An online retailer platform called simply “42” is debuting today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY with new ideas about how to bring the intelligence of online e-commerce tools to brick-and-mortar merchants. The B2B platform provides businesses and brands a way to better connect and personalize their interactions with customers, as well as to gain broader insight into consumer buying patterns… → Read More
The growth in smartphone usage — supported by ever-faster mobile network speeds — is also giving rise to a much more competitive landscape among carriers, handset makers and other phone retailers targeting consumers on the hunt for new devices. Google today is releasing a report it compiled in partnership with Compete to show how that is playing out in one market in particular, the U.S. It shows… → Read More
Hip online eyewear startup Warby Parker has, over the last two years, been partnering with boutiques to open “stores-within-stores,” or small Warby Parker showrooms, where customers could try on their eyeglasses in 3-D. These showrooms popped up in L.A., Nashville, San Francisco and many others. Today Warby Parker officially announced its first, flagship retail store in SoHo in New York City. → Read More
Lightbank has invested $650,000 in its own Founder-in-Residence Josh Hernandez’s new startup, Walk.by, a platform for bringing local merchants into the e-commerce world by way of smartphones. The company is today announcing the release of its consumer-facing iPhone app which lets shoppers browse and follow offline retailers, the brands they carry, as well as very specific items, like “brown… → Read More
The idea for Jifiti came about because Shaul Weisband — one of the creators of the app and company behind it — wanted to “teleport” gifts to friends. While teleportation is still not really possible, the team at Jifiti has done the next best thing and is aiming to incorporate this into a new way of shopping. And I think retailers are going to like it. → Read More
In a roundtable discussion with reporters today, Google’s head of Android Andy Rubin came right out and flatly denied the search giant was considering the launch of retail locations. “Google has no plans and we have nothing to announce,” Rubin was reported as as saying by AllThingsD’s Ina Fried. Curiously, Rubin’s explanation for why Google doesn’t need stores was basically the exact opposite of… → Read More
Euclid, the analytics solution for brick-and-mortar retailers which first emerged from stealth back in late 2011, is today announcing $17.3 million in Series B funding, in a round led by Benchmark Capital. Also participating were previous investors NEA and Harrison Metal, as well as Novel TMT Ventures. In addition, the funding sees Benchmark’s Bruce Dunlevie, joining the company’s board. → Read More
Apple is a unique company in that even if you break down its individual lines of business and view them as distinct from the whole, it can still be regarded as immensely successful in a number of different areas. As a hardware company, it’s a success; as a software and services provider, it’s a success; and as a retail chain, it’s a success. And Apple’s physical retail presence shows such steady… → Read More
Microsoft has been ramping up its retail presence in the past year, and has today announced that it will introduce five new stores to the U.S. over the course of 2013.
The exact dates of the store openings have not been disclosed, but the company promises they’ll be ready to go by summer.
Here are the new locations where Microsoft will have a retail presence: → Read More
Euclid, the new startup from the creators of Urchin, a company Google acquired which then became the basis of Google Analytics, first introduced its offline customer tracking solution – or “Google Analytics for the real world,” as the team calls it – just over a year ago. Today, Euclid is rolling out a new version of its solution called “Euclid Zero,” which is the first time businesses can use its… → Read More
A new patent application filing Thursday presents a detailed look at how Apple manages its retail floors, offering a behind-the-scenes perspective on a lot of elements that are likely already in use at Apple’s physical stores, as well as things that could potentially be introduced at a later date. Overall, Apple’s stores seem to operate like one giant hive mind directing an army of interactive… → Read More
Polaroid is expected to unveil one more step in its comeback strategy with an Android-powered, interchangeable-lens camera this year at the CES show, and to complement that, it plans to launch “at least” 10 new Fotobar retail stores this year to help people print pictures from any device. The first of these will be in San Francisco, opening in February. → Read More
Tapestry, the latest contender in the fashion-tech startup space, wants to connect a shopper’s digital identity with the physical products in the store they’re in by using barcode/NFC-scanning smartphone apps which shoppers use to build up a virtual collection/wish-list of items they might like to buy in future that are linked to the retailer’s ecommerce database. → Read More
The iPad mini hit store shelves today, and I got the chance to get one for myself. The device is a terrific consumer tablet, but it has a lot of potential to be an even more impressive player in retail, restaurant and industrial applications. The iPad mini’s big brother has done a good job of making headway in businesses and customer service, but the iPad mini has a strong chance to help drive… → Read More
Microsoft’s retail efforts continue to grow, with its first permanent international store opening in the Yorkdale Mall in Toronto in November, and now the company has also confirmed that temporary stores will be cropping up across the U.S. and Canada to try and capitalize on holiday demand. These stores will open on October 26, and will appear in 32 locations across both countries. → Read More
