Content about Exclusives & Analysis

By Liz Moughan, Kronos Incorporated

Sometimes uncertainty causes us to put off things we should do now.

This is true when it comes to retailers and their preparation for complying with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In fact, 56% of organizations reported that they hesitated to initiate any changes in 2012, preferring instead to wait until the Supreme Court decision and the 2012 elections before they took any major actions.

By Nicholas J. Percoco, Trustwave

Recently, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander told Congress that he would be establishing teams for a new cyber command unit. Gen. Alexander said the DoD would use the cyber teams for offensive measures only. This is sure to be the start of a long and interesting hearings on Capitol Hill, but businesses do not, and should not, have to wait before they start to protect themselves from cyber criminals.

By Douglas H. Meal, David T. Cohen, and Lisa L. Rachlin, Ropes & Gray LLP

Retailers, like all businesses, constantly seek to learn more about their customers in order to serve them better. In Tyler v. Michaels Stores, however, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that a simple step taken by many retailers to help achieve this goal – collecting the ZIP codes of their customers at the point of sale – can in some circumstances violate Massachusetts’ consumer protection statute.
   

By Brian Gillespie, Continuum

By Gregg Clark, gregg.clark@ey.com

By Paul Jeruchimowitz, paul.e.jeruchimowitz@accenture.com

By Rafi Musher, rmusher@stax.com

By Greg Munves, greg@1010data.com

If you’re like many mid-level or tier one retailers, online or brick-and-mortar, you’ve probably made a significant investment in Big Data, capturing and analyzing customer buying patterns across your business. You may not realize, however, that this huge IT investment can actually be a profit center, if you sell your data back upstream to your suppliers.
 

By Jason Taylor, Ph.D., jtaylor@peopleanswers.com

By Krisha Brooks, GMR

By Theresa Wabler, Theresa.Wabler@Parago.com

As retailers and manufacturers settle into the reality of the “new normal” of shoppers who  will continue their frugal consumption habits amidst recession or not, it’s crucial to employ promotional tactics that generate significant, lasting value, not just a flash in the pan. As marketers consider their options, one tried and true promotional tactic should be included to yield definite results: rebates.

By Mike Poldino, Motorola Solutions

Unless you have recently upgraded your point-of-sale (POS) systems, chances are the bioptic POS in your grocery store today can only scan 1D bar codes printed on the paper labels placed on items or on paper coupons. While that met the needs of yesterday’s POS, times have changed. And in order to provide your customer with the best possible experience at the POS, your POS needs to change too.

Beyond 1D — the new types of bar codes appearing in your POS lanes