These days, there is so much emphasis on the online path to purchase that we sometimes forget that 90% of all purchases are still in-store. Clearly, that makes retail a make-it or break-it environment for most brands. And here’s what’s frustrating about that fact: While brand marketers can control packaging and marketing communications around a product, they have limited control over its placement on a shelf. That fact alone can have a huge impact on a brand’s potential for success. In fact, research shows that, in a retail environment, overall assessment of a brand category (in other words, a brand’s placement on the shelf) is actually the FIRST thing a consumer notices about a product. It’s not until step two — after the shopper has actually found the product on the shelf — that they react to packaging. The implications of that fact are staggering: All the time and resources poured into package design and testing go down the drain if consumers can’t find your product on the shelf!

Technology can certainly enhance the in-store experience, but only if it solves a specific customer problem or streamlines the shopper journey. Retailers seeking guidance about which in-store technologies to invest in — and which ones shoppers aren’t quite ready to embrace this holiday season — can find answers in the…

Sam’s Club is set to open its Sam’s Club Now store in Dallas, designed as a real-world technology innovation lab. The store will test technologies including mobile-enabled shopping; smart shopping lists that use machine learning and shoppers’ past purchase data; and augmented reality to tell the “stories” behind products. “At…