User Experience

Wal-Mart Website Struggles to Handle Demand for ‘Doorbusters’
November 27, 2015 at 11:44 am

Wal-Mart’s website malfunctioned during the Thanksgiving shopping rush Thursday morning, throwing a wrench in some shoppers’ plans to avoid long lines by grabbing deals online. For the first time, the world’s biggest retailer offered most of its Black Friday “doorbusters” on its website hours before they were available inside its U.S. stores. The discounts, which were…

Which Elements of the Shopping Experience Matter Most?
November 2, 2015 at 12:16 pm

This article was originally featured on Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC), a sister organization of Total Retail. When it comes to shopping behavior, price is a key motivator. However, to sustain a customer’s loyalty over the long term, retailers often find it valuable to focus on the customer experience. But which experiences are most important…

4 Tips for Optimizing the Customer Experience to Increase Engagement and Conversions
October 27, 2015 at 12:27 pm

Website and customer experience optimization aren't new. Both have been slowly and steadily evolving over the past decade and have become a key competitive differentiator for many retailers, especially global brands that have created a “culture of optimization” throughout their organizations. Along with this evolution comes new tips, tricks and techniques based on the previous…

Jet.com CEO: We May Have the Lowest Prices, But Many Shoppers Can’t Figure That Out
September 1, 2015 at 10:23 am

Jet.com may have the lowest prices on the web, but a lot of people who visit the site still don’t realize it. That's something CEO Marc Lore acknowledged when asked about confusion among people who hear about Jet.com’s low prices but don’t see them displayed clearly when they visit a Jet.com product page. “Believe me, we have…

How to Use Competitive Benchmarking to Your Advantage
July 6, 2015 at 1:45 pm

Competition is one of the biggest motivators for online retailers, especially as e-commerce sales keep climbing. Regardless of whether another company offers the exact same products you do, there are hundreds of thousands of other companies competing for your target market’s attention and money as well as training your customers on what to expect. That’s…

Patience is an Absent Virtue During Peak Shopping Events
June 16, 2015 at 2:41 pm

Patience is a virtue, but unfortunately it’s not one that that e-tailers can count on from their customers, especially when it comes to peak digital shopping events like Mother’s Day. Consumer impatience and demand for consistently high performance and speed is a well-documented fact in today’s digital economy. The so called "Google effect" has drained…

A Rookie’s Guide to A/B Testing for M-Commerce
June 10, 2015 at 4:39 pm

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has grown 42 percent annually for the past four years. Consumers are becoming comfortable transacting on their phones, and more retailers are investing in mobile to woo these small-screen shoppers. As the market grows, however, so too does the competition for thumb space and user retention. To compete, brands need to win…