Stacy Debroff

With the holiday shopping season in the home stretch, both brands and retailers alike continue to keep a watchful eye on millennials, today’s rising consumer group, for insights on what motivates and inspires this much-sought-after audience along their path to purchase. During the make-or-break buying season, marketers remain eager to crack the code to the…

Every year in the weeks surrounding Earth Day, we focus increasingly on activities related to the environment, ranging from more diligent efforts toward recycling to renewed interest in water conservation to teaching kids how to respect and appreciate the planet. Yet research from Influence Central reveals that this “green” approach has become an ongoing effort…

For retailers, driving sales proves to be an ongoing battle — one they face day in and day out — regardless of what's going on in the surrounding marketplace, be it an onslaught of record-breaking snowstorms or a full-on economic downturn. Moreover, with the competitive landscape heating up and consumers becoming more discerning than ever before on issues ranging from quality to price to convenience, retailers now face an ever-growing hurdle when they look to generate sales.

Just how much sway do negative online reviews have over consumers? Do they have the power to stop a purchase in its tracks? Or do they simply inspire more research? And do consumers want to see detailed insights when reviews turn less than glowing, or has it become enough to take a quick glance at where a product or service lands in the five-star rating system before moving on to another brand?

Despite becoming a prime focus of retailers, millennials remain among the least understood consumer sectors. To gain more in-depth insight into millennials, Mom Central Consulting embarked on a groundbreaking study of 1,100 American millennial women. For this research, we surveyed women without children in order to glean insights from the data about millennials as singletons. Today, with more and more women putting off marriage and kids, there's a growing group of non-moms from their mid-20s to early-30s who find themselves with relatively large disposable incomes. As retailers look to sell to the influential millennial market, what's the best way to reach this generation? Here are three key takeaways: