According to Statista, Halloween consumer spending this year in the U.S. is estimated to reach $3.5 billion, a significant jump from previous years. With spending steadily increasing, brands must take action to provide efficient service and high-quality customer experiences even during peak seasonal times. Delivering high-quality customer experiences during the build-up to Halloween is critical for…
Amber Hovious
A human touch holds significant value in the retail customer experience and is important to get right. When done well, a customer’s interaction with in-store staff can increase sales opportunities and drive loyalty. However, a poor interaction can result in the complete opposite. Recently, technology adoption in retail has increased, with 88 percent of senior…
Competition plays a huge factor in the retail industry. Operating in a highly saturated market, retailers must constantly work towards meeting their customers’ expectations quickly while providing a high-quality experience. With price and convenience being the two biggest factors affecting consumer purchase decisions, retailers must find ways to keep costs down while continuing to streamline…
Nearly four years on from the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail industry continues to face challenges, specifically with labor shortages. Statista research shows that since the pandemic, the rising U.S. retail employment numbers have had a sharp decline, which is expected to continue, with U.S. retail staff predicted to have 500,000 fewer employees by 2026 as…
In today’s modern retail ecosystem, where retailers are deploying technology to deliver effective omnichannel offerings and curate high-quality customer experiences (CX), one challenge that still concerns many retailers is the returns dilemma. In 2022, returned retail merchandise amounted to almost $817 billion in the U.S., a 7 percent increase from $761 billion in 2021. Of…
Personalized customer experience (CX) has become one of the key differentiators for retailers, and today’s digital-savvy customers expect retailers to provide a seamless CX both offline and online. In fact, 82 percent of customers are even willing to share their personal information for personalized experiences. However, customers have also become conscious of how their data…
Each year, NRF: Retail's Big Show acts as the curtain-raiser for some of the retail industry’s most advanced and innovative technology solutions. While 2022’s event saw NRF’s return to New York’s Javits Center, attendee turnout remained unusually low due to the world being in the early stages of the post-pandemic recovery. However, 2023 saw attendee…
