Through the Looking Glass with AR/VR

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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

New Age Electronics Names BJ’s, Purchasing Power Retailers Of The Year

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New Age Electronics Names BJ’s, Purchasing Power Retailers Of The Year

National tech distributor New Age Electronics bestowed its annual Retailer of the Year award to BJ’s Wholesale Club in the brick-and-mortar category and Purchasing Power in the e-commerce channel.

Read the full article on TWICE.com

4K OK In Q4 … If You Could Find It

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TWICE: Dave, you predicted last year that 4K TV would be the “King of the Holiday Season.” Did it live up to expectations?

David Workman, ProSource: It did not, I think, in total.

There was technology available with OLED that, had there been better supply, it would have probably carried an increase. Then again, if they had enough to supply everybody, would the demand have been as high for those who had it?

It was very much a situation of have-and-have-not, where you had those who could concentrate on a larger panel and higher-end technology. The unit velocity wasn’t there, but if you had the ability to take a consumer up into a larger panel, you might have done OK. It was kind of hit or miss. Clearly the overall unit velocity was not there, or at least not as much as everybody would have liked to have seen.

Stephen Baker, The NPD Group: Not to disagree with Dave, but we saw it a little bit differently. We tracked 4K TVs at 1.3 million units in the five holiday weeks. That was about 15 percent of all TVs. But if you looked at only 50-inch and above, 40 percent of the units and 60 percent of the dollars were in 4K. Read the full article on TWICE.com

Alexa, Connect Everything

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The highlight of TWICE’s annual trip to Las Vegas for CES often comes in the first hour of the show. Because just as day 1 is kicking off, in a small boardroom in the depths of the Westgate Hotel an ever-changing lineup of top retailers, distributors and buying group execs gather for our annual TWICE Retail Roundtable… Read the full article on TWICE.com