout the week, where leaders and luminaries agreed that smart, customer-focused retail is in fact succeeding. While the headlines tend to focus on the doom and gloom (store closings, Amazon is killing everyone), the truth is, the companies who are looking forward and eager to innovate based on customers’ wants, desires, and habits are the ones to watch. Forecasters are already predicting a holiday boom in sales (specifically, a 15 percent growth for e-commerce holiday purchases this year, up from a 13 percent jump last year). Here are the other conversations happening that are worth the read.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Sam Kliger, Founder and CEO of KWI, a pioneer of cloud technology for specialty retailers. KWI provides companies with a unified commerce solution for point of sale, merchandising, eCommerce, CRM and loss prevention to create a holistic customer experience— both online and off. KWI counts leading fashion brands and retailers as customers including Bandier, Blue Mercury, Dylan’s Candy Bar, Hatch, NARS, Stance, Il Makiage and many more.

Having a state-of-the-art unified commerce and mobile POS system is crucial to compete in today’s retail market. Is your infrastructure ready to support it? A strong, reliable network (with cutting-edge monitoring, dynamic channel management, traffic shaping, and more) make all the difference in the consumer experience and whether or not you’ve earned a repeat visit and their loyalty.

Market analysts tend to proselytize about the state of retail and how Amazon is killing our business as we know it. And while there is some truth to that, that’s not the headline most insiders would use. The industry is full of highs and lows right now—yes, some traditional box stores are going out of business, but there are also exciting partnerships developing and innovative new companies popping up. As with any business, competition, evolving customer habits, and new technology can be a challenge. After talking with our clients here’s what they told us the biggest issues in retail are right now. 

Sam Kliger, founder and chief executive officer of KWI, shares insights into what's driving the retail industry heading into the second half.

Rihanna is promoting her new collection of socks and actually got behind the register to ring up customers.

There has been some big news in the retail world. I recently wrote about Sears and Amazon teaming up on the tire business, and now Walmart announced it will sell luxury goods from Lord & Taylor on its website. The deal will boost Walmart’s higher-end merchandise and will give Lord & Taylor access to a much bigger audience. In another intriguing move, Macy’s just acquired retail experience company Story.  Story works with brands like Jet.com and DressBarn to create immersive and curated shopping experiences. "Bringing [Story founder] Rachel Shechtman's perspective to the table will help create more enriched and engaging in-store experiences and brand activations," Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette said in a statement. "We are committed to growth in 2018, and this is one important step along the way."