E-Commerce

Retailers accelerated their shift toward e-commerce during the pandemic. But for all the excitement around e-commerce — a category eMarketer projects will grow by 13 percent in the U.S., totaling more than $900 billion in annual sales — the online shopping experience still has plenty of room for improvement, especially when it comes to assisted…

The unprecedented rise of e-commerce experienced in 2020 has shown no signs of slowing down for the foreseeable future. Online retail sales are expected to reach $6.39 trillion, with e-commerce representing 21.8 percent of these sales. This trend is powered by consumers discovering new comfort levels, from purchasing groceries, miscellaneous gifts to household items, among…

The other day I purchased a hoodie from a direct-to-consumer brand that I like. “The softest hoodie ever” was how they hooked me, but post-checkout I found myself upsold to buying eye cream. How did they do it? Co-selling. And it’s going to transform every brand into a marketplace. Co-selling is on the rise, and…

In episode 312 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Marcelo Podesta, president of National Business Furniture (NBF), a Milwaukee-based commercial furniture retailer. Podesta discusses the various verticals and customers NBF serves, his career journey that brought him to the company, and how the business has adapted to changes in the furniture market due to…

The global e-commerce landscape would, at this point, be unimaginable without Amazon.com. In fact, Amazon is often used synonymously with the term e-commerce: Amazon is e-commerce. However, this statement doesn't hold up if you take a closer look at the market shares worldwide. Amazon’s market share in Europe is just 9.8 percent as of September…

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) has recently introduced its first digital clothing collection on Bitmoji, the cartoon avatar creation platform owned by Snapchat, according to a company news release. With this new initiative, users can view the retailer's back-to-school collection on virtual representations of brand ambassadors Addison Rae, Chase Stokes, Madison Bailey, Caleb McLaughlin and Jenna Ortega. Their…

While developers and CTOs worldwide perform Oscar-worthy "Red Queen" impersonations, screaming that for e-commerce it’s “off with its head,” it's worth stepping back to review the actual costs of going headless. Here, we’ll discuss headless e-commerce and its associated effects on costs and content. Headless, Simplified Headless e-commerce isn’t new. “Going headless” means separating your…

It’s no secret that the pandemic accelerated the pace at which e-commerce is growing — with marketing strategies dynamically pivoting to meet the ever-evolving change in consumer behavior. In-person retail was hit hard by rolling lockdowns, forcing consumers to shop from the safety of their homes, and consequently disrupting consumer behavior for decades to come.…

With consumer demand for gift cards sustaining even after peak interest during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers and brands are in search of ways to boost the performance of their gift card programs (i.e., drive more sales), particularly online. To help in that quest, NAPCO Research, in conjunction with Blackhawk Network, conducted a comprehensive evaluation of…

Remember when you would walk into a store, browse the merchandise, chat with a sales assistant, maybe try on a few things, and head to the register when you were ready to buy? It’s a breeze of an experience, but one that takes strategic, intentional effort to replicate when it moves online. With e-commerce growth…