Omnichannel

You’ve heard it again and again: the customer is in control of the shopping journey, and only those retailers that provide memorable and meaningful experiences will win long-term loyalty. While this is a widely accepted truth, the reality is that only a handful of brands are fulfilling this promise. We all know the biggest names…

Join us to learn about modernizing the way you communicate to bridge the experiential gap, turning web traffic into foot traffic.

It’s that time of year when we start seeing new year sales forecasts roll in and determine which brands will and won’t be retail winners. While some “winners” are easier to predict, I believe there will be a twist this year. In 2020, the retail winners will be direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) brands, many of which most…

Every facet of a retailer’s business can present a challenge when it comes to providing the perfect customer experience — sales, inventory, shipping, delivery, you name it. At some point, those challenges will give rise to issues, and it’s no secret that when consumers encounter a problem, they reach out to the source to get…

This holiday season promises to be big — but short. Overall holiday retail sales will see above-average growth, between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent, which equates to roughly $730 billion. E-commerce sales are expected to grow even faster, with an 18 percent spike year-over-year. Concurrently, the holiday shopping schedule this year consists of only four, not five,…

I’ve long been a proponent of making omnichannel a C-suite issue. It has to come from the top down. But the brands struggling to deliver a true omnichannel experience have a fundamental issue. At an organizational level, many brands still operate online and in-store in silos. E-commerce and physical retail are their own separate entities,…

Last year, the National Retail Federation (NRF) found that during the winter season, consumers planned to spend a total of more than $1,000 on average for items like decorations, candy and gifts, and a nearly equal amount of respondents planned to make their purchases online (56 percent) as did at department stores (53 percent). Finding…

We live in a world where customer expectations are constantly changing. And for businesses, keeping up with customers can be a daunting task. “Connected Customer” is a relatively new term used to describe those customers that interact with brands through digital means such as websites, apps, voice assistants (e.g., Alexa), etc. An overwhelmingly large percentage…

Cash registers will be jingling this holiday season, as consumers indicate they plan to open their wallets and head to stores. With key economic fundamentals remaining strong, JLL predicts a 4.5 percent to 5.0 percent increase in retail holiday sales. Here are three major findings from JLL’s 2019 Holiday Shopping Survey. Stores Will Be a…

Retailers are bracing themselves for a 2019 holiday shopping season that’s six days shorter than last year’s. What will make shoppers choose one retailer over another? How can retailers grow sales in the condensed season? And what can stretch this short shopping period into something longer and more lucrative? The answer to each of these…