TheChek News Flow

- Firm maintains their positive stance for AAPL post their survey of >4,000 individuals which suggest 10 storng demand for iPhone X, 2) demand for higher tier memory grows, 3) there could be stability in iPhone replacement cycle and we can see higher switching from Android ecosystem, 4) ancillary products: Wireless charging remains the most attractive feature for users, which could mean a tailwind from sale of wireless charging accessories

After Quietest September Ever, Stocks Face Ominous 'Curse Of 7' In Q4

At the point of sale, payment technologies are also evolving as the demands of consumers shift. Here, Joe Mach, president of North America at Verifone, discusses the role of personalization and customer engagement in today’s retail market and offers insights into POS payment trends.

WWD: What role does personalization play in replicating the e-commerce experience inside a physical store?

Joe Mach: Industry data states that 41 percent of consumers expect offers that are personalized and relevant when they walk into a store. With regulatory advancements, technological growth and generational forces constantly changing the landscape, it is important for merchants to turn these challenges into opportunities and cater to the evolving needs of the connected consumer. Retailers are struggling to compete with the growing popularity of e-commerce because consumers have grown accustomed to the convenience, simplicity and security of the online shopping experience — they want the same features in-store. To accommodate consumers’ changing preferences, tactics must change.

WWD: And that requires higher levels of engagement via personalization?

J.M.: Merchants can effectively engage with their customers if they know them better and offer each one a unique and personalized shopping experience. Personalization can create a strong one-to-one relationship between the retailer and the shopper, keeping the shoppers coming back to their favorite store each time, owing to familiarity of needs and wants. Also, as opposed to personalizing based on prior behaviors and expected shopping habits, targeted campaigns can be based on external factors. Timely events and seasonal conditions in specific geographies can provide fuel for personalized campaigns and messages.

With new technology, retailers can provide personalized recommendations to online shoppers based on their past purchase history, through targeted offers and discounts and via one-to-one e-mail marketing. This offering enables retailers to guide the shoppers down a path to not only give them exactly what they’re looking for, but also expose them to new options that they didn’t realize were available to them.

Per a report by the Seurat Group, more and more Millennials are entering the workforce every year, and by 2020, they’ll represent more than 40 percent of consumers in the U.S. Thus, their buying power is increasing. Industry research also shows that, rather than trips to just make purchases, shoppers are drawn to in-store experiences that are digitally connected. For younger generations, the purchasing experience tends to supersede the purchase itself.

Enabling merchants to create an in-store experience to write home about (or post on social media, rather) is an excellent way to help them stay relevant while attracting and retaining more customers. For example, merchants can engage consumers with fun and interesting digital ads (“pop-ups”) right at the point of sale, at the table or on a customer’s mobile device, using beacon technology.

WWD: What’s driving pure-play e-tailers into building brick-and-mortar stores? Why is it important for their brand?

J.M.: PwC expects a 25 percent increase in digital sales and mobile shopping; the physical store remains king of retail. Despite predictions of brick-and-mortar’s decline, almost 90 percent of retail sales in the U.S. are represented by brick-and-mortar locations. So it’s clear that the reign of the physical retail environment is far from over – it’s just a matter of making the experience in-store similar to the one online.

While there is news of some retailers closing stores around the U.S., there are announcement by online brands about taking the next step in their growth journey and opening physical stores. This is because apart from enjoying the ease, simplicity and convenience of online shopping, consumers enjoy the ability to see, touch, feel, try on products, and take them home immediately. Easy returns is another reason for shopping in stores versus online. Keeping some of these factors in mind, many retailers are now offering the click-and-collect option, enabling customers with the ease of shopping online and the immediate gratification of picking it up at their earliest convenience at the nearest store.

The future of retail needs a truly blended approach between online and in-store. Customers are shopping online [including on their phones] more than ever, but people still crave in-person experiences and interactions.

WWD: As the convergence of online and in-store continues to evolve, how will the traditional payment ecosystem change? What do retailers need to do to stay in step with these changes? What investments are needed?

J.M.: The introduction of new consumer-facing technology is constant, and as new apps and digital payment methods come about, consumers will demand the option to use them in the physical store. It is important for merchants to tear down the silos between their online and physical storefronts. Connecting both channels can provide them with access to the advanced consumer data and analytics needed for better targeting, consumer insights and personalization across all customer touch-points.

Payment device cloud connectivity can expedite the merchant’s ability to access popular business and consumer apps at the POS. By leveraging app marketplaces and developer toolkits, proprietary and third-party apps can be developed, tested and ultimately accessed from smart payment devices. Benefits range from improved customer loyalty via points programs or geo-targeted offers inside the store to tailored incentives based on online purchases at the POS and improved inventory management via e-commerce and legacy system integration.

