Why The Neiman Marcus ‘IT Guy’ Is My New Retail Hero

A few years into running the innovation lab at Neiman Marcus, Scott Emmons had an epiphany. The iLab’s “store of the future” edict, with its implicit, “if-you-build-it-they-will-come” mindset, didn’t capture what the tony department store needed to be doing for shoppers at the tech incubator. Emmons realized that rather than building the store of the future, its goal was to serve the shopper of the future, he said during a presentation at the eTail West show this week. That minor adjustment in thinking is a good way to preempt an ancient-yet-enduring retailer mindset. One in which the all-knowing retailer dictates to the consumer what they need. These days when the consumer has so much choice, they won’t tolerate that kind of arrogance. Emmons laid out deceptively simple technology solutions that tackled chronic shopper irritants that seemed like small miracles. Like a dressing-room button that pings a store associate for help, or a step-by-step video of a shopper’s beauty makeover. The iLab launched in 2012 with little fanfare, led by Emmons, “the IT guy,” he said. Read more at Forbes.