E-Commerce

For years, retailers have optimized for a single moment: the website visit. How do we drive more traffic to our site? How do we increase time on page? How do we move shoppers from homepage to product detail to checkout? That model, however, is breaking down. Right now, a meaningful and rapidly growing segment of…

For a decade now, retail organizations have viewed cart abandonment as a "funnel leak," to be solved by urgency emails, exit-intent pop-ups, and discount triggers. New research suggests that approach has cost retailers more than it has recovered. According to a recent CouponFollow survey of 1,016 American adults, there's been a fundamental shift in how…

At Shoptalk in Las Vegas last month, Total Retail Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviewed Tom Verrilli, chief product officer at Whatnot, the largest livestream shopping platform in the U.S., UK, and Europe. They explore the rise of live commerce and the customer experience within the Whatnot platform that combines the ease of e-commerce with the personal…

Joe Keenan interviews experts from OLLY and Contentsquare on the rise of AI-driven search.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts that retail sales in 2026 will grow by 4.4 percent over 2025 to $5.6 trillion, based on a newly enhanced forecasting approach developed in partnership with Oxford Economics, one of the world’s leading independent economic advisory firms. The announcement was made last week during NRF’s sixth annual State of…

The Advance Retail Sales Report from the Census Bureau showed consumer spending was down less than feared in January. Headline sales declined 0.2 percent, a step down from December's flat reading but better than the projected 0.3 percent decline. However, better days may be on the horizon for retailers. Economists widely expect bigger tax returns this…

As domestic markets mature and competition intensifies, retailers are increasingly looking beyond their home borders for growth. Cross-border e-commerce is no longer reserved for enterprise brands with unlimited budgets. It has become a viable and strategic expansion path for retailers of all sizes. In fact, global retail e-commerce sales are forecast to reach $6.8 trillion…

Bath & Body Works launched an authorized storefront on Amazon.com in its latest effort to sell products outside its stores, reports CNBC. The mall-favorite brand is making some of its best-selling fragrances, bodywashes, hand soaps and candles available for Amazon’s U.S. shoppers. The selection is also eligible for Prime shipping. The Amazon launch signals Bath…

In episode 501 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Nick Lezin, senior vice president of e-commerce and marketing at Ashley, an American home furnishings manufacturer and retailer. Lezin expands on Ashley's strategy for launching a fully transactional shopping experience through artificial intelligence platform Perplexity (1:20), along with the unmet customer needs that its…

Bankrupt department store company Saks Global is ending its e-commerce partnership with Amazon.com, reports PYMNTS. The arrangement between the two companies had already been strained when Saks filed for bankruptcy last month, even though the retailer hadn’t specified whether it would exercise its right under Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reject the deal. Now, the luxury…