Bluetooth Low Energy, 3G/4G and Wi-Fi connectivity combined with mobile or portable POS devices allow merchants to extend the POS beyond the counter and throughout the store. These technologies help reduce the time customers spend in checkout lines while creating a more one-on-one, transformed shopping experience. Additionally, restaurants can offer diners “pay at the table,” which is a more secure and convenient way to pay their bill right at the table. Merchants want to be empowered to try out new technologies as they emerge so they can securely experiment to find new value and revenue opportunities.

WWD: But with these opportunities come challenges, correct?

J.M.: Integrating online and physical storefronts in a way that is consistent and seamless from the consumer’s point of view is easier said than done, considering the complexity and ever-changing nature of technology, apps and regulation – not to mention the limited bandwidth of IT resources. Fortunately, payment technology offers a solution for merchants to overcome these obstacles. Recent innovations in this space have catapulted POS technology far beyond merely “payment acceptance.”

For example, one of the country’s top 10 quick-service and fast-casual restaurants wanted to further expedite the ordering process for customers. They have successfully implemented a system that integrates online and in-store experiences by designing an easy and convenient way for their customers to order online and pick up at the store. They also added self-serve kiosks at their restaurants to allow guests to conveniently customize and order their meals. With the capability to engage with consumers and enable payments through kiosks, mobile and web, they are on track to surpass one billion transactions by the end of 2017.

The Keg Steakhouse + Bar is an example of a full-service restaurant chain offering pay-at-the-table service to enhance their guests’ experience. Servers are able to close the bill transaction right at the table so guests experience secure, efficient payment and convenient service.

These are just some examples of the extent to which payment technologies have evolved. Payment devices no longer just accept payments; they are now powerful business solution tools that enable merchants to create innovative and future-ready shopping experiences for the connected consumer of today.

Is Cyber Monday losing its relevance? Maybe. In Salesforce’s 2017 holiday predictions, Black Friday is expected to be the busiest digital shopping day in the U.S. The forecasts said consumers will shop primarily in the evening via a range of digital channels — especially on mobile — and will expect enhanced personalization features.

“Salesforce expects to see continued growth not only in mobile orders and web site visits, but also in newer technologies such as mobile payments and artificial intelligence. It’s not too late for retailers to make adjustments today in order to meet consumer expectations and better compete this holiday season,” said Rob Garf, vice president of industry insights at Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

In order to collect and discern these insights, Salesforce reviewed activity of 500 million shoppers across 53 countries, and billions of transactions that were powered by its commerce cloud platform.

Meeting consumer expectations has become a hurtle many retailers are failing to clear. This holiday season will not only contribute to the thwarting demands of shoppers, but also highlight their latest preferences specifically within the shipment and customization segments.

The analysis said that peak traffic and orders will occur in the evening hours between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. “Cyber Week (Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) will see both the deepest discounts (average of 28 percent off list price) and highest rate of free shipping (86 percent of all orders will have it). Beyond Cyber Week, Monday, Dec. 11 will have the deepest discounts and highest availability of free shipping,” said the report detailing the results of the research.

Black Friday shoppers

Mobile will continue to overthrow desktop traffic, the research forecasted. “Mobile traffic to retail sites will grow to 60 percent of total across the globe this shopping season (compared to 34 percent for desktop and five percent for tablets), while orders placed on phones will approach 40 percent on big shopping days such as Black Friday,” said the report. “Meanwhile, seven to 10 percent of all iPhone orders will go through Apple Pay.”

Consumers are ready to purchase in more diverse ways on mobile, too. According to the research, 28 percent of shoppers are willing to purchase a product from an e-commerce site from text message even though only 16 percent have actually received SMS or push notifications from online retailers.

And while shoppers are increasingly democratic in their online purchasing behavior, they’re equally liberal with digital product research. “The most used channels for research before buying online include web site (74 percent), e-mail (43 percent), social media (38 percent) and a retailer’s mobile apps (36 percent),” said the report. “Just as interesting is the embrace of voice-enabled digital assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant, used by 40 percent of Millennials (ages 18-36) to research merchandise before buying online.”

But in-store experiences — and the retail professionals working in brick-and-mortars — shouldn’t be overlooked, either. As consumers are more digitally savvy, store associates need to ready themselves to deliver quick, data-armed services. “More than half of consumers (58 percent) think that store associates need the ability to look up product details on-demand on a mobile device in order to help deliver an excellent customer experience,” said the report.

