Customer Retention

After the onset of COVID-19, the world was abuzz with how the retail industry would fare. There were early signs that online shopping was surging, but nobody expected e-commerce penetration to grow by 27 percent in only eight weeks. Looking back at an unprecedented year for online retail sales, there are other trends that we…

Since the onset of COVID-19, consumers appear to have re-assessed their priorities when they’re shopping online. Today, consumers are expecting higher levels of authenticity, seeking out brands they can trust will deliver on promises and that also align with their own values. In fact, 52 percent of respondents from Euromonitor’s Lifestyle Survey in 2020 agreed…

With the COVID-19 pandemic further shifting consumer retail buying habits online, it's more important than ever for companies to utilize tools that help them thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape. According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, “the shift to online retail is real, and much of it will stick.” However, only 60 percent…

In part one of this series, we discussed the importance of earning your customers’ ongoing support, and how increasing customer retention by just 5 percent can boost profits by an average of 75 percent. While retention marketing has been around for a while, this area of business will only continue to rise in importance as…

We’ve entered the next stage of combating COVID-19 as vaccinations roll out across the country. While this may be the next step towards getting the pandemic under control, consumers remain wary. In fact, vaccine or not, most Americans said they would hardly change their current shopping behaviors — an important finding for retailers currently planning…

In 2019, online retail sales surpassed $3.5 trillion worldwide, but the e-commerce boom was just getting started. With COVID-19 keeping everyone home, and brands pivoting operations to sell online, the events of 2020 created a unique ecosystem for the online marketplace to explode. This shift in consumer behavior, combined with the technology available today, make…

Price is no longer king, and brand name alone won’t get you very far with a consumer that now values trust above all else when selecting which retailers and brands to shop with online. Since March 2020, the sustained influx of retailers into the online shopping space has severely damaged the relationship between customer and…

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed two severe stress tests on retailers, according to Brand Keys 25th annual 2021 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index®, a national survey of 75,000-plus consumers conducted by the New York-based brand engagement and customer loyalty research consultancy. The survey found rigors created by the 2020 marketplace produced two loyalty challenges for retailers: to…

The last year proved to be the most difficult retailers have ever faced. At a time when shoppers needed to stock up, retailers were forced to place limits on select items. As lines and basket sizes increased, retailers had to pull back on the number of people allowed inside stores. It was an ongoing situation…

Building and maintaining trust with consumers has always been an important engagement strategy for brands. However, given the significant challenges of the past year, establishing trust has been elevated from just an important engagement strategy to a critical commercial imperative. Gartner defines brand trust as “a consumer’s trust and belief that a company will consistently…