Content Marketing

Like real estate, retail has always been about location, location, location. But as the demographics of the American population continue to shift, retailers have placed more emphasis on targeting specific ethnic groups based on their location and spending patterns. As such, they must rely on advanced micro-geographic technology to get better insight into the prominent ethnicities of specific neighborhoods (both current and future projections) that they're targeting for stores nationwide. Having a better understanding of in-store consumers helps drive online purchases as well.

Competing with an e-commerce Goliath like Amazon.com can be a daunting task, but specialty merchants have some distinct advantages, including the capacity to forge strong ties with shoppers through a brand community. Amazon's online warehouse of products offers little to unite customers around a common lifestyle or passion. By focusing on a particular product category, value proposition or audience, you can provide meaningful interaction and a shopping experience to connect your customers with other like-minded consumers.

Talking about omnichannel is very fashionable for retailers nowadays. At a high level, the concepts behind providing great customer experience across channels are easy to understand. However, those in the business know that executing on a great omnichannel strategy is pretty challenging. Omnichannel retailers are acutely aware of three key trends that are heavily influencing the industry today: