Digital Innovation

The pandemic was an extraordinary time for the retail community and, in 2022, retail marketers are still adjusting to the post-pandemic marketplace and the major, lasting shifts in consumer behavior. For example, with brick-and-mortar outlets forced to close during lockdown, the popularity of online shopping rose significantly during the pandemic. Another trend that has outlasted…

The pandemic pulled forward a decade’s worth of digital innovation into a single year. As a result, retailers and brands scrambled to shift their customer experiences online and set up new capabilities to reflect a multichannel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience — online from a desktop or…

Starbucks will unveil its web3 initiative, which includes coffee-themed NFTs, at next month’s Investor Day event. The company earlier this year announced plans to enter the web3 space, noting its NFTs wouldn’t just serve as digital collectibles, but would provide their owners with access to exclusive content and other perks. At the time, Starbucks provided little…

Ulta Beauty has become the latest retailer to launch a venture capital arm after announcing a new digital innovation fund Wednesday. The fund, called Prisma Ventures, earmarks $20 million for digital innovation in beauty, according to a company press release. The fund will invest in emerging technology startups that "seek to shape future online and in-store…

The past few years have been challenging for retail brands, which are adapting to external market forces like the pandemic and evolving in response to shifting customer expectations. It’s also an exciting time, and many brand marketers are experimenting with new ways to meet people where they are — increasingly in the metaverse and other…

Like many sectors, luxury retail has weathered more than a few challenges, crises and storms over the last few years — illustrated by the 23 percent drop in sales (or around $228 billion) in 2020 worldwide. These challenges have put considerable pressure on brands to keep pace with changing market trends and customer behaviors. For decades,…

The global pandemic sparked an evolution in the retail landscape that doesn't show signs of stopping. Namely, there have been two obvious shifts among consumers: increased omnichannel shopping habits and decreased brand loyalty. Customers aren’t hesitating to find another retailer that gives them the shopping experience they desire, whether in-store or online. To keep up…

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Marie Albiges and Devon Russell discuss an article recently published by Total Retail titled, “How Retailers Can Use NFTs to Give Customers a Unique Shopping Experience,” authored by Angelo Coletta, founder and CEO of Zakeke. The article shares several ways that retailers can use NFTs (non-fungible…

Retail has certainly evolved over the past two years. Today, we're living in an omnichannel retail universe that must be catered to carefully by retailers. Store associates can’t be expected to carry the entire load and overwhelming task of the end-to-end sales process anymore, but we also can’t entirely lean on artificial intelligence (AI) to…

The NFT (non-fungible token) phenomenon has hit nearly every industry. For retailers, NFTs can be a unique offering that helps build customer loyalty and boost sales. But what are they, and how can retailers effectively use them to build brand affinity? NFTs are digital tokens for virtual items, and its key differentiator from other virtual…