New campaign highlights impact retail has on careers, community and more

This is Retail: North Carolina reminds us that innovations serve a purpose and engage our customers in ways they will remember.  Whether it’s involving the customer in the selection of products available online or enabling a customer to see fashion trends on Facebook, retail is about engaging and leveraging technology and social media – as well as leaning on outside companies like SnapRetail, an online marketing solution for independent retailers, to help them.

NCRMA’s campaign gives us a great example from the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University’s School of Business, led by Director Roger Beahm.  At a recent student competition, Wake Forest student team N2 Medical Solutions took home the top prize for a medical solutions system that monitors whether or not people take their medications.  The idea captured the interest of CVSHealth, and the team was invited to corporate headquarters to meet with company executives.

“Change is accelerating our retail-marketing world, and the future of retail is heading places never before imagined in many nontraditional ways,” Beahm states.

Looking ahead, the Center has partnered with Lowes Foods to make a retail learning laboratory using 10 stores.  In-store sensors and tracking through video monitoring will provide valuable information to help advance even more innovation for retailers, and allow students to use the information to analyze and formulate new retail business strategies that will be valuable to the retailer.

Read the full story at Forbes.