What B8ta Has Figured Out About Retail

The internet hasn’t been entirely kind to retail. The dot-com bubble burst of the early 21st Century offered some lessons about wild speculation and misplaced expectations, but that hasn’t saved retailers the ongoing expense of tight margins, supply chain upgrades, IT development and meeting customer expectations on all channels. Or solved the troubling question of what to do about their stores. E-commerce growth is outpacing overall retail sales, yet customers still depend on stores for the vast bulk of their shopping. That’s boggling some of the best minds in retail, but one startup says it has the answer. “We figured something out about retail that no one else has,” said Vibhu Norby, a co-founder and the CEO of “store-as-a-service” platform b8ta, which recently picked up $19 million in funding from a group of investors led by none other than department store juggernaut Macy’s. “If you shop in one of our stores, you will feel different because we have gone to such a great length to remove the idea of your visit being about buying a product.” Read more at Retail Dive.