The National Retail Federation’s annual Loss Prevention event was held in Orlando this week, and although the content of the event was focused on loss prevention specifically, solution providers were also spotlighting how their solutions can impact other key areas for retail.

The wait is over. After three years of purposeful acquisitions of best-of-breed retail applications Oracle Retail has introduced Release 13 which Duncan Angove, general manager and SVP says is “an incredibly important milestone for Oracle. With Release 13 we have delivered on our vision to transform the retail business.”

Bigger was certainly better in the first half of this decade. Most chains were not only rolling out new locations as fast as the developers could build them, but many were also introducing bigger formats.

The phrase “sales help” may prove to be an oxymoron in many corners of retail. A recent study found that front-line sales staff are actually winding up to be more of a hindrance than a help for many consumers.

With physical expansion slowing, many leading retailers are taking a harder look at the performance metrics of their existing locations. Given the more intense focus on metrics, forward-thinking retailers are adopting sophisticated traffic counting systems and developing conversion rate analytics to precisely track how many shoppers are actually making purchases.