Customer Retention

Walmart on Tuesday unveiled a subscription service that will go toe-to-toe with Amazon Prime, reports CNN. The Walmart+ membership plan includes free shipping on items $35 and over, including same-day deliveries on certain items from stores, such as groceries. It will cost $98 a year or $12.95 a month, and includes a 15-day free trial period. Members…

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…

Small businesses are the backbone of our society, making up 44 percent of the U.S. economy and employing almost half of the private workforce. However, COVID-19 has changed the way people spend, forcing many of these local economy engines to pivot their business strategies, enter the digital realm and get creative to stay afloat. According…

This past quarter, retailers discovered what happens when a robust omnichannel strategy is forced down to one storefront: digital. Players in every industry have accelerated their timelines and poured resources into their online experience, and are learning as they go. We see firsthand the strain our own customers are feeling as they stare down a…

A 2018 post on evolving go-to-market strategies, by Sally Ann Lopez, noted that digital channels comprise a growing 10 percent share of $5 trillion in total annual sales, and recommending several e-commerce strategies to harness this emerging market. The worldwide COVID-19 outbreak rapidly shuffled the digital card deck, turning many recommendations into dire necessities for…

Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty. If your business is working to harness the purchasing power of future generations, these wise words from Pulitzer Prize-winning millennial rapper, Kendrick Lamar, ring truer than ever in 2020. The spending power of Gen Z and millennials combined with the increasingly saturated retail market has made attracting repeat customers — and organic…

The future of customer experience will be an expression of our deepest instinctive human behaviors — at warp speed and exponential scale — pushed on by advances in technology. And while technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and machine learning (ML) are indeed making strides, there’s one aspect that will really determine the ultimate customer…

Customers are one of the base pillars that hold any retail business together. Without them, it crumbles, which is why you must keep them from leaving. Research shows that 87 percent of customers hop from one business to the other when shopping, only 13 percent are loyal to one brand, and another 58 percent completely…

2019 was a lackluster year for many brands; in the U.S. alone, more than 9,000 stores closed, nearly doubling the number of store openings and far surpassing the number of closures the year prior. While retailers around the world felt the pressure to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape, there were bright moments that showed…

Amazon.com gets it. Target and Publix get it, too. Customers expect a lot from retailers. Not just competitive prices, but personalized online shopping, flexible pickup options and returns, knowledgeable and empathetic in-store and contact-center employees. In short, they expect outstanding customer experience (CX). Amazon, Target, and Publix recently finished in the top three for customer…