News Roundup – January 2016

Recently, we hung out with Toshiba in booth #2563 at Retail’s BIG Show, put on by the National Retail Federation. Here’s a look at one of their very stylish banners:

We had a great time talking about how companies can use DuplexPackSlip® thermal labels, along with the Toshiba DB-EA4D printer, to ship smarter. Anyway, keeping the theme of Retail’s BIG Show in mind, we present some hot takes on retail for the month of January:

10 Trends To Watch At NRF
“What is the best way to peruse the annual NRF Big Show? It’s a bigger challenge every year. To help, the Retail TouchPoints editorial team has put together a list of 10 trends to watch.”

Customers are the new celebrities
“Influencer marketing is nothing new; companies have been using celebrity endorsements to promote products for decades, if not centuries. But the rise of social media has inspired a new generation of brand ambassadors, and they’re “real people” who are just like us.”

What it takes to rock the world of retail
“The path from entry level employee to C-suite executive is almost never linear. At Retail’s BIG Show Student Program, some of the industry’s most notable power players outlined the qualities they look for in the next generation of retail leaders — the same skills and characteristics that fueled their own unpredictable journeys to the top.”

Is The Convenience Economy Convenient For Retailers?
“Just when retailers are finally getting up to speed on omnichannel, they face a new challenge: The Convenience Economy. It’s hard to argue with convenience, right? But for retailers that means finding new ways to get products and services to customers even faster, and finding the right partners to make this goal a reality.”

6 Ways To Ride The Wave Of Shopper Marketing Renaissance
“Over the past decade, the retail channel has been gaining importance in most brands’ go-to-market strategy. This is primarily due to three major factors: 1) fragmentation of media and brands’ inability to cheaply drive demand via traditional advertising; 2) consolidation of retail and its stronger buying power; 3) retailers’ progress in capturing and leveraging shopper data that enabled them to create a meaningful relationship with brands’ consumers.”