by
Gina Ashe
We live in a time where you can purchase everything from toothpaste to high-end designer handbags online. Consumers, in theory, enjoy the convenience of online shopping. But the numbers don’t add up. Despite the fact that 80% of Americans shop online, 64% still prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores.
Summer vacation may be the only thing on most students’ minds right now, but for retailers and parents, it’s already high time to start thinking about back-to-school.
by
Gina Ashe
Back-to-school is the second-biggest shopping season of the year for many consumer tech brands, with shoppers poised to purchase everything from calculators to computers. Though more consumers are purchasing laptops and smartphones throughout the year, instead of only during the back-to-school season, the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts the average back-to-school shopper will still spend $187 on electronics this year.
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ThirdChannel, the leading provider of retail execution and analytics solutions for consumer brands, today announced the appointment of John Reilly as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). John will work closely with the ThirdChannel leadership team to accelerate the company’s continued growth and leadership position.
by
Gina Ashe
Though summer may seem like it’s just getting started, the mad-dash of back to school shopping is already around the corner. This season is a huge opportunity for apparel and accessories brands to see a lift in sales, as students and their families set out to buy new clothes, backpacks, glasses, school supplies, and everything in between.
by
Tim Denman
As Amazon continues to scale its cashierless store concept, many solution providers are developing similar technology to capitalize on and advance the new shopping craze. Instead of being intimidated by companies like Amazon and Microsoft putting a stake in the ground in physical retail, consumer brands and retailers must appreciate the constant evolution of consumer behavior, and carefully craft in-store strategy.
Consumers today are looking for a seamless experience, as evidenced by phenomena like Amazon Go’s checkout-free stores, and now the automated store technology that Microsoft is working on. Brands and retailers need to recognize what this means about the industry and today’s consumers, and to rethink store formats and processes accordingly.
Retailers and brands “need to take a magnifying glass” to examine their in-store experience in light of these and other store closings. The industry is undergoing rapid transformation at the hands of changing consumer preferences. And it makes sense considering that millennials and Gen Z now make up as much as 60% of the buying population and have much different expectations than the generations that came before.
by
Gina Ashe
Brands need real-time tools that give them visibility into store-level execution so they can make in-flight corrections to fix issues. Trained and invested store associates are also crucial to helping brands achieve this. Rather than relying on retailers to champion their products, brands need to invest in their own field teams to improve the in-store experience.
Earlier in the week, Macy's announced the purchase of Story, a New York City retailer with a rotating selection of themed products. The idea of a heightened in-store experience might be just what the traditional department store chain needs to breathe new life into the physical store.
Taking on the role of storyteller, Story changes the gallery and the products it sells every few months, luring shoppers back for more.
by
Gina Ashe
When Toys “R” Us announced last month that it would be closing all of its U.S. stores, some observers immediately jumped to the conclusion that online retail had claimed another legendary brick and mortar brand. Commenting on the story, one bankruptcy lawyer told Business Insider that “Brick-and-mortar stores are just getting bludgeoned to death by e-commerce.” That’s certainly an attention-grabbing quote, but the facts say something different.
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ThirdChannel, the leading provider of retail execution and analytics solutions for retail brands and manufacturers, today announced two milestones in the company’s growth. ThirdChannel has moved its headquarters to a new office space in downtown Boston, and also appointed a new Vice President of Marketing, Keshav Shivdasani, who will spearhead and scale the company’s marketing function.
ThirdChannel, the leading provider of retail intelligence that reveals potential to grow product in stores, identifies which stores to allocate resources to and guides field teams to take action where it matters, today announced the addition of a real-time Media Activity Feed to the ThirdChannel platform. Retail brands and manufacturers can easily track assets and merchandise across thousands of locations via photos and videos uploaded to the feed straight from the retail floor. Using store intel captured by field teams on the ground, alongside other real-time data sources in the ThirdChannel platform, manufacturing brands can then generate store-specific action plans to prioritize improvements and optimize the consumer experience in stores.
Toys R Us plans on selling off or closing its remaining 700 U.S. stores. The 70-year-old toy store tried to keep doors open by filing for bankruptcy protection in September 2017, but by then the company was $5 billion in debt and was spending $400 million a year to service it. And most analysts believe it wasn't e-commerce that led to the retailer's demise but rather a lack of progression.
ThirdChannel, the retail intelligence platform that reveals retail execution issues in stores and generates action plans to allocate resources where there’s opportunity to drive higher sales, today announced the appointment of Tom Morris as Vice President of Sales. In the wake of strong momentum and upcoming enhancements to ThirdChannel’s retail intelligence platform, Tom will be responsible for growing revenue and the platform’s reach within existing and new markets.
Starting a business is a big achievement for many entrepreneurs, but maintaining one is the larger challenge. There are many standard challenges that face every business whether they are large or small. It is not easy running a company, especially in a fast-paced, ever-changing business world. Technology advances, new hiring strategies, and now, political changes coming with the new administration, all add to the existing business challenges that entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives have to deal with.
by
Pamela DeLoatch
What’s the best way to get customers to try — and perhaps buy — and product? Give them a sample. That’s the idea behind in-store demos, whether it’s displaying a selection of sliced strawberries in the produce section, offering rolled turkey slices by the deli or passing out one-ounce samples of wine in the liquor aisle.
