Customer Retention

In the back corner of my desk drawer is a stack of dusty, neglected loyalty program membership cards. They're tokens that demonstrate that each company once offered me something that convinced me to sign up for their loyalty program. Some are also reminders that those companies have failed to provide me with compelling benefits since.…

In their scramble to reach customers, many business leaders start acquiring mass amounts of data. Others create incredibly complex analytics. Some think the answers come from the top. What's often lost in this quest to innovate is the very thing we claim to value: the customer. Customer centricity might sound like just another buzzword, but it creates the framework required for customers to fall in love with your brand. The strategy? A dynamic and powerful partnership across IT, analytics and busines — between the Geeks, the Nerds and the Suits. This book exposes the most common hurdles companies face in becoming customer-centric, and shares insight on how Geeks, Nerds and Suits can play their part in overcoming them. It not only demonstrates how to create effective collaboration between your teams to solve problems, it shows you how to create a business atmosphere that runs itself and clears the path for innovation.

While the digital world continues to evolve, subscription-based online retail services are growing and becoming highly competitive and lucrative. This opportunity, however, isn't free of challenges, especially when it comes to acquiring and retaining subscribers. Often, online retailers make the strategic mistake of putting greater emphasis on attaining new subscribers over retaining existing ones —…

With reports swirling about the uncertain future of the retail industry, retailers are working to stand out in a highly competitive market, deciphering what customers really want from the brands they interact with, and delivering those things in a timely manner. While determining what consumers want may seem daunting to retailers, according to a recent…

Kmart’s new apparel ad campaign is all about celebrating — not marginalizing — “plus sized” women, while putting that full-figure label to rest for good. Kmart’s new "I Can” ad push fetes women of all shapes and sizes and marks the expansion of its signature brands (e.g., Joe Boxer, Basic Editions, Jaclyn Smith) to larger sizes…

Retailers are investing in technology and resources to improve customers’ experiences as their online shopping expectations increase. This is particularly true in the age of Amazon.com, which has made personalization, one-click purchasing and same-day delivery commonplace. Over the summer we've been reviewing Total Retail and IBM's recent report, The Amazon Effect: How Retailers Are Adapting Their Businesses…

It’s all very well waxing lyrical about Sears, Macy’s and J.C. Penney, but let’s be honest, they’ve let things slide. Having fallen behind the times, they no longer relate to today's consumers. In the last decade, Sears has closed 22 percent of its stores. We’re witnessing the death of the mall because traditional retailers failed…

Smart brands are looking for new ways to beat their competition and succeed in this changing retail industry. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSI) is leveraging its best competitive advantage — its network of stores — to give customers an enhanced shopping experience across its portfolio of brands (Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm). Williams-Sonoma, Inc. recently introduced…

In episode 106 of Total Retail Talks, recorded at the Total Retail Talks Live! event in New York City, Neda Navab, head of customer experience and innovation for Enjoy, an online technology shopping service that offers free home delivery and expert setup, talks about using customer service to enhance physical retail locations.

As competition across the e-commerce landscape continues to heat up, retailers must quickly adapt to the fluid nature of customer expectations. Research from Monetate revealed that more than 83 percent of customers expect brands to deliver a personalized experience. Retailers that fail to do just that run the risk of alienating a significant portion of…