Both in-store and online, providing enhanced customer service — at all price points — will resonate well with Millennials. “Millennials are also 2.5 times more likely (28 percent vs. 11 percent) than baby boomers (ages 53-71) to say personalized digital offers from retailers based on their purchasing history would appeal to them,” the report said.

This is also speaks to shopping within physical locations as well. The report said, “Fifty-nine percent of Millennials feel it would help if physical stores knew about their online research before they arrive at a store so they could receive better service, yet 61 percent agree that retail experiences are disconnected from channel to channel.”

Tapping into artificial intelligence (AI) will be especially instrumental here. “Over a third of Millennials (35 percent) say the ability to search merchandise in a physical store or online catalog using an image and receiving product recommendations based on the attributes of that image would be appealing,” said the report.

“The winners and losers are getting defined every minute as we march into retail’s most important season,” said Shelley Bransten, senior vice president of retail industry solutions at Salesforce. “The stakes continue to rise for retailers to leverage artificial intelligence and emerging voice platforms to deliver seamless, connected and personalized brand experiences.”

Making up for lost ground with consumers during the heavy shopping period will contribute to brand loyalty and gained revenue. “Despite a desire for more personalized experiences, 63 percent of consumers feel like retailers don’t truly know who they are,” the report said. With such a low bar setting, consumers stand to be particularly pleased with perceived extra efforts devised by brands.

The family behind the Seattle-based retailer — which stunned Wall Street in June when it announced it was exploring a possible buyout — has since struggled to cobble together the financing and may not be able to close the deal, estimated to be worth upwards of $10 billion, sources told The Post.

Jitters about dwindling mall traffic dogged discussions throughout the summer, but the surprise bankruptcy filing of Toys ‘R’ Us on Sept. 23 added to the anxiety among lenders and the Nordstroms alike, insiders said.

“The financing has not worked out. I hear that the Nordstrom financing is not done and no one knows if it can be done,” a top retail industry expert with direct knowledge of the situation said, adding, “Toys R Us isn’t good for anyone.”

“This deal is in deep trouble,” a second source close to the talks said.

The Nordstrom family — whose fourth-generation brothers Blake, Erik and Peter currently run the company as co-presidents — reached an agreement in principle last month to sell preferred shares to private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners to support the buyout.

Leonard Green, which had been in talks to write an equity check of $1 billion or more to fund the deal, was expecting to make a decision on whether to commit by the end of September, according to a source.

However, Leonard Green’s participation was contingent on bank financing getting arranged at what it considered acceptable levels, sources said.

Wall Street banks, reluctant to carry the risks of such a deal on their books through what looks like a difficult holiday season for shopping malls, have either balked or responded with demands for punishing interest rates that would sap the potential profitability of the deal, sources said.

Meanwhile, insiders say the Nordstrom family, whose 31-percent stake in the company is worth about $2.4 billion, is concerned that a heavily leveraged deal at stiff rates could kneecap its turnaround plans and endanger the family fortune.

Officials at Nordstrom and Leonard Green didn’t respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

Under broad terms being discussed, the Nordstrom family and Leonard Green would be investing about $3.5 billion in equity, having the chain borrow another $6.5 billion to pay Nordstrom shareholders to take the company private.

Nordstrom, which currently operates 122 department stores and 221 off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, has navigated the current retail malaise relatively well. It’s generating about $800 million in yearly free cash flow and recently notched a quarterly increase in comparable sales.

The Nordstrom family wants to take the company private partly so it can invest in online initiatives away from the gaze of Wall Street and its obsession with quarterly earnings, Cowen said in a recent analyst note.

Nordstrom shares have risen from $40.48 on June 7, the day before the family announced its intentions, to Friday’s $47.15 close. Still, they remain slightly below where they started the year.

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison Takes Aim at Amazon

Ellison says Oracle Database 18c will be less expensive for customers than online retail giant’s product

SAN FRANCISCO— Oracle Corp. ORCL 0.56% often frames its product strategy around the biggest competitive threat it faces, and currently that rival is Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 0.52%

On Sunday night, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison took aim at Amazon’s cloud-computing division, touting his company’s newest database technology that he claimed his rival can’t match. At Oracle OpenWorld—the company’s annual conference for developers, partners and customers in San Francisco—Mr. Ellison ran through several demonstrations of Oracle Database 18c, saying customers would pay several times more using Amazon’s technology.

“Why would anyone do that?” said Mr. Ellison, the executive chairman and chief technology officer of the Redwood City, Calif., company.

