Blogs

Don’t get me wrong, this post is really about great customer service. There will be tips, too. But first, a quick update to my readers: In late 2019, after 20 years, I gave up my marketing consulting practice. I was done, burnt out, sick of dealing with C-levels and, most importantly, making them a fortune…

The horrific pandemic caused people to stay home most of the year, which created a large spike in orders for many direct-to-consumer companies, both catalog and digital. The increase in demand was so significant that it caused issues for the supply chain. Many retailers scrambled to purchase inventory in order to meet the order demand…

What is direct mail? It's unsolicited advertising sent through the mail to existing customers and prospects. Examples include postcards, solo mailers, catalogs, self-mailers, etc. Unlike mass media, direct mail is targeted so that you're reaching your most desired audience. It’s a rifle vs. a shotgun approach to marketing effectively. In this post, I'll discuss the…

An outcome of the pandemic-accelerated e-commerce boom, the demand for parcel services continues to exceed the supply. Like previous years, network capacity limits will be stretched for all carriers this holiday season and into 2022. UPS recently put a number on it: the daily demand exceeds the parcel market’s network capacity by 5 million packages…

Last Friday, the U.S. Postal Service announced temporary price increases effective Oct. 18, 2020 through Dec. 27, 2020. Increases are quite significant, as follows: Parcel Select (DDU entry): Up to 7.5 percent Parcel Select (DSCF entry): Up to 9.1 percent Parcel Select (DNDC entry): Up to 6.7 percent Parcel Return Service: Up to 7.9 percent…

UPS announced two Peak Surcharge increases effective May 31, 2020: an increase on UPS Ground Residential and UPS SurePost packages, as well as an add-on charge for larger shipments that incur the Large Package Surcharge (LPS). Ground Residential as well as SurePost will be assessed an additional surcharge of $.30/package when the current average weekly…

2020 was the beginning of a new world in retail. The pandemic took what would have been years of physical and digital commerce growth and compacted it into a matter of weeks, requiring sellers and consumers alike to adapt and innovate at an unprecedented rate. While the evolution of retail and e-commerce has been expeditious…

For decades, most retailers depended on foot traffic to their brick-and-mortar stores much more than the website they felt compelled to build late in the last century. Furthermore, “direct to consumer” isn’t really a new concept; thousands of prosperous companies marketed by direct mail and catalogs only, collecting orders via mail and phone before “that…

We've rounded the corner and thank goodness we feel the country is on the backside of the COVID pandemic. What a ride it has been! It's far from over, but under control. For many consumer companies, COVID caused a surge in business with more people working and shopping from home. It has put pressure on…

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are important to any print catalog or digital marketing business. Knowing how often and which KPI to track can make a huge difference to your profit and loss (P&L) statement. You need to separate the “nice to know” from the “need to know” information. Tracking nonessential KPIs might make you feel…

Direct mail is experiencing a long overdue resurgence for retailers, hastened by the pandemic. Increasingly crowded ads on social media and Google, full email inboxes, SMS dings all day long ... while the much-maligned mailbox remained emptier as credit card offers dwindled and in-store postcard coupons were recycled. It’s not surprising that many e-commerce brands…

2020 is a year we will always remember, yet one we would like to forget. It was a year that changed our lives forever. Some have been affected more than others, but we all have a story to tell. People talk about “the new normal,” but what exactly does that mean to retailers and direct…

In a rapidly changing retail environment, there's one seemingly obvious constant. A positive experience, whether with a brand, product, service or an employee, forms the foundation of meaningful customer engagement and drives sales. The imperative, therefore, is for companies in all industries to figure out how to create experiences that reflect exactly what their customers…

Amazon.com is big. Powerful, too. The vision of Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is remarkable. It's astounding to consider Amazon’s ascension began just 26 years ago in 1994. While I don’t always agree with Amazon’s practices, I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Bezos as an entrepreneur, a visionary, and for the brand…

I'm no stranger to writing about disaster preparedness and crisis management. I live in an area where we get hit with a hurricane every few years. And while we're in uncharted waters here with the COVID-19 Coronavirus, there are some things that marketers forget about doing in times of crisis. I will leave up to…

