Consumers are looking for more options for delivery and loyalty, and retailers are listening. Home Depot, for one, has brought pickup lockers to its stores, and Gap has rolled out a multi-tender loyalty program. At the same time, Whole Foods is debuting two-hour grocery delivery, and UPS has launched a loyalty discount program. Take a look at how consumer behavior is influencing omnichannel offerings and shaping the future of retail.  Read More...

Appear Here was founded to make it as easy for retailers to find commercial real estate as it is for consumers to find a hotel room. Now that it has built that marketplace, Ross Bailey, founder and CEO of Appear Here, tells PYMNTS that the company is ready for the next step: working with solutions providers like Square to make POS setup in these commercial spaces almost flip-a-switch easy for merchants.  Read More...

The march of progress is not quite as forward-looking as we might like. Sometimes for every two or three steps forward, it seems there is a necessary bit of backtracking that happens. Still, digital retail, financial inclusion and robotics have all managed to keep the forward motion going lately — even if the much-hyped world of cryptocurrency looks to be losing a step or two.  Read More...