New Age Electronics, a leading distributor of consumer electronics and gaming products and services and a division of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), announced today that it has signed an agreement with RAYCOP, a leading consumer health product manufacturer, to distribute its top-selling allergen vacuums to the North American retail channel. The agreement expands New Age Electronics’ home appliance offering and makes the RAYCOP RS2 and RAYCOP LITE products available to its network of retail customers. In Canada, RAYCOP is available through SYNNEX Canada Limited’s consumer electronics group. In addition, the agreement has applications in the commercial channel in areas such as hospitality in both the US and Canada.
Whither Wearables, and What Else Lies Ahead in 2017
The following is an excerpt from the latest installment of TWICE’s Executive Retail Roundtable, in which we gather some of the best and the brightest in tech retail to address the state of the industry. Join us for a deep dive into the challenges facing the retail business today:
TWICE: What technologies do you find exciting? What would you like to see on the CES show floor that maybe isn’t there yet?
Steve Baker, VP, industry analyst, The NPD Group: There’s something that isn’t on the show floor?
Dave Workman, president/CEO, ProSource: I’m going to the Amazon booth because I want to personally meet Alexa.
Laura Orvidas, CE VP, Amazon: She’s great.
Neal Martinelli, merchandising VP, HSN: I want to see smart home. It’s a big focus for us. It was a huge category for us last year. Alexa is that magic thing that gets people to wake up to the possibilities. The water is warm and I can turn it up to a boil, but I need the products and I need them to work right and I need the simplicity.
Read the full article on TWICE.com
Through the Looking Glass with AR/VR
The following is an excerpt from the latest installment of TWICE’s Executive Retail Roundtable, in which we gather some of the best and the brightest in tech retail to address the state of the industry. Join us for a deep dive into the challenges facing the retail business today:
TWICE: What lies ahead for VR and AR, from both a product and a retail experience standpoint?
Neal Martinelli, merchandising VP, HSN: We’re looking at that right now, VR and AR, not only from a consumer perspective but just for entertainment. It’s going to be everywhere; it’s going to be very pervasive. I think you’re going to see a lot of advancement very rapidly over the next year or two on both fronts.
Read the full article on TWICE.com
Just How Good Were Holiday Sales At Retail?
The latest installment of TWICE’s Executive Retail Roundtable, in which we gather some of the best and the brightest in tech retail to address the state of the industry, revealed an optimism about 2017 and the prospects for such categories as Ultra HD TV, connected home and virtual and augmented reality systems. Join our deep dive into the challenges facing the retail business today:
TWICE: Let’s start with the holidays, and you in particular Laura, because Amazon described it as the best holiday season in the company’s history. How much of that can you take credit for?
Laura Orvidas, CE VP, Amazon: All of it — my own holiday shopping contributed. [Laughter.]
We had a great holiday season. A lot of our success was buoyed by Echo and the other Amazon devices. We saw a lot of customers come and interact on a variety of our products.
TWICE: “Millions sold” was Amazon’s official statement, but do you have any hard numbers on the Alexa devices?
Orvidas: Nine times our previous holiday season.
Mobile shopping was also very hot. Over 72 percent of Amazon customers worldwide shopped using their mobile devices, and on Cyber Monday alone customers purchased 46 electronic items per second on a mobile device.
Read the full article on TWICE.com
Sixth Annual Dealer Summit Photo’s Now Posted
What a great event it was. A special thanks to all our vendors sponsors and to all our top retailers that came out and made this event such a success.
Walkaround: The New Age Summit Vendor Pavilion
Here are some of the vendors who showed their wares at this week’s New Age Electronics Retail Summit. Be sure to look for more coverage on dealerscope.com and in the Dealerscope Today newsletter to follow on the New Age Summit.
New Age Takes the Omni-Market Experience Up a Notch
The 2016 New Age Electronics Retail Dealer Summit kicked off July 20 at Hollywood, Calif.’s Loews Hollywood Hotel with promises from the distributor’s top New Age and SYNNEX executives that the roughly 100 retailers represented here would leave the meeting armed with the tools to enhance what Fred Towns, New Age Electronics’ president, termed as the “omni-market” experience, across the board, for several of their key customer demographics.
New Age Going Hollywood (Again)
Merchants and vendors are converging on Hollywood this week for New Age Electronics’ sixth annual Retail Dealer Summit.
Towns: Why New Age Armed Dealers with Channel Stats
Fred Towns, New Age Electronics president, spoke to Dealerscope about some fresh approaches that were taken at this year’s New Age Retail Summit, along with discussing new vendors, emerging technologies and the buzz he got from the 100 dealers who were represented at the event July 19 and 20 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in California.
Plethora of Product, Dearth Knowledge Dog Category — TWICE MAGAZINE
Fred Towns, New Age Electronics: In terms of challenges, there is still a lack of education around the home automation category as a whole. We are helping retailers bring their customers true plug-and-play products that are easy to understand, install and use long-term, which makes the category more approachable. Retailers have to keep it simple and demonstrate how products can enhance their customers’ lifestyles to see long-term success in home automation.