TRADITIONAL retailers are setting up shop in modern spaces
and recruiting top Silicon Valley talent to replicate the creativity of online
start-ups.
Software engineers wearing jeans and flip flops test the
latest smartphone apps. Walls and windows double as whiteboards where ideas are
jotted down. And a mini basketball net is in the centre of it all.
At first glance, this workplace resembles any Silicon Valley
start-up. There's just one exception: Target's trademark red bulls-eye at the
entrance.
Target, Kohl's and home-shopping network QVC are among a
half dozen retailers opening technology test labs in the San Francisco area to
do things like improve their websites and create mobile shopping apps.