Will The Once Marvelous Department Store Ever Come Back?

Private labels. Localization. Home delivery. Knowledge about the customer. Personalization and customization. Most of the innovations that are fueling today’s most successful retail startups have less to do with avant-garde tech like AI and robots and more to do with wowing the customer with the right merchandise, an appealing store environment and a high level of service. Department stores, which have seen their market share relentlessly depleted in recent years, aren’t generally at retail’s cutting edge. That was ceded to Amazon, mass merchants like Walmart and Target and a slew of digital natives that sought out market chinks and vulnerabilities to disrupt. Read more at Retail Dive.