The Latest Economic & Retail Growth Forecasts as We Reopen Globally
Tonydonofrio.com
June 20, 2020
Throughout the COVID-19 lockdown phase, I have been following very closely the global economic and retail trends in anticipation of the reopening phases which are now underway in many parts of the world. Good signs from key markets such as USA which saw the biggest historical increase in retail sales in May.
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Tags: Innovation, Retail, COVID19
The Five Most Valuable Global Retail Brands in the Surreal Age of COVID-19
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June 02, 2020
Every year I look forward to the latest BrandZ Global Most Valuable Brands Report. Timely for 2020, BrandZ published a separate Global Top 75 Retail Brands edition that includes in-depth COVID-19 analysis on the impact of the pandemic to brands.
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Tags: Innovation, Leadership, Retail, COVID19
The Challenging Post COVID-19 Economic and Retail "New Normal"
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May 11, 2020
For the last couple of months during the lockdown, I have been extremely busy continuing to speak with retailers, working several board opportunities, setting up an in-house studio, opening a new YouTube Channel, hiring research resources, and participating in a plethora of podcasts and webinars. Because of COVID-19, my primary focus has shifted to providing intensive data-backed analysis to the "new normal" ahead.
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Tags: Innovation, Retail, COVID19
China's COVID-19 Digital Transformation and the Reopening of Retail
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April 15, 2020
In 2019, China was projected to surpass the United States to become the world's largest retail market. On November 11, 2019, Alibaba celebrated a record $38 billion in online retail sales during the Singles' Day 24-hour shopping holiday.
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Tags: AI, Innovation, Leadership, Retail, COVID19
Nike and the Post COVID-19 "New Normal" Disruptive Future of Retail
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March 31, 2020
"At a time when people were confined to their homes, we moved swiftly to leverage our digital app ecosystem and Nike expert trainer network to inspire and support consumers across China to stay active and connected while at home. As a result, our Nike Training Club (NTC) workouts in China saw an extraordinary rise in signup and engagement. In fact, our weekly active users for all of our Nike activity apps were up 80% by the end of Q3 versus the beginning of the quarter.
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Tags: AI, Innovation, IoT, Retail, COVID19
The Alternative Endings to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis
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March 18, 2020
Prepare for the Worst and Plan for your Future Professional Best
Having a substantial part of my family south of the red zone in Italy, I have been following very closely the progression of COVID-19. As of March 17, Italy had over 31,500 cases of Coronavirus with 2,503 people now deceased. To put that in perspective, Italy with 60 million people has already reached nearly 78% of the fatalities in China with a population reaching 1.4 billion.
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Tags: Leadership, Retail, COVID19
Welcome to the Disruptive $30 Trillion Global Future of Retail
Tonydonofrio.com
March 07, 2020
At the recent annual conference of the International Supply Chain Protection Organization (ISCPO), it was a great pleasure to deliver the latest edition of my continuously updated 'Disruptive Future of Retail' presentation. As it is top of mind for everyone, my opening remarks focused on supply chains and the growing global concerns with the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
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Tags: Change Management, Retail, Business Continuity, COVID19
The Coronavirus and Its Predictable Future for Retail
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February 24, 2020
This week, I was invited by Rethink Retail to speak about the actions retailers should be taking in response to the growing global concerns with the coronavirus. In this article, I will summarize some of the information shared in the podcast plus additional post analysis insights with focus on major economies and retail.
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Tags: Leadership, Retail, Business Continuity, COVID19
RetailROI and the 2020 Digital Transformation Retail Technologies
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February 10, 2020
This is the second article covering the innovation leadership activities around NRF 2020. My previous post summarized the three most impactful perfect vision takeaways of NRF 2020.
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Tags: AI, Innovation, IoT, Retail
NRF 2020: The Perfect Vision Future of Retail Three Takeaways
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January 27, 2020
This is the first of multiple articles covering the Retail Big Show NRF 2020. As others have summarized the insights of the sessions and speakers, my primary focus in this post will be the futurist innovation trends from the trade show floor. The next article will cover the key takeaways from RetailROI SuperSaturday, the place to be for inspiring and exclusive industry intelligence just prior to the start of NRF.
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Tags: Big Data, Innovation, Startups, Retail
2020 Visionary Life Reminders for Ultimate Success
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December 20, 2019
While sitting in the Delta Sky Club in Atlanta observing both weary and excited holiday travelers, four plus million personal air miles later, the realization that another decade is about to end entered my mind. In just a few more days, we begin with perfect vision year 2020.