I'm so excited to announce that I will be moderating a session at the CommerceNext Virtual Summit, taking place July 28-29! Based on the theme “Path to Recovery,” the CommerceNext Virtual Summit is designed to help retailers rebuild after extended store closures and a rapid transformation of e-commerce shaped by COVID-19. During the event, you’ll hear from brands…

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources, which features a curated list of the best content and resources I've found over the past week. This week, I offer information and resources about leadership, diversity and inclusion, and some fun stuff, too. As always, if there's anything you would like me to share in a future post, let…

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources, which features a curated list of the best content and resources I've found for you over the past week. This week, I offer information and resources about leadership, remote team building tools and perks, more ways to fight racism and become better allies, and more. If there's anything you would…

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources. This week, I'm dedicating this post to what I believe are valuable resources to help retail business leaders fight racism and become better allies. If there's anything you would like me to share in a future post, let me know by dropping me a line at mcampanelli@napco.com. LinkedIn has made its seven-course…

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources, which features a curated list of the best content and resources I've found over the past week. This week, I offer information and resources about leadership, data related to COVID-19, and some fun stuff, too. As always, if there's anything you would like me to share in a future post,…

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources, which features a curated list of the best content and resources I've found for you over the past week. This week, I offer information and resources about leadership, COVID-19 recovery readiness as stores and offices begin to slowly open, and wellness. As always, if there's anything you would like me…

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources, which features a curated list of the best content and resources that I hope will help you navigate through the coronavirus pandemic. This week I offer information and resources about business strategies, wellness tips, and personal finance information. If there's anything you would like me to share in a…

The novel coronavirus and the precautions governments and individuals are taking to protect themselves from infection have already had a powerful impact on the global economy. Those impacts are likely to extend well into this year, possibly even into the fourth-quarter holiday shopping period. Between disruptions to manufacturing and supply chains and shifts in consumer…

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt throughout supply chains worldwide. With much production impacted, and facing an uncertain future, many retailers are wondering how to manage existing inventory in the short and long term. For retailers with longer seasonal lead times, spring and summer inventory is likely already in stock, or at least secured.…

What is the greatest coffee secret at Starbucks you never knew? Simple answer: a cup of coffee from its Clover machine. I will get to the sales and marketing point of this blog post in a moment. But first let’s talk about a subject most of us love: coffee! If you've never had a "Clover," you're…

I was excited to interview Tom Ebling last week, a true retail technology leader whose stint as CEO of Demandware from 2010-2016 included growing the software company into a $300 million public company that was acquired by Salesforce for $2.8 billion in 2016. Prior to Demandware, Ebling was the CEO of Lattice Engines, ProfitLogic and…

I always love to learn about unique partnerships in the retail space, and I recently heard about one that involves two of my faves — food and jewelry — so I thought I’d share it with you. The partnership, which launched in June, is between online jewelry retailer BaubleBar and FoodKick by FreshDirect, an on-demand business…

Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, men are shopping both online and in-stores at higher rates than women. As discovered in First Insight’s latest consumer survey, The Rise of the New Male Power Shopper, men are bucking long-believed trends surrounding shopping habits. Men are more frequently shopping across all major channels both online and in-store,…

Each day, the world seems bigger, more diverse and moves much faster. Predicting the future — always a dubious proposition — seems like a fool’s errand in this climate, given the dizzying pace of disruption. But as Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” For retailers, that…

It's official: Digital technology has permanently altered the retail landscape. To examine why and how, Synchrony Financial took a deep dive into this reality with its current report, "Driving Shopper Engagement Through Digital Technology," which includes data from the 2016 Synchrony Financial Digital Study. The study, which gathered insights on mobile adoption and digital usage,…

It’s not often that you get to hear from retail legends like Jim Sinegal, co-founder and director of Costco Wholesale Corp. That’s why I was so excited to attend his talk at SAP’s Retail Executive Forum, which was held in New York City earlier this month. And he didn't disappoint. Sinegal served as the CEO…

I’ve just returned from the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York City, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to give those of you who didn’t make it to the show some of the major takeaways I have after spending two days wandering the vast Jacob Javits Convention Center. So without…

With this being the last issue of Total Retail Report of 2015 (it returns on Mon., Jan. 4), we thought it would be a good time to put together a list of our most popular content of the year. This content is ranked in order based on the number of page views. Our best wishes…