Marketing

When shoppers ask artificial intelligence models for "the most comfortable shapewear" or "the best running shoes for flat feet," the answer rarely comes from a brand's own website or external marketing. Large language models (LLMs) don't take a brand's word for it. They look for validation, and they find it in the sources consumers already…

In episode 520 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Stephen Nesle, chief marketing officer at Bob's Discount Furniture, one of the nation’s fastest-growing furniture brands with more than 200 showrooms across the United States. Nesle discusses why he believes entertainment and creator-led content deserves investment right now (1:35), including what the Bob's team…

Back-to-school shopping has given retailers an early look at what could define the holiday season: consumers are willing to spend, but they remain highly focused on value. A recent back-to-school survey by Snipp found that 74.8 percent of shoppers expected to spend more this year, while 81.8 percent were concerned about affordability. While consumers may…

Black Friday and Cyber Monday result in higher website traffic for retailers than any other week of the year. This is also when falling short of the many privacy laws now in place costs the most. An increasing number of states now mandate that websites automatically respect a shopper's privacy preferences, without the need for…

In this episode of Total Retail Tech Insights, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Janna Navarro, vice president, managing director at Wpromote x Giant Spoon, an independent full-service creative and marketing agency. Listen in as Navarro shares her insight into the state of the retail industry today (1:10), the biggest challenges facing retail marketers right now (3:45),…

Wayfair announced on Wednesday that it posted its strongest quarter of sales growth since the pandemic as the furniture retailer continues to win over customers and take market share. The company said it saw double-digit revenue growth in the U.S., reaching about $3 billion, an 11.4 percent increase from the year prior. Wayfair CFO Kate…

Brands like BYLT Basics that grew up entirely on paid social and site conversion are reaching a new stage of growth. Rising customer acquisition costs, platform dependency, and diminishing returns from digital-only channels are pushing brands to think beyond e-commerce. Physical retail isn’t replacing direct to consumer, it’s strengthening it. In this keynote session from…

Retailers worldwide are deploying artificial intelligence across customer service, allowing them to handle interactions at a speed and scale that wasn’t previously possible. However, as AI takes on more customer interactions, companies need a clearer view into how those experiences are performing. Interactions with chatbots increasingly shape the customer’s perception of the brand, making visibility…

For a long time, retail media barely registered as marketing. Budgets often sat with trade or sales teams rather than the marketing department. It's grown into something closer to a hundred channels, heading in a direction that makes reporting harder. And it now lands squarely on the marketing team's plate. U.S. retail media ad spending…

Brands talk a lot about the importance of customer loyalty, and the investment appears to back that up. Our recent research among 2,400 consumers and 600 e-commerce brands found that 69 percent of brands split their budgets evenly between acquisition and retention. Despite this, customers see things very differently. Two-thirds of respondents believe that brands…