CRM

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…

During a virtual keynote hosted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) on June 24, Jeff Gennette, Chairman and CEO of Macy’s Inc, discussed the company’s digital transformation since the beginning of the pandemic, how customer behaviors have changed and what the department store is doing to adapt, and why diversity and inclusion is critical to…

If there was any doubt that consumer behavior can change rapidly, 2020 erased it for the foreseeable future. Last year’s events also erased the idea that customers would tolerate poor experiences during times of massive change. Now it’s clearer than ever that consumers are setting the terms of how, where, and when they engage with…

During the pandemic, brands turned to digital initiatives to reach customers, not only for marketing, but also for other stages of the consumer lifecycle. Here at Vibes, our own data showed a 200 percent increase in automated mobile transactional messages from January 2020 to December 2020. The messages ranged from providing consumers with information about…

“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…