Thomas Luke

Recent Posts

The Changing Retail Consumer and What Merchants Can Do

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live, shop and do business. Those that have been working from home for the past few months have realized the benefits of it. According to Accenture’s recent report, “How is COVID-19 Changing Retail Consumer,” 53% of people who never worked from home previously now plan to continue to in the future. When it comes to retail shopping, merchants   think hard about measures they should take to make shoppers feel safe and comfortable. Consumers on the other hand, also look at store guidelines before deciding if they want to shop there or not.

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How Merchant Expectations from Their Payment Solutions Are Changing

Over the last few decades, the payment industry has seen a significant evolution in technology and consumer behavior. Today, payment technology comes in many form factors. From mobility solutions that help taking payment to the shopper to fixed in-lane terminals or self-service solutions that offer quick and secure checkouts, new solutions are designed to help merchants better serve their customers. As consumers increasingly get immersed in these experiences, they will begin to expect these advancements from all other businesses.

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The Future of Payments is Invisible

What comes to mind when you think of invisible payments? Is it the Amazon Go experience where a customer walks into a store, picks up the merchandise is automatically charged through their app as they walk out? Is it the instance where a customer uses their Apple Watch to pay for what they’ve bought in the grocery store? Or is it when a rider gets out of their Uber or Lyft as they reach their destination and the app takes care of the payment? The invisibility of payment depends on the consumer perception. It all comes down to how much friction there in the whole checkout experience. Do the consumers have to reach for their wallets? Do they have to use their phones at all to initiate the service even though the payment might be automatic?

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This Holiday Season, Let All Your Channels Sing Together

All any retail business wants for this holiday season is their customers to be happy and their revenue to increase. However, over the years, eCommerce sales have grown compared to in-store. With the success of giants like Amazon and other players in the market, brick and mortar businesses have started to think about reaching their customer base in new innovative ways and get them back into the store. But maybe, it is not about that. Consumer preference on how they shop are evolving and they are using each channel differently.

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How to Make Omnichannel Retail a Seamless Experience

Shoppers today want and expect a consistent, seamless experience across all channels they use for shopping – online, mobile, social and in the store. To retailers, it’s omnichannel. To customers, it’s just how shopping is done these days and retailers who can’t deliver will find themselves falling behind.

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