CRM

“We know that some of our customers’ behaviors will shift back to pre-pandemic, and we know that some will never be the same. The issue is, we have no idea which is which.” In a recent discussion with a Fortune 500 CEO, he articulated to me what so many retail, CPG and commerce executives are…

As Americans hunkered down as a result of stay-at-home orders, they flocked to their screens to shop for groceries, home office supplies, nonessential goods, holiday gifts and more. With this, online retail sales grew 32.4 percent in 2020, a total of $791.7 billion in sales over the course of the year. This momentum continued into…

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…

Over the past year, the shift to e-commerce has accelerated across nearly every industry sector. As customers relied heavily on digital channels, brands needed to create meaningful customer experiences with shoppers through a screen. What consumer behaviors and expectations have changed, and how can retailers and brands adapt? Factors Influencing Customer Loyalty Changed During the…

Consumers are bombarded with sales messaging from dozens (or even hundreds or thousands) of brands across multiple channels throughout the day. The only way to cut through the noise is with meaningful interaction. And the only way to do that is to understand the customer’s needs and where he/she is in their journey, a unique…

We've recently passed the one-year mark for the pandemic economy, with all of its volatility, uncertainty and disruptions. Among the most emphatic takeaways is that direct to consumer (D-to-C) has proven incredibly resilient through these changes. In some sense, it seems obvious in retrospect, that brands built on the potent combination of direct distribution, online…

Customer experience (CX) was gaining importance as a competitive differentiator well before the pandemic. Now, after a year of retailers and brands pivoting to vie for consumers’ attention and dollars online, there's a new definition of great customer experience — one forged by 2020’s drastic shifts in the way we buy and sell. One result…

To reach consumers, brands need omnichannel strategies that deliver a consistent customer experience at every touchpoint. Yet today’s technical and business conversations about omnichannel are often too limited in scope to achieve what’s ultimately possible. Brands typically only focus on customer interactions across one or two channels or fail to break up the many information…

2020 presented challenge after challenge for the retail industry. While COVID-related online shopping resulted in an estimated revenue boost of $175 billion, the industry itself took a loss, with total sales dropping 10.5 percent — a number not seen since 2016. This unique combination created new challenges for retailers and brands of every shape and size,…

COVID-19 has changed the way retailers do business now and into the future. Today’s consumer essentially has three core demands: make my life easier, make my life better, and make my life more fulfilling. Retailers are responding to these consumer requirements with more urgency in the wake of COVID-19. The pandemic-induced shift to much higher…