Customer Data

Inflation is hitting record highs, with prices rising by over 8.5 percent compared to last year. Key sectors such as food and gas are leading the trend with double-digit price increases, but all retail categories have been impacted. In this environment, customers are often unpredictable, more sensitive and more demanding. Pleasing the customer is essential…

Selecting the right customer service outsourcing partner is key to success. Cost and customer experience are likely at the forefront of your mind as you solicit support, but security should be as high of a priority to consider in the decision-making process. Cyber attackers are getting smarter, which means retailers also have to weigh risks…

In May, Marriott joined the growing list of brands launching retail media networks (RMNs). Marriott’s flavor promises advertisers access to 164 million members of its “Bonvoy” travel program. While Marriott’s RMN doesn’t build on established partner-brand relationships and co-op budgets the way a brand like Walmart can, Marriott’s sheer size and scope across many screens…

No one likes paying for backup. Obviously, retailers need it. Businesses today operate on data, and without it, commerce grinds to a halt. But it’s painful to spend money on something that you hope you never have to use. The value is all tied up with the nasty what-if of corrupted data, a fire, a…

The retail industry was ripe for change as soon as direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) and the digital world grew in popularity almost a decade ago. However, in 2021, retail e-commerce sales amounted to nearly $4.9 trillion, a figure only forecasted to grow by 50 percent over the next four years, reaching $7.4 trillion by 2025. While change…

Each year seems like a new bar to clear for holiday shopping. In 2021, online retail sales were up 11 percent over 2020 despite obstacles like bottlenecks in supply chains and rising prices. This year, the United States Postal Service is preparing to handle 50 million packages per day during the holiday shopping season, and…

Navigating the business, societal and technological upheavals of the past two years has been no easy task for retailers. But here’s the good news: The concurrent disruption across the digital marketing landscape in recent years has opened new opportunities for retailers — sustainable ones built on the strength of their customer relationships. The biggest opportunity…

A recent Wall Street Journal article by Jaewon Kang points out the unintended brand switching and trial created by out-of-stocks related to the pandemic, and continuing due to the myriad supply chain issues. Basically, the increased incidence of a person buying brand X instead of their usual brand Y is because brand Y is out of stock. And similar…

This episode was recorded at CRMC 2022 in Chicago. In episode 357 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Jennifer Hoth, director of global loyalty marketing and CRM at ASICS Digital, a division of ASICS, the global sporting goods, footwear and apparel retailer. Listen in as Hoth discusses the ASICS Digital business and her…

For many businesses and marketers across a variety of industries, age is a primary opportunity to achieve insight into your audience. It’s a key strategy for segmenting customers into different groups. However, many companies still remain ineffective at targeting these different audience age groups (and other demographic factors). Sweeping generalizations about different age groups can…