CRM

Consumer shopping behavior has changed, and the holidays will look different this year. Since in-store shopping has declined, brands are looking for ways to drive their e-commerce business and move the needle before the end of the year. However, the online space has become cluttered and confusing. Stand out by running chance-to-win promotions that are designed to motivate…

Paleontologists and evolutionary biologists often speak of “punctuated equilibrium” — a time of rapid evolutionary change following a long span of stasis. Such periods occur following a cataclysmic episode — e.g., the massive asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs. COVID-19 is a punctuated equilibrium event for retail. It changed everything, and many of these…

For commerce practitioners, be it on the manufacturer, platform or agency side, 2020 has been a mixed bag. For many, it’s come with great gains — think food brands scooping up shoppers who could no longer eat out or wellness brands working the frontlines at home through flu and cold medication. That spike was definitely…

While COVID has been an “unprecedented disruption” for business and consumers, it’s clearly been an accelerant for existing trends. For retailers, this includes “Retail Darwinism.” Retailers filing for bankruptcy is nothing new, but regardless of a vaccine or another “unprecedented” event, failure to understand the context that made COVID exacerbate retail’s challenges will only leave…

In part one of this multipart series, it was clear that L'Oréal’s e-commerce partnerships are a long-term strategy for improving the customer experience, which will ultimately lead to increased return on investment. In the second part of this series, I detail how L'Oréal is using technology to improve data transparency, as well as how the…

The retail landscape looks completely different today compared to the beginning of 2020. COVID-19 has caused stores to shut down and employees to be furloughed. Retailers were already challenged before the pandemic began, and now many consumers are wary of returning to stores. Furthermore, social distancing regulations limit the number of people allowed in a…

In this week’s Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Ashley Chiaradio and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published on Total Retail, “The Future of Retail: Beyond the Pandemic,” authored by Jeff Orschell, retail and global account leader at EY Americas. The article discusses how retailers must adjust to the new normal to best serve the…

As states across the U.S. are relaxing stay-at-home orders, and with restrictions on everyday activities easing, Americans seem to be finally settling into a new routine. The burning question now is: How must retailers adjust to the new normal to best serve the post-pandemic consumer? According to the most recent EY Future Consumer Index, a…

Businesses are opening back up, but things are far from business as usual. Facing new customer concerns around health and safety, retailers have had to reimagine their operations. And while the crisis has spawned a bevy of new and innovative solutions to overcome unprecedented challenges, it’s become clear that the needs and expectations of consumers…

The retail industry has ridden its share of economic waves over time, but no sudden downturn has unleashed quite the level of uncertainty — and urgent need for adaptation — as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The ongoing crisis has laid bare the vulnerabilities of many brands’ current data strategies and highlighted the need for a…