In 2011, Macy’s, the largest store operator in the US, introduced “big data” into their pricing decisions. With its 800+ stores and extensive range, Macy’s had to take into account around 270 million factors for pricing — and the previous model entailed once-weekly analysis, that didn’t allow for agile pricing. By incorporating the cloud, Macy’s has been able to slash the time it takes to analyze the entire product range to less than two hours.

That’s an example of large-scale, traditional retail, innovating to improve — and there are plenty of others who have established “labs” across the country to reinvent — including Nordstrom, Sears and Home Depot and Westfield.

Digital retail, with the likes of Amazon and Zappos, leading the way, continues to grow, evolve and innovate. And there are scads of other retailers who are learning from the gold standard or establishing their own paths to greatness.

But what does the present and future in retail innovation hold? Emarsys presents the Retail Innovation track at Advertising Week — where top brands and retailers share best practices from brick to click. See who is leading the way and what it means for the world of marketing.