From small local boutiques to iconic department stores, no corner of the retail sector has been untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the separation between winners and losers has never been so stark. For every mall chain declaring bankruptcy, there’s a competitor that’s quickly responded to the new normal and is reaping the revenue benefits.…
Global e-commerce is undergoing a transformation as COVID-19 continues to bring a massive shift in consumer habits and a surge in online shopping. Social distancing and shelter-at-home requirements have consumers turning online to buy everything from food and household goods to electronics and clothing. While the overall volume of e-commerce transactions received the bulk of…
While pandemic-driven disruption across the retail industry has brought new opportunities, it also exposed significant gaps in capabilities to balance demand and availability, while ensuring safe and contactless shopping experiences. Several retailers struggled with the surge in online purchases, inventory shortages due to skewed demand patterns, and workforce imbalance to fulfill customer orders. While the…
The end of 2020 brought an atypical shopping experience for many consumers facing lockdown restrictions. Whether brands were prepared, unprepared or fell somewhere in between in order to meet the rapid shift in consumer behavior due to the pandemic, they all had lessons to learn and room for improvement when it came to meeting and…
Social commerce is an e-commerce term for buying and selling via social media networks. It includes everything from learning about a product, direct messaging sellers, and purchasing the item using a social app. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing brick-and-mortar stores to close their doors, including many small businesses, social commerce can be a tool for…
In my previous article about Magecart web skimming attacks, I recapped some of the noteworthy victims of this cybercriminal collective and how attackers managed to breach them. Today, security teams in retail are mostly aware of this threat, however, navigating the different technologies and products that claim to be effective towards Magecart isn’t an easy…
Customer service has become a competitive differentiator for retailers — on par with quality and price. When a person reaches out to a company with a question or issue, the experience has an immediate and direct impact on whether they will do business with a company again — now or in the future. Retailers like…
The world of e-commerce is constantly changing, and we wanted to benchmark what areas retailers felt delivered the best customer experience (CX) and return on investment. We worked with Gatepoint Research to survey over 100 of the United States' biggest retailers and digitally native e-commerce brands to understand what was working and what wasn’t in…
Enterprises in virtually every industry are utilizing a bevy of new technologies that create efficiencies and cut costs through new, advanced virtual services. Many of these organizations are working to harness these virtual technologies through automation so that they can vastly improve the customer experience whereby digital processes are accessible through optimized services. Leading technologies…
Two minutes into browsing through an e-commerce site for new workout clothes, I closed the window in favor of checking my emails. Three minutes later, I couldn’t even remember the name of the website. How is it that some e-commerce sites create completely unmemorable experiences, while others make you think, “Where’s my wallet?” The difference…