But do in-store giveaways actually work, Ashe asks?
by
Gina Ashe
Do product demos drive sales at your stores? Do they support your goal to offer a great, differentiated customer experience? Would you even be able to tell if you wanted to know?
Demos have been a grocery mainstay forever, and their value seems obvious: Brands like them because they encourage product trials, and retailers value them because they drive sales and offer engaging experiences for shoppers.
ThirdChannel, the retail intelligence platform that pairs real-time visibility into retail store environments with an experiential network-for-hire today revealed new features on its mobile application to make data captured about products and store selling environments even more actionable for brand manufacturers and retailers. The latest version of the app features the ability for personnel in stores to record data without internet access and includes a geotagging feature that maps data to individual store locations.
Hong Kong’s Fung Capital, the investment arm of the Fung Family, has led a $7 million Series A funding round in ThirdChannel, while US-based Vidrovr, which helps publishers find the most relevant videos to go along with their content, has raised $1.25 million in seed funding led by Samsung NEXT.
by
Jeff Engel
Xconomy Boston — Despite talk that e-commerce is killing brick-and-mortar retail, the vast majority of shopping still takes place in physical stores. But it’s often easier to monitor inventory, analyze consumer spending habits, and make on-the-fly adjustments for digital storefronts than it is for their real-world counterparts.
Good morning, Term Sheet readers.
Yesterday, we noted that Valeant Pharmaceuticals is giving Addyi, the female libido drug dubbed ‘the female Viagra,’ back to its former owners. This is quite a big deal as Valeant bought Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the company behind the drug for a whopping $1 billion just over two years ago.
ThirdChannel, a retail intelligence platform, has closed $7 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Fung Capital.
The funding will enable ThirdChannel to expand the footprint of its real-time platform, which is designed to give more brands and retailers visibility into what’s happening in physical stores and greater ability to meet consumer demands, across key markets.
by
Kelly J. O'Brien
– Technology Reporter, Boston Business Journal
ThirdChannel is one of a small group of Boston-area startups that aim to help brick and mortar retailers adapt to the digital revolution instead of getting crushed by it.
As technology continues to shape consumer shopping behavior, brick-and-mortar stores have struggled to keep up with e-commerce.
ThirdChannel, a Cambridge-based startup offering a retail intelligence platform, hopes to give brick-and-mortars a leg up. And the startup just raised a fresh $7 million Series A round to make it happen.
by Gina Ashe
Amazon is getting a lot of bang out of their $13.4 billion beyond the data. With Whole Foods’ 400 stores, Amazon will have a physical presence in all but 8 states in the U.S. And while some have hypothesized Amazon will turn Whole Foods into distribution centers for a grocery-delivery service, that seems an unlikely future considering 58% of consumers report they’re more likely to shop in-stores than online for household essentials, including groceries.
by Glenn Taylor
Retailers must leverage data to ensure that their stores and online sites can answer the following questions, according to Gina Ashe, CEO of ThirdChannel:
Where is the product on the floor, and is it easily accessible online?
Which brands are placed next to each other?
Are products displayed correctly?
...
CAMBRIDGE, MA, June 12, 2017 – ThirdChannel, the retail intelligence platform that delivers real time store monitoring and optimization for the world’s leading brands and retailers, today announced that it has been named one of five "Cool Vendors" in the “Cool Vendors in Transforming Multichannel to Unified Retail Commerce, 2017”i report released by analyst firm Gartner, Inc. The report outlines solutions to one of the most significant challenges facing the retail industry today: delivering a unified retail commerce journey and offering a personalized, consistent and comprehensive experience across all customer touchpoints to meet evolving consumer expectations.
[i] Gartner “Cool Vendors in Transforming Multichannel to Unified Retail Commerce, 2017” by Joanne Joliet, Miriam Burt, Kelsie Marian, May 11, 2017.
by Glenn Taylor
Target totally outperformed Wall Street expectations in Q1, perhaps sharing optimism that the retailer is set to experience a reversal of fortunes from its recent stagnation. While revenue fell 1.1% to $16 billion, it beat revenue estimates of $15.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Additionally, comparable stores sales dipped 1.3%, but the numbers were far less bleak than the forecasts of a 3.7% decline.
by Brianne Shelley Contributor, VentureFizz
“I am so in love with and passionate about the Boston tech community. They’re some of the greatest people on the planet. The innovation, creativity and smarts coming out of Boston is simply unparalleled,” said Gina Ashe, the CEO and Founder of ThirdChannel.
by Gina Ashe
On March 7, Edward Stack, CEO and chairman of Dick’s Sporting Goods, announced the company is dropping 20% of its brand offerings. This news is part of a larger redirection for the sporting goods retailer, one designed to optimize its inventory for increased sales.
by Gina Ashe, ThirdChannel
In response to declining foot traffic, competition from neighboring stores that carry similar products and other financial pressures among brick-and-mortar stores, many retail companies are closing stores to cut costs. In the first quarter of 2017 alone, Radio Shack, Payless and The Limited have each closed hundreds of locations.
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