Customer Retention

In this week’s Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss the challenge brick-and-mortar retailers face in getting customers to come back to their stores to shop again. Specifically, they analyze a recent article published on myTotalRetail.com, The 4 Reasons Shoppers Don’t Come Back to Stores, which was authored by Tom Buiocchi, president…

Would you appeal to more consumers if you eliminated a large portion of your inventory? That’s exactly what Petco is doing. Petco announced that as of May 1, 2019, it will be the first major pet food retailer to sell only pet food without artificial ingredients. This bold move puts Petco’s brand ethos at the forefront and appeals…

If anyone was hoping 2019 would be a gentler year for brick-and-mortar retail, those hopes have been dashed. A recent New York Times report showed that closures in the first few months of 2019 exceeded those for all of 2018, itself a tough year. Retail chains still face the migration of dollars to online and…

While attending the IRCE at RetailX conference in Chicago, Total Retail's Joe Keenan interviewed Ujjwal Dhoot, chief marketing and product officer at Health-E Commerce, a consumer health and wellness advocate and online retailer. Health-E Commerce is the parent company of four different e-commerce sites focused on helping consumers maximize their tax advantage dollars, including FSA Store, HSA Store, WellDeserved, and Caring…

It’s no secret that the retail landscape is changing. With the rise of direct-to-consumer brands, widespread adoption of mobile and m-commerce, and the so-called “retail apocalypse,” retail’s status can only be described as complicated in 2019. As retailers evolve and adapt to this new normal, loyalty and rewards programs remain a mainstay tactic. Ubiquitous across…

Sixty-eight retailers have filed for bankruptcy since 2015. Analysts say up to 12,000 stores could close in 2019. Alarmists are calling it the "retail apocalypse." However, at the same time, there’s a modern retail renaissance happening. Incumbents like Dollar Tree, T.J.Maxx, lululemon, Madewell, and Ulta are opening more stores. Digital brands like Away and Casper…

Today, it's becoming harder for retailers to engage with consumers and build long-term loyalty. Not only are brick-and-mortar stores having to compete with each other, they're now also faced with the rising threat of omnichannel and pure-play online competitors that are expanding rapidly. Technological advancements, coupled with the proliferation of mobile devices, have enhanced the…

Across the globe, retailers and similar organizations invest more than $323 billion in their customer marketing initiatives. Yet when it comes to making critical decisions based on the customer data they collect, a surprising number do the equivalent of flipping a coin. We surveyed more than 1,200 loyalty program operators and thousands of consumers in…

For decades a retailer’s business was understandably centered around the products it sold. However, the onset of digital drove the need for retailers to reassess what their central focus must be, moving from products to the customer. This change created a delta between a retailer’s leadership team placing the customer in the center and the…

Online retailers are constantly having to balance growth and retention. At the beginning, growth is the top priority, but as a company matures, it needs to focus on customer retention, which is in fact a great growth leverage. Retention is what continues to pay the bills and attracts more customers. There’s a lot of industry…