Decathlon, an outdoor sporting goods retailer with more than 1,600 stores across 52 countries, opened its first full-sized brick-and-mortar store in the U.S. in April 2019. As the retailer seeks to expand its physical and digital presence throughout this market, it is building an application network to connect disparate systems and processes — such as POS software, order management and inventory data — so that employees can easily access and reuse applications and data to scale globally.

Placing its second New York City store next to Sephora and right across from Bloomingdale’s on Lexington Avenue might seem like a tall order for a retailer still trying to break into the U.S. market, but South Korean beauty brand Innisfree is unafraid to compete with big name retailers to drive traffic from Millennial and Gen Z audiences. Why does the brand feel so confident? It comes down to the company’s ability to tell authentic stories based on its unique origins, create a digitally driven store with powerful visuals and rally around sustainability-related causes, all without relying on traditional marketing campaigns. The South Korean beauty brand doesn’t have promotional signage on its shelves, instead focusing on the simplicity of the products, their skincare functionality and the story behind them. Overall, the retailer sells 900 different skincare and beauty products that include naturally derived ingredients such as green tea, volcanic clusters, tangerine, orchid and bija tree.

Retail’s “halo effect” — the idea that a purchase in one channel directly impacts purchases in another — has inspired many digital natives to open brick-and-mortar stores as a way to boost sales across all channels. But top digital natives that have opened permanent retail locations are likely seeing less foot traffic than they anticipated, according to a study from global location data technology company Blis. Out of seven companies studied from May to July 2019, Casper captured 56% of in-store shoppers, well ahead of Amazon (22% of shoppers), Warby Parker (10%) and Bonobos (9%). Allbirds, Away and Rent the Runway each got a 1% share. Casper came out well ahead of the remaining retail stores in “footfall efficiency,” the term Blis uses to describe the number of unique visitors per each geofenced store location.

While cashierless stores aren’t quite mainstream, they are gaining a foothold: 14% of retailers responding to the 2019 Retail TouchPoints Store Operations Benchmark Survey said they operate cashierless stores, and another 4% say they plan to open them. So while cashierless stores may currently be a niche phenomenon, they represent the next disruptive stage in the industry’s evolution. Some of the forces shaping the adoption of cashierless retail include: Customers: Shoppers already are comfortable with cashless payments and self-service, which has primed them for further friction-reducing efforts; Providers: The technology is still relatively new and expensive, but this will likely change as larger players enter the market; and Strategies: One of the hurdles to mass adoption may be retailers themselves — adopting new, unproven technology is much riskier than sticking with tried-and-true operations. Amazon is the best-known operator of cashierless stores, and the e-Commerce giant has been steadily (if slowly) adding to its Amazon Go footprint. Additionally, CNBC recently reported that the company plans to make its cashierless technology available to OTG’s CIBO Express stores at airports and Cineworld’s Regal movie theaters. Amazon has not confirmed its plans in this area. It’s only a matter of time before retailers adopt…

McKinsey & Company has opened its first brick-and-mortar retail store in the Mall of America near Minneapolis, which includes Elevé Cosmetics, Kendra Scott, ThirdLove and type:A Deodorant. The nearly 3,000-square-foot concept, called Modern Retail Collective, is designed to serve as both a retail store and a learning lab — a place where brands can test new technology and learn what resonates with their customers prior to implementing at scale. “For the first wave, we wanted to pick a couple of brands that we thought were going to have an integrated experience for the customer,” said Tiffany Burns, Partner in McKinsey’s Atlanta office and leader of the consultancy’s retail stores practice in North America. “If you think about the store as it is today, with the combination of jewelry, intimates and beauty products throughout the store, it’s targeted towards a younger female demographic.”

Better communication can lead to a host of improvements for retailers, from enhanced customer service to lower labor costs. Walgreens is starting to reap the benefits of instant communications through the Theatro platform, which lets associates contact each other through hands-free devices. The retailer is deploying the solution at 1,000 locations in 2019, with plans to eventually equip associates at all 9,560 stores. The tool lets associates communicate both with each other and with an AI-powered assistant to retrieve information, request assistance and help them handle customer-facing tasks, without abandoning the shoppers they are dealing with.