"retail" articles

Alongside the headline-grabbing Apple Watch and the new, improved, and enlarged iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, comes the most eagerly-awaited news for those in the payments and retail space: Apple Pay. Apple has sat aside and watched while major competitors got a several-years-long jump on the mobile payments marketplace, only to founder and generate very little traction. As is its custom, Apple strategically assembled all necessary pieces of its planned product first and then waited for...

Thanks to new marketing initiatives by T-Mobile, competition in the wireless service industry is heating up, poising 2014 to be a year of the consumer "loyalty story." In the past, mobile users have had limited choices in terms of service providers and contract details, making the wireless market a generally stable environment. But this is no longer true—with a plethora of phones, new contract perks, and a slew of services, consumers are inundated with appealing offers from...

The Smart Power Strip allows its users to control their plugged-in home appliances through a smartphone app for iOS and Android. Besides turning the appliance on and off directly, the app can also function as timer and will turn an appliance on and off at a certain time, it can also send notifications appliances have been on for too long, and monitor the specific energy consumption of different electronics. The current Smart Power Strip prototype has three U.S. power sockets, but...

Staples will launch a new home automation system, called Staples Connect , which will be sold online and in its U.S. stores. The new system is similar to Lowe’s Iris , but has more than the DIY offerings from other mass marketers. The Web-connected hub can communicate with thermostats, lights, door locks and other smart devices for remote monitoring and control over the Internet. The system is powered by Zonoff , the cloud-based home-control platform that also drives Somfy’s...

AT&T announced it has begun deployment of a 100 percent fiber Internet broadband network in Austin that will deliver speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second.  AT&T plans to begin delivering AT&T U-verse® with GigaPowerSM , the city’s fastest Internet available to consumers, along with more advanced TV services and features, in December. In addition to extremely fast Internet connections, GigaPower will enable advanced U-verse TV services and features such as...

Jawbone , the Bay Area-based electronics company that makes the activity-tracking UP wristband, has raised over $100 million through debt financing and new equity. The company needed funds in the short term in order to meet product demand, and currently has millions of back-orders to fill. The company received debt financing and asset-backed loans from Silver Lake Partners, Fortress Investment Group, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. In addition to the loans, Jawbone recently...

The FCC has granted TiVo the right to sell more digital-only devices. TiVo was granted a waiver of the FCC's analog tuner requirement after TiVo argued that requiring an analog tuner in set-tops increased power consumption and price to little net consumer effect.  TiVo also argued the waiver would help further the FCC's policy of promoting device compatibility since its DVRs are compatible with digital cable service. There is already a TV set analog tuner mandate in...

Shawn Score, Best Buy's senior vice president of U.S. retail, who started out selling VCRs and camcorders at a Best Buy in North Dakota, acknowledges the electronics chain has weak customer-service. Poor customer service is a big problem for a retailer that derives more than 90% of its annual revenue from stores, and considers the know-how of its staff to be a bulwark against price competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc. But Mr. Score, who has a white binder on his...