Shopify Inc., a cloud-based, multichannel commerce platform, has partnered with Uber to offer UberRUSH delivery services to Shopify merchants. Merchants enrolled in the program can offer their local customers same-day delivery. The UberRUSH program will begin with a select number of Shopify merchants located in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco and will be rolled out to additional cities over time.

SAP SE has developed the SAP Customer Business Planning application.

Holiday spending will be higher and over a longer period of time in 2015.

The National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a solid 3.7 percent to $630.5bn - significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent. Holiday sales in 2015 are expected to represent approximately 19 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales of $3.2 tr. Additionally, NRF is forecasting online sales to increase between 6 and 8 percent to as much as $105bn.

A growing number of consumers go to Amazon first when shopping for online products. According to a Survata study, commissioned by BloomReach, 44 percent of shoppers go straight to Amazon, beating out the 34 percent who go direct to search engines and 21 percent who go directly to a retailer's e-commerce site.

It takes a lot of work for retail brands to deliver a remarkable experience. It can be done, however, by making sure the environment touches each of the five senses.