Ever since the Web burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, with Amazon close on its heels in 1994, retailers have tried – and too many times failed – to staunch their declines in revenues and bottom lines. Fighting back trends ranging from stagnation to perilous decline, retailers have tested and launched a plethora… read more >
In this report, Connie Moore offers insights into customer journey strategies and journey mapping practices that enable retail marketers to better engage and delight customers. By understanding and organizing around the shopper’s journey, retailers make direct connections between their brand and individual customers. Customer journeys put the customer’s lens on the brand’s products, stores, e-commerce… read more >
“They aren’t creative.” That’s the common retort from digital agency executives, when asked why they don’t see management consultancies and systems integrators (SIs) as competitive threats. This is despite the fact that consultancies and SIs are acquiring or building digital experience capabilities, and are competing directly with agencies for projects that just two years ago would not… read more >
Last week, Amazon announced the opening of its new grocery store in its Seattle hometown. Called Amazon Go, it looks (at least in pictures) a lot like a pleasant urban grocery store, with shelves of everyday items like bread and fruit as well as pre-made meals. So what makes this “concept store” different? True to its experimentation… read more >
While the mobile e-commerce market is definitely on the rise in the U.S., it should be much larger by now. Compared to other developed countries with smaller e-commerce markets, as well as to desktop e-commerce at home, the U.S. is lagging. eMarketer estimates that in 2015, mobile e-commerce sales as a proportion of total e-commerce were as high… read more >
The latest quarterly statistics on the retail sector, including retail e-commerce, were released from the U.S. Department of Commerce earlier this week. Once you are able to digest the dense government language and poorly-formatted charts and tables, you can see that the overall picture is positive, with growth pointing in all the right directions. Yet the data also… read more >
Walmart announced earlier this week that it had agreed to acquire e-commerce start-up Jet.com for $3.3 billion, making headlines as the largest e-commerce acquisition to date. In this light, Unilever’s recent splash of $1 billion for Dollar Shave Club now seems almost quaint by comparison. While Walmart can certainly afford such a purchase, it smacks of… read more >
How well are retailers delivering omnichannel experiences? How do consumers feel about their current online and in-store shopping experiences? A new study, recently published by Periscope by McKinsey, set out to answer these questions. The study, based on a survey of about 1600 respondents in the U.S. and the U.K., during July 2016, showed that consumers want better… read more >
Will it be “Ho, Ho, Ho” or “Oh, no, no” for retailers the 2016 holiday retail season? While holiday retail season is as important as ever – accounting for over 30% of annual revenue for some retailers – it’s getting ever harder to master, given the combination of budget constraints, tired infrastructures, changing consumer expectations,… read more >
Once upon a time, the lines between manufacturers and retailers were clear. Manufacturers made widgets, retailers bought large amounts of said widgets, and consumers bought widgets at stores. There were exceptions to this model – the first Niketown, for one, opened in 1990 in Portland, Oregon. However, while the advent of online shopping a few… read more >
