South and Central America are significant growth markets for retailers with seven countries - Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Panama, Colombia and Mexico - ranked in the 2013 A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index.

Saks Fifth Avenue is over halfway through a multi-year, multi-front, multimillion-dollar transformation into an omnichannel enterprise. The retailer has already deployed approximately 2,000 iPad tablets in its stores to facilitate associates' communication and engagement with customers, and will be launching an e-commerce site for its OFF 5TH outlet banner this fall.

Dutch truck tire and retreading company Roline is embedding radio frequency identification tags in the tires that it retreads, not only to better manage its own production processes and warehousing, but also to enable its customers to track the tires they install on their fleets of trucks, buses or cars.

Some of the largest U.S. and U.K. retailers are slow to adapt their store operations to changing consumer buying habits, according to a study by SD Retail Consulting, a retail advisory firm and unit of Hilco Trading, LLC. Surprisingly, the study found that 80 percent of retailers surveyed are not effectively training their in-store staff to accommodate the complex needs of the new multichannel shopper. The study surveyed Retail Operations Leaders from 35 leading retailers including Department Store, Specialty Retail, Big Box, Grocery and Convenience Store chains, mostly with revenues of over $1bn (50 percent of which are publicly traded).

Release of the second UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper: A Customer Experience Study analyzes omnichannel retailing and shows consumers want more choices when it comes to shopping online, more control over when their purchases will be delivered and a convenient returns process. They're also using social media to shop for the best deals and expect more shipping options from e-tailers.

Mobile has become an integral part of our everyday lives, extending beyond just personal use for the consumer to what is now a can't-live-without-it tool in the business world as well. Today, just about every industry is impacted by mobile devices, opening the door to workplace flexibility, increased efficiency and quicker exchange of data and knowledge. However, with this opportunity comes greater risk. Without the proper data exchange technology, secure information can be exposed, lost or more difficult to track. To address these challenges, application programming interfaces (APIs) are being used to help supply chain organizations take control of their data, and enable various systems and devices to communicate with each other.

Eight months into a controversial customer-tracking mobile trial, Nordstrom has halted the effort. Although Nordstrom took a lot of criticism for the mostly misunderstood program from consumer media, it's not clear whether the project ended as a result of the criticism or the trial had simply run its course.