User Experience

The way people interact with retail sites is changing, and this past holiday shopping season made that very clear. Shoppers have relied on comparison tools and search assistants for years. However, a new pattern emerged last year, with automated activity shaping the experience in ways that were hard to see from the outside. New research…

Gift cards continue to be one of the most resilient and valuable product categories in retail, and the latest research shows that their importance is only growing. According to new findings from NAPCO Research and Blackhawk Network (BHN), the U.S. and Canada gift card market is projected to reach $311.7 billion by 2029, reinforcing gift…

When growth slows, customer experience (CX) becomes the new currency of competition. The retailers that thrive will be those that turn CX signals into decisions that drive measurable revenue, opportunities to reduce costs and risk, and improve the cultures of their organizations. This playbook shows how to make that shift: organize journeys, prioritize the highest-impact…

Last year’s holiday season set new records for online shopping, with e-commerce sales on Black Friday climbing more than 10 percent and Cyber Monday sales up more than 7 percent year-over-year, according to Adobe Analytics. With this year’s peak season expected to bring even higher online volumes, retailers must be ready to handle surging traffic,…

In episode 495 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Joe Cano, senior vice president of digital commerce at Lowe's, a FORTUNE® 100 home improvement company. Cano details the company's approach to personalizing the digital shopping experience for both DIY homeowners and professional contractors (1:45). He explains how Lowe's uses real-time data and artificial…

As retailers prepare for the holiday rush, all focus is on speed, convenience and conversion. However, there’s another metric that deserves attention this season: inclusion. Accessibility isn’t just about compliance anymore; it’s about building loyalty, trust, and a retail experience that works for everyone. I’ve spent more than two decades helping brands, from large household…

During BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) most brands focus on offering the biggest discount and driving as much traffic as possible. They blow money on promotions and ads, but waste the traffic they worked so hard to attract. The reason? Conversion leaks. The real winners optimize each part of the funnel and compound little improvements:…

Search functionality has always been central to digital commerce. For years, it functioned like a rigid index, where shoppers typed in keywords and hoped the right products appeared. Now, as consumer expectations have evolved, that passive model fell behind. Today’s shoppers expect more than functional search; instead, they want guided discovery that's tailored to their…

Today, every customer interaction online is a make-or-break moment: a smooth, intuitive digital journey builds loyalty and revenue, while a frustrating one pushes customers straight to competitors. This has made the digital experience — and IT’s role in managing it — more crucial than ever for growth. So how do retailers make sure they’re getting…

In order to focus efforts on the appropriate demographic, any successful marketing strategy must include a step to determine the target buyer. In fact, 39 percent of consumers now expect brands to speak directly to their needs. Who are shadow buyers? They're the people who browse your product, weigh their options, and help shape the…