E-Commerce
July 22, 2021 at 5:32 pm
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.…
July 22, 2021 at 4:27 pm
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…
July 21, 2021 at 9:41 pm
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…
July 21, 2021 at 9:38 pm
High-end retailer Rebecca Minkoff has begun offering hundreds of clothing items on its website for rent without requiring a membership in a subscription service like those offered by some other fashion companies. The service is enabled through technology from CaaStle, which has created rental-subscription programs for companies such as Express. CaaStle's offering, called BORROW, allows customers…
July 19, 2021 at 7:04 pm
Consumers plan to spend record amounts for both school and college supplies as families and students plan to return to in-person classrooms this fall, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average…
July 15, 2021 at 5:38 pm
In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss back-to-school spending and behavior. Key data from recent consumer surveys on trends and forecasts show that retailers should prepare for a busy back-to-school season this year. For example, KPMG reports that BTS spending is expected to increase 9 percent year-over-year,…
July 14, 2021 at 5:29 pm
Wholesale is so 2019. Enter 2021, a year of continued post-ish pandemic e-commerce growth, countless brands pulling back on wholesale partnerships to go direct to consumer (D-to-C), and the ultimate wholesale-marketing bridge: marketplaces. Retailers spent 2020 duct-taping together broken supply chains, reeling from wholesale partners slashing orders as stores shuttered across the country, and scrambling…
July 13, 2021 at 6:38 pm
Over the last 15 months, we cozied up to e-commerce in categories we struggled to shop virtually, such as apparel, furniture and grocery. We adapted our daily and weekly shopping routines to more patient, planned cadences. We adjusted our comfort level by buying clothing sans try-on, and we accepted that our living room upgrades would…
July 12, 2021 at 9:56 pm
2020 was an incredibly successful year for Amazon.com. Home-based working and buying gave the e-commerce giant more market share and sales volume than ever, with sales up 44 percent, hitting $108.5 billion. That’s equivalent wealth to that of a small nation. If Jeff Bezos was president of such a country, it would register as the…
June 30, 2021 at 7:18 pm
Had we not lived through it, could we ever have reasonably imagined that the entire world would shut down for even one day, let alone several months? If the pandemic had occurred just 10 years ago, the digital landscape then could never have supported the rapid and universal adoption of online services and products. With…