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Tags: AI, IoT, Leadership, Change Management
The Perfect 2020 Mobile Vision Future of Retail
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December 10, 2019
Post-World War II, technology has been the primary engine driving the retail industry's transformation through three powerful megatrends. As we approach the perfect vision year 2020, this article summarizes the state of the third and most important megatrend: mobile communications and the smartphone.
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Tags: Big Data, Innovation, IoT, Leadership, Retail
Global Retail Shrink 2019 and the Future of Loss Prevention
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November 13, 2019
My last article summarized the positive (green shopper) digital consumer transformation trends from the latest edition of the "Disruptive Future of Retail" presentation. As the audience from the recent keynote was primarily from loss prevention, in appreciation of their positive response and engagement, this post expands on the retail shrinkage industry data, including multiple new charts not presented due to time constraints.
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Tags: AI, Big Data, Innovation, IoT, Leadership, Retail
The Consumer Digital Transformation Retail Wakeup Call
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November 01, 2019
In October I had the opportunity to speak to roughly 150 retail professionals on the "Disruptive Future of Retail". This continuously updated presentation explains the key trends driving the digital transformation of the global retail industry.
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Tags: AI, Big Data, Innovation, Leadership, Retail
The State of USA Retail: Apocalypse or Renaissance?
Tonydonofrio.com
October 11, 2019
Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) Impact 2019 conference. Over 430 people made their way to the University of Florida’s Gainesville campus for the three-day event. The symposium "focused heavily on learning and collaboration, as well as an overview of the LPRC’s research on evidence-based tactics and strategies to reduce crime and loss in the retail space".
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Tags: Innovation, Retail
The Top10 Global Brands of 2019 in Retail, Apparel, and Luxury
Tonydonofrio.com
September 21, 2019
In today's increasingly complex world, branding is critical to lasting success. Every year, I look forward to the latest BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands study. This article summarizes the nearly 200-page report with a focus on retail, apparel, and luxury.
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Tags: Social, Leadership, Retail
The Secrets to Walmart's Success
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August 26, 2019
Most impressive from a recent evening visit to the Walmart Museum in Arkansas were the company’s yearly chronological milestones throughout the exhibit areas. Being a technology geek, my focus quickly transitioned to understanding the historical innovation adoption cycle. Additionally, as a student of leadership, of interest was the culture messaging of founder Sam Walton in growing the company.
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Tags: AI, Innovation, Leadership, Retail
Here Come the Retail Robots
RETHINK RETAIL
August 19, 2019
As consumers continue to demand efficient and better-connected experiences, retailers are responding with a number of AI-driven innovation projects. Check out our latest video to find out what’s in-store for the world of retail.
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Tags: AI, Innovation, Retail
Plan B Revisited - Time and the Life of Your Dreams
Tonydonofrio.com
August 12, 2019
Roughly a year ago, I published a personal Plan B blog titled “Personal Branding and Retiring Early on Your Own Terms”. As I stated in that post, “continuous learning” opened new possibilities that were calling to be executed.The past year has reaffirmed that my passions are meaningful engagements with leading retailers, building value for targeted companies, social media leadership, and exploring the Silicon Valley start-up culture.
From the new Plan B perspective, the continued conversations with retailers have been inspirational. I am humbled and appreciative by the quality of time spent together exploring technology journeys and getting their assessments of new solution concepts. Several of the retailers were also kind enough to let me publish selected innovation insights.
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Tags: Innovation, Leadership, Retail
Nike and the Retail Industry Adoption Outlook for RFID
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July 19, 2019
Almost exactly a year ago, in my last RFID article titled "Keeping Physical Retail In-Stock", I concluded that the two most relevant components of positive customer experiences in physical stores are fast checkouts and products being in-stock. Multiple recent retailer quarterly earnings calls, several articles, and two requests from China on direct consulting with potential investors in RFID inspired this updated technology review.
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Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Retail
What's in the Mind of a Retail Shoplifter?
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July 09, 2019
The Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) is made up of over 70 retailers (approx. 200,000 stores / $2 Trillion in sales) and 75 solutions partners collaborating to develop effective loss and crime control solutions through science backed extensive research. To date the group has conducted over 300 real world loss prevention research projects for retailers and partners.
