Amazon’s Key Service Now Delivers Packages Inside Your Home or the Trunk of Your Car

Amazon has long led the way in developing innovative package delivery services. The company originally made free, two-day shipping table stakes for e-commerce companies, and then upped the ante by offering one- and two-hour delivery for Prime members through Amazon… Continue Reading

Hearing from JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall on the Distinctions of Chinese Retail

This week, the Coresight Research team was at World Retail Congress 2018 in Madrid. There, we heard senior executives from China’s two e-commerce giants—JD.com and Alibaba—speak about what makes Chinese retail unique and what the future of retail could hold.… Continue Reading

The Amazon-Walmart Delivery Wars Continue with Lockers, Pickup Towers and In-Home Delivery

Amazon and Walmart continue to one-up each other in delivery and collection, offering new and innovative ways for customers to receive their orders. Amazon customers can retrieve orders from lockers or choose one- or two-hour delivery in many markets. Amazon… Continue Reading

Reviewing the Landscape of Startups Tackling the Retail Returns Problem

As e-commerce continues to grow, so, too, does the range of services designed to tackle returns, one of the biggest headaches that comes with online retail. American consumers returned approximately $351 billion of merchandise bought offline and online last year,… Continue Reading

The State of Artificial Intelligence: Where Are We Now?

The term “artificial intelligence” (or “AI”) is en vogue and is often incorrectly used to refer to things that do not technically qualify as AI. Processors can add apparent “intelligence” to machines by enabling them to turn thermostats on and… Continue Reading

It’s All About India as Amazon, Walmart and Alibaba Go Head to Head

The Amazon-Walmart-Alibaba battle is no longer focused on China. Now, it’s all about India as these three firms go head to head in the second-most-populous country on earth. In just the past week, Amazon has become the first foreign e-commerce… Continue Reading

Fewer Happy Returns in Retail Land as Companies Tighten Generous Return Policies

Retailers have finally started to scale back liberal return policies in the face of a litany of abuses by customers. Although there are many legitimate reasons for returns—including receipt of a damaged product, the wrong item or a product that… Continue Reading

Amazon Finally Opens Its Amazon Go Store…in a Changed, Crowded World

On January 22, Amazon finally opened its unstaffed, cashless Amazon Go retail store to the public, and long lines of consumers queued up to get a glimpse of the future of retail. The store achieves its cashier-free magic by relying… Continue Reading

CES 2018 Wrap-Up: Lots of Nice Toys, but No Killer Apps This Year

The FGRT team attended this year’s CES trade show in Las Vegas last week. From the preshow press days through the final day of exhibits, it was, as usual, a whirlwind experience. There seemed to be no new killer apps… Continue Reading

Reviewing Retail in 2017, Part 2: Collaborations

As retail’s foundations shifted in 2017, legacy retailers sought out collaborations designed to drive shopper traffic, build their appeal to demographics such as millennials and maximize the value of their real estate holdings. This trend was particularly apparent in the… Continue Reading