Digital Innovation

4 Recession-Ready Transformation Pivots Retailers Need Now
September 5, 2022 at 7:15 pm

A looming recession. Supply chain struggles. Household budgets under pressure. For retailers, it's shaping up to be a challenging holiday season. As stores begin to execute their all-important fourth-quarter plans, they’re having to adjust, anticipating logistical hiccups and changing shopper behaviors. Amazon.com is even rumored to be planning a second Prime Day holiday, partially to…

Return to Retail: How Deep Learning Boosts the Effectiveness Rate of Video Ads
August 18, 2022 at 1:09 pm

The pandemic was an extraordinary time for the retail community and, in 2022, retail marketers are still adjusting to the post-pandemic marketplace and the major, lasting shifts in consumer behavior. For example, with brick-and-mortar outlets forced to close during lockdown, the popularity of online shopping rose significantly during the pandemic. Another trend that has outlasted…

How Retailers Can Delight the Post-Pandemic Luxury Shopper
August 16, 2022 at 10:01 pm

The pandemic pulled forward a decade’s worth of digital innovation into a single year. As a result, retailers and brands scrambled to shift their customer experiences online and set up new capabilities to reflect a multichannel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience — online from a desktop or…

Starbucks to Unveil Web3-Based Rewards Program
August 4, 2022 at 6:14 pm

Starbucks will unveil its web3 initiative, which includes coffee-themed NFTs, at next month’s Investor Day event. The company earlier this year announced plans to enter the web3 space, noting its NFTs wouldn’t just serve as digital collectibles, but would provide their owners with access to exclusive content and other perks. At the time, Starbucks provided little…

Ulta Beauty Launches Digital Innovation Fund, Prisma Ventures
August 3, 2022 at 11:57 am

Ulta Beauty has become the latest retailer to launch a venture capital arm after announcing a new digital innovation fund Wednesday. The fund, called Prisma Ventures, earmarks $20 million for digital innovation in beauty, according to a company press release. The fund will invest in emerging technology startups that "seek to shape future online and in-store…

How NFTs Create Unique Consumer Experiences — And Expand Marketing’s Reach
August 1, 2022 at 5:06 pm

The past few years have been challenging for retail brands, which are adapting to external market forces like the pandemic and evolving in response to shifting customer expectations. It’s also an exciting time, and many brand marketers are experimenting with new ways to meet people where they are — increasingly in the metaverse and other…

How Luxury Brands Can Ensure Seamless Experiences
July 28, 2022 at 5:39 pm

Like many sectors, luxury retail has weathered more than a few challenges, crises and storms over the last few years — illustrated by the 23 percent drop in sales (or around $228 billion) in 2020 worldwide. These challenges have put considerable pressure on brands to keep pace with changing market trends and customer behaviors. For decades,…

Every Store Will Have a Brain
June 27, 2022 at 2:28 pm

The global pandemic sparked an evolution in the retail landscape that doesn't show signs of stopping. Namely, there have been two obvious shifts among consumers: increased omnichannel shopping habits and decreased brand loyalty. Customers aren’t hesitating to find another retailer that gives them the shopping experience they desire, whether in-store or online. To keep up…

How to Add NFTs to Your Brand Experience and Boost Loyalty
June 23, 2022 at 9:08 pm

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Marie Albiges and Devon Russell discuss an article recently published by Total Retail titled, “How Retailers Can Use NFTs to Give Customers a Unique Shopping Experience,” authored by Angelo Coletta, founder and CEO of Zakeke. The article shares several ways that retailers can use NFTs (non-fungible…

Retail’s Perfect Complement: AI and the Real-Life Store Associate
June 23, 2022 at 4:36 pm

Retail has certainly evolved over the past two years. Today, we're living in an omnichannel retail universe that must be catered to carefully by retailers. Store associates can’t be expected to carry the entire load and overwhelming task of the end-to-end sales process anymore, but we also can’t entirely lean on artificial intelligence (AI) to…