(The following article is property of Avenue Code, LLC, and was originally published with permission at TotalRetail on August 28, 2018.) 

Heather Craig, head of retail experience at thredUP, talks with us about the rapid growth the consignment shop is achieving by building on a unique business model with customer-oriented technologies and a spin on a physical retail presence.

(The following article is property of Avenue Code, LLC, and was originally published with permission at TotalRetail on August 21, 2018.) 

Aaron Zagha is the head of e-commerce, international at Teleflora, an online floral retailer. In this interview, Zagha shares his unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities of globally expanding an e-commerce company that has been in business since 1934.

Have you ever found your team or group in a situation where you had to make a complex decision? Maybe you came to an impasse, unable to decide between two or more options, or maybe you selected one and still doubted whether you had evaluated all possible pros and cons. Well, what if I told you that there's a way to easily use a little math and psychology to organize and rank your options to determine the best solution? 

Assuming that your team has been working on similar projects and using the same technologies for a while, it's normal to develop set views of how certain issues should be addressed. Many companies automatically start to make decisions based on what feels comfortable or what expends less energy instead of objectively analyzing processes. If your team hasn't gotten out of its comfort zone recently, it may be time to start thinking outside the box.

Kristen Stewart is Head of Ecommerce & Digital Marketing at Cushnie et Ochs, a luxury womenswear retailer that has come of age in the digital era. We were captivated by her talk at Luxury Interactive in October, and thrilled when she agreed to let us interview to learn more.

Last week we headed down the coast to LA to hear from top retailers and brands at #LAECOM, hosted by IC Summit. While the panelists were astonishingly diverse, ranging from social media darling Snapchat to insurance providers like Farmers, and e-comm startups peddling everything from athleisure to home goods, some consistent themes emerged.

From controlling smart cars on earth to forecasting solar flares in space, machine learning technologies are being more and more widely implemented. Today, we’ll continue last week’s discussion on machine learning applications in retail settings, including their uses in securing payment transactions, improving customer experiences, predicting customer demand, and automating customer service.