@RegencyCenters Blog

Mobile Order-Ahead: See Who's Revolutionizing the Coffee Shop Experience

As a successful contender in the caffeinated world for the past 54 years, it’s safe to say that California-based coffee chain The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf — with more than 1,200 locations worldwide — is adept in the coffee business. In addition to its strong focus on roasting and pouring quality products, it is also successfully keeping up with industry trends in order to stay above the fold and reach a variety of consumers. How? Most recently, through the implementation of the mobile order-ahead function.

How Starbucks is Using Artificial Intelligence to Connect Customers and Boost Sales

Imagine pulling into a Starbucks drive-thru and seeing not just your drink order but your name on the screen — along with the suggestions of what foods you might like with your drink, automatically generated by the weather, your buying history, and the choices that others with similar preferences have made.

Where’s that sweater you want to buy? High-tech tags help retailers track it down

Most shoppers likely never notice them.

How Gen Z Is Sparking a Retail Tech Revolution

Much of what you have learned about millennial shoppers — anyone between the ages of 20-36 — will soon be turned on its head by Generation Z.

MasterCard rolls out Identity Check Mobile biometric payments

MasterCard has introduced Identity Check Mobile, a solution using biometric authentication options like fingerprints or facial recognition to verify a cardholder’s identity for payments.

Chipotle & Google Are Testing Drone Burrito Delivery at Virginia Tech

Ever imagined being able to order a burrito and have it delivered by a drone? Well, Google has you covered.

What Can We Learn From Best Buy’s Embrace Of IoT?

Best Buy surprised analysts with stronger-than-expected financial results in its Q2, spearheaded by a 24% increase in online sales and comparable store sales of 0.8%, beating Wall Street expectations of flat same store sales.

But the most intriguing part of the results may be the company’s positioning toward the future, in which Best Buy stores will further emphasize the sales and services of IoT/connected home devices. The electronics retailer, which recently celebrated its 50th year in business, may have maximized its advantage against Amazon and other e-Commerce sellers by making the IoT a point of differentiation.

Lowe's Introduces Autonomous Service Robots to Retail Stores

Ecommerce companies already use robots for materials transport and picking orders , but brick-and-mortar stores don't want to be left out of the automation trend. Now Lowe's joins the growing list of retailers that are using artificial intelligence to help with both logistics and customer service. The home improvement store will start rolling out autonomous retail service robots to 11 California stores over the next seven months.

Turn Your Pizza Box Into a Party

Pizza Hut wants you to play with your food. Or at least, the box it comes in. The restaurant just unveiled the "world's first playable DJ pizza box" that turns the folding cardboard container into a complete turntable setup, including two decks, volume sliders, pitch controls and a crossfader.

PlaceIQ taps MasterCard shopper insights to beef up location data

PlaceIQ, a provider of location-based intelligence technology, announced that it is partnering with MasterCard's Advisors professional services arm to access to the credit card giant's audience and transaction data.

PlaceIQ's location intelligence platform uses opt-in methods to gather information from more than 10 billion location-enabled data points daily. It now can bring in aggregated, anonymous MasterCard shopping insights on segments including retail, automotive, CPG, dining, travel and others to help companies craft media strategies as well as audience activation and measurement efforts.

Shopkick Announces Partnership with New York & Company

Shopkick, the leading shopping app that makes in-store shopping more personal and rewarding, has announced a new partnership with specialty women's fashion apparel and accessories retailer New York & Company. In over 170 New York & Company stores across the country, the company’s fashion-forward customers can now earn “Kicks” for walking in, visiting the dressing room, and making purchases in-store.

Macy's Launches In-store Shopping Assistant Powered by IBM's Watson AI Tech

Macy's is testing a mobile tool using artificial intelligence that lets shoppers get answers customized to the store they're in — like where a particular brand is located or what's in stock — that they would normally ask a sales associate face-to-face.