For the past year, hourly employees at restaurants and chains like Starbucks, McDonald’s and Old Navy have been able to personally find and schedule coworkers to cover their work shifts by using a new app called Shyft. Rather than penciling in doctor’s appointments and vacation …
Read More »Tag Archives: technology
Lowe’s App to Offer 3-D Planning Aids via Phone
When consumers head to Lowe’s in the future, they’ll have a better chance of mapping out their homes and making sure products they buy fit just right. Through Lowe’s Vision, an app using Google’s 3-D smartphone platform Tango, users will be able …
Read More »All U.S. Walmart Stores Now Accept Payments via Smartphone
Walmart announced this month that customers at all 4,600 of its retail stores in the U.S. can now use Walmart Pay to pay for in-store purchases with their smartphones. Walmart began testing the mobile payment platform at stores starting in December. Walmart Pay is part …
Read More »Banks Pushing to Increase Debit Card Swipe Fees
Banks are pushing to change a cap on debit card swipe fees that the Federal Reserve implemented in 2011. However, 89 percent of consumers believe the “swipe fee limits should not be undone,” according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. Additionally, 84 percent of …
Read More »Home Depot Using Hydrogen Energy at Stores
The Home Depot is continuing to expand its use of hydrogen energy and plans to use the power to generate electricity at 200 stores by the end of this year. The company’s goal is to use hydrogen fuel cells, which generate energy through a chemical …
Read More »Home Depot Sues Credit Card Companies Over Chips
Banks continue rolling out new microchip-embedded debit and credit cards, which are supposed to be more secure against fraud than cards that are authenticated with signatures only. But Home Depot, in a recently filed lawsuit, says Visa and MasterCard aren’t making transactions as secure as …
Read More »Walmart Tests Drones to Manage Inventory
Walmart’s warehouse inventory management process could soon be speeding up. The country’s largest retail company is testing drones in distribution centers to help manage inventory more efficiently. Within nine months, the drones could be used in Walmart’s massive warehouses, according to The …
Read More »Tracking How Your Business Performs on Social Media
Nearly nine in 10 independent home improvement businesses use social media, but only about 50 percent of them track their sites’ performance, according to a recent study from the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA). That means many retailers have no way to gauge their social media success, …
Read More »