Some quick thoughts from Fry’s (NOT Fry’s Electronics) VP of Sales and CTO, Rudy Pataro. This is not an interview (no direct quotes), just what I picked up from his brief talk.

Web 2.0 technologies - AJAX, RSS, etc. Tons of interest from start-ups, but in the retail space, there isn’t much excitement or traction. Why aren’t we taking advantage of those technologies?

3 examples of Web 2.0 technologies to think about:
-On site search. Why is it that when you do a search, you get multiple pages and have to go to page 1 then page 2 then page 3, etc. With AJAX, you can scroll through the items dynamically. Also, which products do you put on a particular category page? Why not put them all and allow your users to navigate through the information. (If anyone is interested in this concept, I have a friend working on this idea)
-Tagging. Consumers might tag products in a different way than you categorize them. Their tagging system is more helpful for them, and you should be open to it.
-Site management. Most people think of RSS from a consumer point of view. But if you’re getting all this syndicated content from a ton of sites, doesn’t it just become like email spam? From a retailer perspective, though, maybe RSS allows for a better way to handle inventory management.