Apple has faced heat in Italy over its standard consumer product warranty, which offers consumers protection against manufacturer-caused defects and failures for one year, and now it looks like that might lead to even more trouble across the European Union, according to a new letter from EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. In the letter, Reding asks member countries to find out whether Apple… → Read More
The rising star of mulitchannel retail is mobile, according to a survey of U.S. and U.K. consumers conducted by a digital marketing group Econsultancy. It’s not a particularly surprising finding — given the capabilities and pervasiveness of today’s smartphones — but the findings underline the expanding role mobiles are playing in shoppers’ lives. → Read More
Capillary Technologies, a social CRM company that helps retailers engage over mobile, email, social and in-store channels, is announcing the close of $15.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners with Qualcomm Ventures also participating in the round. The company, which offers a cloud-based SaaS platform for customer engagement, clienteling, loyalty and… → Read More
Oh look, maybe Facebook commerce can work. Soldsie, a San Francisco-based startup which was previously operating under the name Central.ly, is today officially launching a social media point-of-sale platform that lets business sell on Facebook using Facebook comments. The company soft launched its service in May of this year, and has now reached over $1 million in transactions across its network… → Read More
Another development in the UK market for e-readers, tablets and e-books as Amazon and Barnes & Noble move closer to launching more of their services and devices in the UK and Europe: the retail giant Tesco has purchased Mobcast, a digital bookseller co-founded by pulp fiction writer Andy McNab. Tesco tells TechCrunch that the price of the acquisition is $7.2 million.
Tesco notes that… → Read More
Commerce Sciences, an Israeli eCommerce startup currently shrouded in the infamous “stealth mode,” wants to help personalize your online shopping experience.
To do so, the Palo Alto and Israeli-based company is announcing today that it has raised $1.8 million in seed funding from a number of familiar names. The investors include Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, veteran Israeli VC firm … → Read More
Nobody likes to admit it, but if you’re a working professional, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with sweat stains. The commute to work, the stress of meeting a deadline, the faulty air conditioning in the boardroom, cotton weaves — all of these things and many more have been known to conspire against you, the working professional. Luckily, Ministry of Supply feels your stinky, stinky pain. → Read More
The inimitable Horace Dediu has run the numbers and it’s clear: Apple is great at retail and, over the past five years, the company created 35,852 retail jobs. NYT hit pieces notwithstanding, it’s clear that Apple is getting things right when it comes to retail sales. → Read More
From the outside, we early adopters see Best Buy as a dinosaur in a dying world. The company recently announced the closing of 50 stores in the U.S. and 400 layoffs, mostly in corporate. It would be easy to say “Good riddance” and ignore the slow decline of bricks and mortar, but I wanted to speak to someone inside the company.
I got a hold of a manager who wished to remain anonymous and was… → Read More
500Friends, the social loyalty solution for e-commerce retailers, is announcing it has completed a $4.5 million Series A round led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Intel Capital as well as company CEO (and angel investor) Justin Yoshimura.
Founded in 2010, and launched in summer 2011, YC-backed 500Friends’ LoyaltyPlus service allows merchants to reward their loyal customers who are… → Read More
Cashier Live, a Chicago-based, bootstrapped startup providing Point of Sale (POS) systems to retailers, has just launched a new iPhone app that moves a bit into Square’s territory – at least that’s the company’s claim. Simply called Cashier, the app is a complete POS system on the iPhone, and aims to compete with Square’s own Register app for iPad.
However, unlike Square, which has a broader… → Read More
Amid the increased speculation surrounding Silicon Valley darling Pinterest’s forthcoming revenue model, competitor Fancy, a social photo-clipping service popular among the style-conscious set, has been quietly working on revenue ideas of its own. Previously, the service was doling out coupon code to users who “fancy’d” images belonging to specific merchants, but today, the site is diving… → Read More
Clothes Horse, a fashion technology company based out of New York, is publicly launching its platform today in an attempt to address one of the biggest challenges facing online shoppers: buying clothes that fit. Through the use of a customizable widget that merchants add to their own websites, Clothes Horse can determine within just 30 seconds how the retailers’ items will fit any customer. The… → Read More
I’m not a huge fan of schlepping around needlessly when I can do most of my shopping from the comfort of my chair, but Apple fans don’t seem to have much trouble going to their local Apple store when the urge strikes. According to their recent earnings call, 110 million people went to an Apple store in Q1, which breaks down to roughly 22,000 customers per Apple store per week. → Read More
A new startup called Euclid Elements emerged from stealth mode today to debut its customer-tracking solution for brick-and-mortar merchants it’s calling “Google Analytics for the physical world.” The name is an apt description for the new solution, which employs sensors and wireless technology to track customer behavior, as its founding team actually includes former Google Analytics… → Read More
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