Technology

November 13, 2024

We Were Promised An Experience Economy. So, Where Is It?

By Doug Stephens I can still recall reading Joseph Pine and James Gilmore’s seminal 1999 book The Experience Economy. Like so many of my colleagues in […]
March 7, 2024

AI is more creative than humans? Not so fast.

By Doug Stephens A recent study at the University of Arkansas pitted 151 human test subjects against Chat GPT-4 in a series of tests for creativity. […]
August 11, 2023

How to Win in Retail: Less Science, More Art

By Doug Stephens Over the last 20 years, technology has transformed retail. Mobile phones have become essential conduits for communication, entertainment and commerce. Technologies like augmented […]
April 13, 2023

The Key to Winning the AI Arms Race? Human Creativity.

  By Doug Stephens Companies across the global retail sector are poised to become the beneficiaries of a historic windfall: an unprecedented boost to the bottom-line […]
January 30, 2019

January 2019 – In Review

We kicked off 2019 at NRF in New York City where we met with retailers and brands eager to understand the challenges they’re up against.  We […]
February 2, 2018

Software Eats Retail

The following is an excerpt from Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World By Doug Stephens “Software eats retail.” This was technology investor […]
January 17, 2018

To Save Retail, Let It Die

By Doug Stephens In 2011, in what has now become retail folklore, Ron Johnson, one of the brains behind the Apple Store, was hired to resuscitate […]
February 17, 2017

Why Retail Is Getting “Experience” Wrong

By Doug Stephens   Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once said: “Design is a funny word. Some people think that design means how it looks. But of […]
December 30, 2016

The Future of Retail: A New Year’s Revolution

By Doug Stephens   Like individuals, retail companies tend to approach each new year by making resolutions to improve their performance. Among other things, these might […]