The reason Oracle’s database costs less, Mr. Ellison said, is that 18c autonomously provisions only the computing resources as customers need them. When the new database technology is rolled out in December, Oracle will guarantee its bill will be less than half what Amazon would charge customers for a similar service.

Amazon disputed Mr. Ellison’s claims, saying its customers can scale its database offerings to their specific needs. “This sounds like Larry being Larry. No facts, wild claims, and lots of bluster,” an Amazon Web Services spokeswoman said.

The online retailer has upended the business software industry over the past decade with its pioneering cloud-computing offering, Amazon Web Services. The technology challenges legacy software vendors such as Oracle by offering customers the ability to run their computing operations in Amazon’s data centers instead of spending money on servers and software.

‘It’s our computers versus their computers in cyberwarfare.’

—Larry Ellison, co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle Corp.

With 18c, Oracle said it would guarantee nearly 100% reliability and availability, or less than 30 minutes a year of downtime.

“This is the most important thing we have done in a long, long time,” Mr. Ellison said.

The database is at the core of a new cybersecurity product Oracle will announce Tuesday, Mr. Ellison said. Using machine learning, the service built on the new database will automatically detect threats and immediate patch itself.

“We do everything we possibly can to avoid human intervention,” Mr. Ellison said. “It’s our computers versus their computers in cyberwarfare.”

This isn’t the first time Mr. Ellison targeted Amazon. At last year’s OpenWorld conference, Mr. Ellison predicted “Amazon’s lead is over” in the so-called infrastructure as a service market, in which tech companies provide web-based, on-demand computer power and storage for customers. At the time, Oracle introduced a new version of its cloud infrastructure service.

And yet, a year after proclaiming Amazon’s dominance over, it isn’t.

Amazon expanded its world-wide lead in infrastructure as a service business, holding 44.2% share of the market in 2016, up from 39.8% in 2015, market research firm Gartner Inc. said. Its nearest rival, Microsoft Corp. , held a 7.1% share, up from 5.8% in 2015.

Oracle barely registers, garnering 0.3% share in 2016, up from 0.1% in 2015, Gartner analyst Sid Nag said. The company updated its technology last year, but Mr. Nag said, “It hasn’t seen the market traction compared to the other market leaders.”

Global Logistic Properties to Buy Facilities in 4 European Countries

Global Logistic’s proposed buyers support Europe investment

SINGAPORE— Global Logistic Properties Ltd. GBTZY 0.41% Monday announced plans to acquire a portfolio of assets in Europe for €2.4 billion ($2.83 billion).

Global Logistic will buy Gazeley, which owns properties totaling 32 million square feet in four European nations, from Brookfield Property Group, the Singapore-listed warehouses operator said in a statement.

Global Logistic, currently in the process of being acquired by a consortium that includes the company’s chief executive as well as Chinese investors Hillhouse Capital Group and Hopu Investment Management Co., has the support of its buyers for the Europe deal, according to a separate statement.

Global Logistic said it plans to syndicate its stake in the European assets as part of its strategy to grow its fund management business.

The company, 37% owned by Singapore’s sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte., is a major global player in the booming business of storing and moving goods from suppliers to consumers. It manages nearly $40 billion in logistics assets—a bit more than half the amount that No. 1 warehouse owner Prologis Inc. of the U.S. does.

Global Logistic says it is the biggest owner of warehouses in many of the world’s most important markets, including China, Japan and Brazil. It is the second largest in the U.S. after Prologis.

Brian Kingston, the chief executive of Brookfield Property Partners, said the company’s investment in Gazeley in 2013 has been “excellent” for the fund and its partners.

“Building great businesses is a key pillar of our opportunistic real estate strategy, and Gazeley is a good example of how we have been able to successfully do this,” Mr. Kingston said in emailed comments.

Las Vegas police are investigating reports of an “active shooter” late on Sunday evening in the US city, with local media showing people fleeing amid the sound of rapid gunfire.

The Metropolitan Police Department said on Twitter that it was investigating the incident at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, a sprawling complex with 3,200 rooms, where a country music festival was taking place.

Local television stations played video that showed individuals screaming “get down” and hiding amid the sound of what appeared to be rapid gunfire. The video showed police and ambulance streaming into the area.

University Medical Center, a hospital with a major trauma unit, had taken-in several victims, a spokesperson said to Fox KVVU-TV.

Authorities on Twitter warned people to avoid a portion of the strip, which is known for its nightlife and gambling. The strip is a major tourist attraction, drawing some 42m visitors a year.