20 Questions to Help You Get Past Success Bias Industry after industry has faced digital disruption. None have been immune, yet companies can continue to enjoy industry leading success while a competitor or start-up builds a disruptive product or business model. For example, Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, famously said that the iPhone wouldn’t…
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End-to-End Mobile Service or Technology Facilitator?
My family’s recent ordering experience was straightforward and easy – 45 minutes after we placed a food delivery order through an app, our food arrived – the food I wanted was included while my wife’s food was missing completely. At that moment, our incomplete order made us part of an ongoing debate without our realizing…
Friction in the Frictionless Journey
The following has been re-posted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here. There is still so much that needs to be changed in the quest to eliminate friction in the customer experience and lessons to be learned that the c-store/petro industry should consider as it ventures into making the forecourt stop…
Conexxus: Solve Forward Takeaways
The following has been re-posted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here. It’s not that you had to be there, but you should have been there. The 2019 Conexxus Annual Conference, held April 28 to May 2 in Nashville, Tenn., was compelling, action-oriented, and a step forward for the convenience store…
Data Privacy and the Consumer Relationship
The conversation around data privacy and trust is evolving. In allowing consumers the right to access and the right to delete personal information that a merchant maintains, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was the first sweeping law of its kind. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) followed not long after, and Washington state has…
POS Systems Advance
The following has been re-posted from the April 2019 edition of Convenience Store Decisions. Don’t blink. It’s only been two months since NRF’s Big Show, where I thought I had learned everything happening with point-of-sale (POS) systems that could possibly impact the convenience and petroleum industry. Well, as time moves on, I’ve learned even more…
How C-stores Can Ward Off the Infiltration of Amazon
The following has been re-posted from Convenience Store News. The original article can be found here. By Tammy Mastroberte, Convenience Store News – 03/21/2019 An Amazon Go store NATIONAL REPORT — Debuting its cashierless store concept in December 2016, Amazon entered the convenience space with Amazon Go. Now, with 10 locations open in Seattle, Chicago…
Kroger and Microsoft Partner to Create Digital Grocery Store Concept
The following has been re-posted from Loyalty360. The original post can be found here. Retail giant Kroger has announced a new partnership with Microsoft, which aims to improve customer experience by employing the technology company’s popular cloud-based platform Microsoft Azure. Through the partnership, Kroger hopes to create a connected in-store experience. The alliance is…
Should You Bring Payments In-House?
Over the past 5-10 years, the retail payments ecosystem has become increasingly complex. New channels and payment tenders have continued to expand promising consumer usage growth and loyalty. Issuing banks have begun offering incentive programs for merchants to prioritize routing and avoid interchange fees. All the while, regulations tighten to ensure compliance and protect consumer…
Targeting the Most Important Technology Investments
The following has been re-posted from Convenience Store News. The original article can be found here. Targeting the Most Important Technology Investments By Angela Hanson – 12/13/2018 NEWARK, N.J. — Technology touches nearly every aspect of convenience retailing today, from loyalty programs to promotions to the point of sale and beyond. As a result, convenience store…
Whitepaper: Data Privacy
From the Target and Home Depot breaches to Marriott’s most recent breach weeks ago, data breaches are becoming a near-daily part of the standard news cycle. In response to the increasing concern over consumer data privacy, numerous government entities are evaluating and drafting consumer data privacy protection laws. The European Union was a first mover…
Your project is ready for go-live. Is your project team ready?
This scenario has played out tens of thousands of times: your loyalty/mobile/fill-in-the-blank project, that your project team has been working on for months, is ready to go-live; eight months later, key members of that project team are still providing guidance as it relates to support, use, and everything else related to that project that supposedly…