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Tags: Innovation, Retail
Visualizing The Supermarket of the Future
Tonydonofrio.com
June 15, 2019
“Norman (Mayne, CEO of Dorothy Lane Market) is a truly unique merchant. He has a special ability to identify concepts and products that will enthrall customers. Furthermore, he has allowed his people to pursue these same ideals. The result: his stores are masterpieces!” - Danny Wegman, Chairman of Wegmans
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Tags: Retail
Walmart vs Amazon - The Worldwide Retail Champion Heavyweight Fight
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May 29, 2019
Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a Rethink Retail podcast with Bryan Gildenberg, Chief Knowledge Officer of Retail, Sales & Shopper at WPP’s Kantar Consulting and Paul Lewis, CMO of digital transformation agency Valtech. With Julia Raymond moderating, the three of us debated the growth strategies of Amazon and Walmart in their quest for global retail leadership.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Leadership, Retail
The Three Next Wave Retail Growth Technologies
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May 06, 2019
In the past twelve months, I have spent substantial quality time with global retailers, expanded my social media reach, engaged a substantial number of technology companies including more Silicon Valley startups; all focused on being a driver of disruptive retail change. Reflecting on what I saw and heard in my just completed European tour this week, I can confirm that retail issues and solutions continue to have global tendencies.
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Tags: AI, Emerging Technology, Retail
10% Retail Self-Checkout Market CAGR Collides with Deployment Risks
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April 15, 2019
Several data points in recent weeks led to this update on the state of retail self-checkout (SCO) deployments. Among these are the increased self-service stores openings with Asia / North America taking the lead, the evolution from stationary SCOs to multiple variations of Scan & Go applications, and new research, some of which you will only see in this article, on the theft challenges with these new autonomous solutions.
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, Supply Chain, Retail
Technology Disruption & the Transformation of the Global Top 250 Retailers
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March 22, 2019
Annually I look forward to the Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing industry research which provides a detailed growth trajectory review of the global top 250 retailers. This year, in addition to summarizing my favorite insights from the 2019 edition, we will look back to the 2014 report to compare and contrast the changes in the retail industry over the last five years.
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, IoT, Retail
Macy's and Next Generation Smart Loss Prevention Solutions
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March 04, 2019
Over the last several months I have had the pleasure of spending time with Asset Protection (AP) leaders at Macy's in New York. The visits were sparked by news articles and industry discussions on their advanced deployments of RFID and the smart integration of this Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology into the loss prevention function.
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Tags: Big Data, IoT, Retail
RetailROI and The Essential Retail Technologies of 2019
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February 08, 2019
Each Saturday just prior to the January NRF Big Show, retailers, industry analysts and solutions providers gather in New York City for a unique IT conference. This fast-paced full day is a special blend of emotionally filled stories of the RetailROI (Retail Orphan Initiative) global charity work and the latest insights on the state of the retail industry.
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Tags: AI, IoT, Retail
The Seven Impactful Retail Transformation Takeaways from NRF 2019
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January 23, 2019
38,000+ Attendees, 16,000+ Retailers, 800+ Exhibitors, 100+ Sessions, 99 Countries
Let me open by sharing the video summary provided by the USA National Retail Federation (NRF) of this year's edition.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, IoT, Retail
Running Into the Nike House of Innovation Future of Retail
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January 10, 2019
The future of retail includes digitally supported leadership branding coupled with hyper-personalized immersive consumer experiences. Of all the stores that I have visited to date around the world, the Nike House of Innovation in New York City, is the closest example that meets this critical futurist success formula.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Retail
A Happy Uncertain Risky Promising Disruptive Prosperous 2019
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December 27, 2018
Welcome to an uncertain and conceivably risky 2019. Despite multiple global hints of slower growth, I remain optimistic by the potential of the New Year.
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, IoT, Retail
A Propitious Four-Star Amazon Clicks to Bricks Experiment
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December 12, 2018
This past week had the opportunity to visit the new Amazon Four-Star physical retail store in New York City. Located in the chic Soho neighborhood, collectively the items in this store have an average rating of 4.4 stars.
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Tags: AI, Customer Experience, Retail
Retail Excellence Award from Asia Retail Congress
"The Disruptive Future of Retail 2019" - Excerpt
CRIMESCIENCE – COVID-19 SERIES: EPISODE 3 FEATURING GUS DOWNING (DOWNING & DOWNING)
PODCAST: LPRC Crime Science - COVID-19 Episode 1
Brandless shutters, Coronavirus has retailers on edge, 7-Eleven tests unmanned store concept.
Retail Rundown - Jan 20, 2020 - Retail's Big Show Special
Retail Rundown Podcast: Apple New Flagship, Sustainability and Retail Holiday Season Trends
