Customer Acquisition

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…

A year ago, we couldn’t have imagined that toilet paper would be the hardest thing to find on store shelves, or that we’d be wearing masks in stores and making purchases behind plexiglass barriers. What 2020 has taught the retail industry — and the whole world — is that a lot can change practically overnight.…

2020 was no doubt one of the most challenging for retail. But 2021 should begin a path to recovery with improvements in health and in the economy. The retail industry has the opportunity to continue to innovate products and consumer experiences, expand business, and reconnect with consumers in new and different ways.

Luxury brands have long been known for their ability to control how their products are presented and sold. However, the pandemic has placed the industry at a crossroads. In order to keep pace with changing customer expectations on ways to engage with brands, the luxury sector is embracing new models which are more conscious, collaborative…

In episode 283 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Anne Cavassa, president of Saucony, a global running shoes, accessories and clothing brand. Listen in as Cavassa discusses the history of Saucony, its target customers and distribution channels, and how the brand is catering to both new runners and the entire running community. In…

A common construct for consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers is to divide the buying cycle into stages: before the store, in the store, and after the store. I've seen countless marketing plans built this way, and the objectives were usually pretty straightforward: Before the Store: Drive awareness and purchase interest. In the Store: Close the…

Communication drives conversion. It moves customers from browsers to buyers, delighting them through each step of the purchase journey when done correctly. In a retail operation, these conversations lead to satisfied customers, those that begin to expect a level of excellence that only you can offer. Communication, though, isn’t always accessible. It takes focus and…

The current rollout of vaccines gives hope that the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel is possibly near; however, this won’t slow the explosive growth in e-commerce that 2020’s lockdowns dramatically accelerated. eMarketer projects that U.S. e-commerce sales will reach $843.15 billion — 15 percent of total retail sales in 2021 — up from $794.5…

For the first time in history, NRF Chapter 1 went virtual. The highly anticipated event saw industry leaders reflect on one of retail’s most turbulent years to date. Consumer shopping behaviors changed seemingly overnight: in-store foot traffic shrunk at an alarming rate, e-commerce and mobile shopping trends boomed, and spending habits prioritized needs over wants.…

Was it just a year ago that all the buzz in retail was around “experiential retailing”? When Canada Goose, the clothing company, was creating arctic zones in its stores so customers could feel just how warm a CG parka would keep them? One exceptionally long year and one global pandemic later, the retail landscape has…