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In today’s retail world, the reality is that everything can change within months, weeks or even a day. While creating an effective customer self-service portal has long been a priority for many, recent world events have made it infinitely more imperative. We’re talking, of course, about the COVID-19 public health crisis. The pandemic has affected…

The holiday shopping season is upon us, and it could be make-or-break for many retailers after a challenging year. This year, 71 percent of U.S. adults will purchase more than half of their holiday gifts online. Online retail will be more important than ever for the 2020 holiday season, as many consumers hesitate to leave the…

More than 6,300 U.S. stores are expected to close in 2020 amid a pandemic and ongoing changes to the brick-and-mortar model. Among them are some of the longest-running brands in retail, including Lord & Taylor, Victoria’s Secret, and Brooks Brothers. In order to re-stimulate the sector, retailers are mixing in digital solutions to create memorable…

After years of steady growth, COVID-19 has massively accelerated e-commerce penetration. According to an eMarketer report, U.S. e-commerce sales will jump by 18 percent this year due to the impact of the pandemic. This increase in sales has obviously been a relief for retailers, but it’s also brought with it something less profitable and more…

There’s no doubt that recent circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have reshaped the way retailers operate and connect with their customers daily. Shelter-in-place ordinances and stay-at-home mandates have forced retail brands to rely on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and chatbot technology to manage much of the workload required for servicing their customers’ needs. In fact,…

This past quarter, retailers discovered what happens when a robust omnichannel strategy is forced down to one storefront: digital. Players in every industry have accelerated their timelines and poured resources into their online experience, and are learning as they go. We see firsthand the strain our own customers are feeling as they stare down a…

Retail sales over the past year have declined 21.6 percent, with recent months piling on additional unprecedented challenges. Not only are consumers embracing e-commerce, but how they seek out support is also changing. Even though these trends started to emerge before the global pandemic, they're now playing out on an accelerated timeline and putting retailers…

In times such as these, when we're asked to stay at home and do our part to #flattenthecurve and help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, retail businesses around the world are experiencing changes in their usual ways of doing business. With more and more cases of coronavirus reported on a daily basis, people are reluctant to…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers worldwide have been forced to shutter their brick-and-mortar locations and rely on online sales. For many, this quick transition has highlighted the crucial need to advance their online customer experience (CX) capabilities — and in some cases, start them from scratch. While the usual, employee-driven customer service…

As with telemedicine for healthcare and online learning for education, digital customer experience (CX) for retail is now a mission-critical path for operational continuity amid the global pandemic. Companies dependent on physical locations that didn't successfully transform their business model for digital are particularly vulnerable to worsening economic forecasts. Among other shortcomings that amassed nearly $1.7 billion…