While retailers are still releasing their holiday season earnings reports, it’s likely that the overwhelming majority lost physical store traffic to online channels, including their own. Rising e-commerce sales are taking a big bite out of retailer brick-and-mortar revenues — a wide-ranging problem yielding a range of perspectives on two key questions.  Here are eight of the most provocative and insightful comments from retail experts, including Mark Ryski, CEO & Founder of HeadCount Corporation.  Is online’s cannibalization of in-store sales becoming a bigger problem? Are retailers with a major physical presence making the right adjustments? Read the article

According to Boston Retail Partners’ 18th Annual POS/Customer Engagement Survey, retailers are still struggling to find the best way to identify customers as they walk through their doors.Seventy percent of retailers indicate customer identification is their top customer engagement priority, up from 62 percent last year. But, by first identifying the customer at checkout, in-store experience is a step behind online. “Shoppers need to want to be identified when they enter a store and clearly not every shopper desires this,” said Mark Ryski, founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation. “Ultimately, the solution will need to be a combination of formal shopper opt-in combined with a reliable identification mechanism.” Read the article

The off-price chains that make up TJX Companies are frequently brought up as a competitive factor to explain the struggles department stores have had in recent years. With last week’s news that the company is planning to launch a new off-price chain of home good stores, department stores may face worse struggles ahead. “People love to hunt for bargains and TJX’s growth and results are a testament to this,” said Mark Ryski, CEO and founder at HeadCount Corporation. “At first blush, it’s reasonable to question the move of launching another home goods chain, but given the success TJX has had in bringing similar concepts to market successfully, I wouldn’t bet against them.” Read the article

In late 2016, Lowes released its first LoweBot which, according to Lowe’s Innovation Labs, will free up staff to help customers who have questions requiring specialized expertise. The LoweBot will answer simple questions, help manage inventory and help customers find products. Could the LoweBot become central to the staffing strategy? “From my perspective, robots are still many years away for most retailers,” said Mark Ryski, founder and CEO at HeadCount Corporation. “However, there is no doubt that they will play an increasingly important role in retailing in the future. While human interaction will always be important, there are roles that robots/automation could play that could improve the shopping experience including facilitating faster check-out, product locating and way-finding in larger stores.” Read the article

Amazon Go stopped the world in its tracks. The Dec. 5 introduction of Amazon’s revolutionary convenience store looms among the most surprising and compelling retail announcements in recent memory.  The idea leverages technologies previously synonymous with self-driving cars, including computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning. Mark Ryski, Founder, CEO and Author of HeadCount Corporation says “This is what the future of convenience/self-serve retailing looks like. Transaction friction caused by long checkout lines or malfunctioning self-checkout technology is the bane of shoppers — Amazon Go has the potential to truly solve this problem. However, like all technology, there are concerns.” Read the article

Macy’s is setting up shops promoting its off-price Backstage concept in 45 of the chain’s full-price stores in time for Christmas. Will the addition of Backstage shops inside of Macy’s help lift overall store performance over the short and long run? According to Mark Ryski CEO & Founder of HeadCount Corporation “The addition of Backstage won’t hurt Macy’s, but it’s hard to say if it will help. Macy’s should measure traffic and conversion rates in Backstage vs. the main store in order to determine if Backstage is merely drawing from existing Macy’s store traffic or if there may be some incremental traffic gain. Conversion rates are also key”.   Read the article

With just a week to go until what has been called “the most family-friendly holiday on the calendar”, RetailWire’s ongoing discussion about retailers closing for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is an interesting read. George Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of RetailWire has posed interesting questions related to this retail initiative.  Mark Ryski, one of the retail experts asked for his opinion, emphasizes the “hard to quantify” benefits of a more engaged and motivated workforce.  Read the article

If it’s true that consumers today are more into experiences than simply buying products off of shelves, than Apple may be onto something with its new generation design focused on transforming its locations into something akin to ‘town squares.’ “I think it’s important to realize that Apple doesn’t rely on its retail operation to drive the company’s enormous revenue or profit,” said Mark Ryski founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation. “This enables Apple’s retail operation to evolve its store concept in ways that very few, if any, other retailers practically can.”  Read the article

Industry forecasters are calling for a merry and bright 2016 holiday season. But is the optimism on target or off-base? Following a flurry of forecasts, eight experts offer provocative and insightful comments as part of Retail Dive’s ongoing coverage of the 2016 holiday shopping season.  As part of his comment, Mark Ryski encouraged retailers to consider their store traffic as a precious, non-renewable resource. Read the article