5 tech trends that transformed retail in 2016

Artificial intelligence and related breakthroughs steered retailers toward more effective customer engagement, while virtual reality and augmented reality redefined how shoppers experience the world.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 15, 2016

Amazon's Prime Air takes flight with first commercial drone delivery

The test flight involved an Amazon Fire TV device and a box of popcorn, and reportedly took about 13 minutes from the time of order placement to delivery.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 14, 2016

Explore the Trendline➔

How the purpose of stores is evolving

Stores have always evolved in order to compete as times, technology and tastes change. And, most of all, to please customers.

By Retail Dive staff

10 innovations that could disrupt grocery in 2017

The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, droid delivery systems, mobile wallets and in-store gardens should be on every grocer’s radar in the year ahead.

By Sandy Skrovan • Dec. 14, 2016

Nordstrom rolls out CashStar eGifting service

The service, a more personal alternative to traditional gift cards, could help retailers increase sales conversion rates and reduce unwanted gift returns.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 13, 2016

Report: UPS, FedEx struggling to keep pace with holiday e-commerce explosion

On-time delivery rates have been down since Thanksgiving compared to other periods of the year.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 13, 2016

November retail hiring plummets to 6-year low

U.S. retailers added 521,800 workers during the first two months of the 2016 holiday season, plunging 14% from year-ago totals, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 13, 2016

US Supreme Court declines comment on Colorado e-commerce tax

That brings the law, which has been held up amid various, sometimes arcane, legal questions in both state and federal courts, closer to implementation.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 13, 2016

Nordstrom launches its first chatbot for holiday push

Chatbot users will be prompted with questions about gift criteria and the chatbot will reply with multiple shopping ideas.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 11, 2016

Starbucks embraces conversational commerce, boosts personalization

The forthcoming My Starbucks Barista conversational ordering feature allows customers to place orders via voice command or messaging to improve efficiency and encourage stronger customer loyalty and engagement.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 7, 2016

Wayfair app lets shoppers visualize decor in their own homes

View in Room allows customers to envision furniture and other Wayfair items inside their own living spaces.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 6, 2016

Amazon launches Buttoned Down men's fashion line

The first offering is a series of no-iron shirts that will compete with a host of brands already for sale on Amazon’s site.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 6, 2016

Rent the Runway boosting physical store strategy with new flagship

Like many e-commerce startups, the apparel rental company believes that stores are important to growing sales and connecting with customers.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 6, 2016

Why Amazon is betting big on brick and mortar

The e-commerce giant has given physical retailers fits since its debut two decades ago. Now it wants to compete on their playing field. And Amazon plays to win.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 6, 2016

Amazon unveils futuristic checkout-free grocery store

The Seattle store, currently in a beta test open only to Amazon employees, upends the definition of the word “convenient.”

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 5, 2016

Wal-Mart testing free grocery pickup at new c-store formats

Employees will pick and pack orders from the Wal-Mart nearest the convenience store, bring them to the pickup area in refrigerated trucks and load them into customers’ cars.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 5, 2016

Amazon, Intel partner to enable more Alexa-driven devices, smart homes

The companies have teamed up on a form factor reference design to make it easier to create products leveraging the e-commerce giant's Alexa virtual assistant technology platform.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 4, 2016

Report: Amazon wins Cyber Monday sales crown, but falls shy of Prime Day totals

The e-commerce giant accounted for 30.9% of total revenue generated from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, according to research from Slice Intelligence.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 2, 2016

Amazon announces Alexa Accelerator to boost conversational commerce startups

The program, supported by startup accelerator Techstars, will help developers targeting speech technology advances and voice application innovation.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 1, 2016

EU proposes tax reforms to simplify cross-border e-commerce

Europe's taxes on consumption have no equivalent in the U.S. and are applied at different rates among the various EU states, presenting significant problems for online merchants selling across borders.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 1, 2016

Amazon releases core AI technology to developers via new platform

The move gives developers access to some of Amazon's most significant artificial intelligence technology tools as the company looks to become a key driver of the global, multi-industry AI movement.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 30, 2016

How apparel brands can defend against Amazon's fashion rise

The e-commerce giant is poised to become the largest U.S. clothing retailer by 2017, but brands are hesitant to sell on the marketplace.

By Jessica Binns • Nov. 30, 2016

Gucci passes Burberry on L2 Digital IQ Fashion index

E-commerce and digital marketing are increasingly important to luxury sales growth, and brands are taking things up a notch while avoiding the elephant in the room — Amazon.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 30, 2016

4 takeaways from Cyber Monday 2016

Another Cyber Monday, another website outage fiasco. This year, Gap Inc. brands Old Navy and Banana Republic suffered disruptions for much of the afternoon.

By Corinne Ruff • Nov. 30, 2016

Shopping via mobile popular on Black Friday, paying by mobile definitely wasn't

Mobile payments were used for only 0.6% of in-store purchases nationwide, according to data from payments firm Cayan.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 29, 2016

The 2016 Dive Awards for the retail industry

As we enter 2017, let's take a look back at the companies and people we honored for disrupting and redefining retail in the year that was.

By Jason Ankeny • Nov. 29, 2016