Customer Retention

We've rounded the corner and thank goodness we feel the country is on the backside of the COVID pandemic. What a ride it has been! It's far from over, but under control. For many consumer companies, COVID caused a surge in business with more people working and shopping from home. It has put pressure on…

The retail industry will feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for months to come, but as the percentage of Americans who have received the COVID-19 vaccine increases, signs are pointing to a return to out-of-home spending. The world of traditional retail is on fire, and in order to last, brands must learn to adapt…

During the pandemic-induced online shopping boom, retailers invested in e-commerce capabilities out of necessity. As consumers shifted to retailers with online ordering, merchants were scrambling to provide new digital order and delivery options. These investments helped capture more market share, but now that stores are reopening and there's little market share remaining to capture, retailers…

We've recently passed the one-year mark for the pandemic economy, with all of its volatility, uncertainty and disruptions. Among the most emphatic takeaways is that direct to consumer (D-to-C) has proven incredibly resilient through these changes. In some sense, it seems obvious in retrospect, that brands built on the potent combination of direct distribution, online…

Consumers came out of 2020 having undergone a radical shift in priorities and preferences in their retail experiences. Retailers have mostly managed to address the shift to an all-digital retail experience, but need to continue to adapt their strategies to address the new era buyer persona and earn their long-term loyalty. Many loyalty programs were…

Customer experience (CX) expert Shep Hyken provides a couple of sayings that resonate with today’s retail environment: “Satisfaction is a rating. Loyalty is a brand,” and “There is a big difference from a satisfied customer and a loyal customer.” Ultimately, satisfaction = good. Brand loyalty = 100 percent better. We all know this is true,…

Customer experience (CX) was gaining importance as a competitive differentiator well before the pandemic. Now, after a year of retailers and brands pivoting to vie for consumers’ attention and dollars online, there's a new definition of great customer experience — one forged by 2020’s drastic shifts in the way we buy and sell. One result…

2020 presented challenge after challenge for the retail industry. While COVID-related online shopping resulted in an estimated revenue boost of $175 billion, the industry itself took a loss, with total sales dropping 10.5 percent — a number not seen since 2016. This unique combination created new challenges for retailers and brands of every shape and size,…

After the onset of COVID-19, the world was abuzz with how the retail industry would fare. There were early signs that online shopping was surging, but nobody expected e-commerce penetration to grow by 27 percent in only eight weeks. Looking back at an unprecedented year for online retail sales, there are other trends that we…

Since the onset of COVID-19, consumers appear to have re-assessed their priorities when they’re shopping online. Today, consumers are expecting higher levels of authenticity, seeking out brands they can trust will deliver on promises and that also align with their own values. In fact, 52 percent of respondents from Euromonitor’s Lifestyle Survey in 2020 agreed…