Omnichannel

The zeitgeist of 2020 retail commerce can be summarized in two words: survival mode. COVID-19 kept shoppers at home, away from brick-and-mortar stores, and encouraged many consumers to order online for the first time, adding their purchases to the already increased activity of users already confident in digital transactions. The pandemic increased e-commerce sales 44…

Faced with rising COVID-19 case numbers across the country, many consumers planned to visit fewer retail stores this past holiday season than any year on record. As a result, online and contactless shopping experiences — e.g., buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), curbside, and delivery services — have become the new normal. Ten months into…

Traditional shopping patterns went out the window, e-commerce loomed large, and concerns about product availability and fulfillment were some of the themes that emerged during the 2020 holiday shopping season. In-store browsing and comparison shopping are moving online, and the emotions and values traditionally embraced by consumers have been intensified. Omnichannel video advertising can help…

Lots of design literature has been written to document e-commerce shopping best practices. User experience (UX) and user interface strategies, like checkout flows or microcopy, matter for increasing purchases. The role operations can play with improving conversion and revenue is often ignored because of its multiple levels of difficulty. Unlike a button, whose color can…

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned retail upside down. Pre-coronavirus, digital commerce was already outpacing overall retail growth. Services such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) were steadily increasing, but aside from grocery and select big-box retailers, curbside pickup wasn't even on the long-term road map for most retailers. Today, BOPIS and curbside pickup have…

COVID-19 has resulted in unexpected exponential growth in e-commerce and shifts in shopping. At the beginning of the pandemic, online or in-app shopping increased over 40 percent in the U.S., while trips to stores decreased over 50 percent. As time has gone on, however, consumers predict they’ll find some semblance of a return to normality,…

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a diverse range of trends were beginning to reshape the economic landscape, with the steady rise of remote work, telehealth, and e-commerce upending old business models. With the arrival of the novel coronavirus, however, changes that had been unfolding more gradually have now been dramatically accelerated. To stay relevant in…

COVID-19 has fast tracked the adoption of emerging technologies in retail spaces, blurring the lines between traditional brick-and-mortar experiences and digital commerce. Where only a year ago we saw roughly 16 percent total penetration for e-commerce across sectors, we’ve now eclipsed 30 percent penetration, with certain categories meaningfully higher. This level of penetration represents a…

Brick-and-mortar retailers have been especially challenged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to provide safe and frictionless in-store experiences for shoppers. In this video, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews John Goss, senior vice president and president of Sally Beauty Supply, to find out what the retailer has done to create a safe, enjoyable in-store shopping experience for its customers…

In episode 276 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Sean Kell, CEO of Blue Nile, the largest e-commerce retailer of GIA-certified diamonds and fine jewelry. Listen in as Kell discusses his career journey leading up to his joining Blue Nile last year, the company's recently announced store expansion plan, and why now is…