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As we all know, the pandemic put a major strain on retailers’ inventory capacities and led to a series of shortages that have plagued the industry for the past two years. But, how was an industry that is so often on the cutting edge of technology and business strategy crippled by one of its most basic tenets: getting products to customers? According to Nikki Baird, Vice President of Strategy at Apos, the typical retailer only keeps roughly 30 percent of its inventory reserved for eCommerce. In an interview with Forbes , Baird went on to say that, “for nonessential retailers that didn’t have omnichannel systems and processes in place, when their stores were temporarily closed and e-commerce volumes skyrocketed, all they had available to sell was the limited inventory sitting in their e-commerce warehouses. Once that stock ran out, if they didn’t have the ability to tap into their store inventory, they were left with virtually nothing to sell.” In other news, Ring,

In its quest to further expansion into the United States, Chinese electronics manufacturer   Hisense  has just announced its decision to add Rick Calacci, David VanderWaal, Mike Kadish, and Mike Fahey to its U.S. executive team. Last year,   Hisense  enjoyed a large amount of success in the U.S. market and was the fastest-growing manufacturer among the top five TV brands in the United States. The company enjoyed particular success with large TVs in the 50+ inch category. The decision to add four new members to the executive team is crucial to expanding the company’s North American operations and for developing relationships with customers.  “Hisense was the fastest-growing among the top five TV brands in North America last year and as we continue to grow, it’s imperative that we have leaders who can help us maintain our mission of putting premium options within people’s reach,” said David Gold, President of Hisense USA in the Company’s press release. “The experience these new executive

  The announcement of  Nationwide Marketing Group’s partnership with Thermador  last week at  PrimeTime  solidified the commitment made by the CE, furniture, and  appliance buying group  to put a focus on luxury appliances. “Luxury appliances have a longer sales cycle and a very different customer journey,” explained John O’Halloran, Senior Merchant, Luxury Appliances, at Nationwide Marketing Group. “There is more research on the part of the consumer, more people involved in the decision making, and obviously more money.” Nationwide Learning Aca d emy now offers  Luxury University  which was created to help educate  independent retailers  on how to navigate the different sales cycles for luxury appliances. The Luxury University includes in-person events for  appliance retailers  to feel comfortable in the space, learn more about the products, and enjoy a bit of the luxury they provide. This year at PrimeTime, Thermador and  Monogram  each held a luxury event with fanfare. Attendees enj

  The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has always been a valuable window for global B2B businesses, entrepreneurs, and innovators to stay ahead of the curve and identify market opportunities brought by the latest technology innovations and how they shape the economy and consumer behavior. This year’s CES heralded a new wave of products and innovation as demand for new technology remains sky-high amidst ongoing disruptions from the pandemic. The organizers of CES, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), expect US consumer technology revenues might hit a record $505 billion this year. Retailers are embracing e-commerce like never before, as online shopping habits formed during lockdowns over the past two years haven’t gone away. And that’s a huge opportunity for retailers in the field. Global sourcing: Your key to riding the CES wave January is the optimal time for retailers and brands to plan for the coming year. To fully capitalize on CES trends, retailers must prepare in advance

  While Black Friday and Cyber Monday rightly get lots of hype for the home appliance deals on offer, it’s a couple of months later that many choose to invest in a new television. There’s a reason for this: Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest TV event of the year, and consumer electronics retailers typically lean into this fact by heavily discounting televisions in the weeks leading up to the game. The early-January timing of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)  — the annual tech trade show, where TV manufacturers announce their latest models — also helps matters for consumers, as retailers will often discount older TV models in order to sell off existing inventory. As Consumer Reports details, the second-best time of the year to buy a television set  — just behind Black Friday — is precisely two weeks before the Super Bowl. And although screen size certainly matters in choosing a new set, there’s more to the picture than just inches. Viewing angles, motion handling, and of course pict

  Especially in light of the pandemic, the traditional dining-in model has drastically changed in recent years. More people are cooking at home, but they are cooking in different ways that cater to their specific diets, tastes, budgets and desires. Technology has made that easier. In a talk moderated by  The Spoon ’s Michael Wolf, panelists Robin List of Suvie, Khalid Aboujassoum of Else Labs, Dr. Dochui Choi of Samsung and Kai Schaeffner of Thermomix discussed what’s coming next for food technology. Why is it so hard for kitchen technology to catch on? The microwave was ar g uably the most revolutionary piece of  kitchen  technology  in modern times. The steam oven is of course popular, and air fryers are really catching on, but nothing has completely altered the way we cook in recent years like the microwave did in the past. According to the panelists, cooking — and eating — can be a painfully personal thing, and that’s why it’s difficult for just one appliance or technology to becom

  The metaverse can be defined in many ways, but in a broad sense, it’s an interconnected, virtual, real-time world that is often in 3D and VR, but can also be in 2D. In some ways, it’s no different from the virtual environments such as Second Life or massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) including World of Warcraft, EVE Online, and the like. What’s new in today’s evolving metaverse is increased 3D realism via VR , more interconnectedness between worlds, and improved AI. As a result, brands, institutions, and technology companies — Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is perhaps the most prominent example — are flocking to the space to stake virtual territorial claims. Companies and developers for today’s metaverse are focused on creating more realistic virtual beings, or avatars, which can be operated by actual humans or AI. The increased sophistication and accuracy of natural language processing (NLP) software and computer vision brings greater potenti