Marketing

In episode 238 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Gail Buffington, vice president of marketing and analytics at Soft Surroundings, a women's apparel, shoes and accessories retailer. Listen in as Buffington discusses Soft Surrounding's brand history as a cataloger, its expansion into brick-and-mortar retail, and her career at the company. She shares how Soft…

On Jan. 1, 2020, the world as marketers in the United States previously knew it changed drastically. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went live, and with it significant restrictions were suddenly placed on marketers and marketing technology vendors, specifically those that collect, use and/or sell consumer data. The road to gathering marketing data suddenly…

For D-to-C brands entering the market, it’s easy to rely on third-party platforms like Amazon.com, Google, Facebook, and Instagram for easy access to millions of ready-to-shop consumers.  However, with this strategy, brands can quickly find themselves stuck in a perpetual state of customer acquisition, facing constantly rising costs, pricing pressure, and less frequent repeat purchases…

It was nearly 30 years ago that Tim Berners-Lee developed the first web browser, WorldWideWeb. As someone who has made a career helping brands harness the power of this spectacular innovation to sell more products and services, I would be remiss not to cogitate on both the opportunities and obstacles that have emerged in the…

With 2020 in full swing, there has been a lot of talk about the shift away from user-based targeting. With CCPA and GDPR in full effect, it's no wonder marketers are re-evaluating the use of cookies and personal data to reach new customers. Third-party cookies are crumbling fast: browser-level changes and privacy regulations have spotlighted…

Netflix’s celebrated “recommendation engine” understandably gets considerable attention. Yet what's little known is that Netflix appeals to viewers not just by suggesting titles, but by showing each subscriber different cover art of the same title that are most likely to appeal to them. With a score of different covers emphasizing one aspect of a movie…

Zappos.com, the Las Vegas-based online shoe and apparel retailer, is known for its industry-leading return policy and first-class customer service. The company is also making a name for itself with innovative marketing tactics. In a presentation yesterday at the eTail West conference in Palm Springs, Calif., Joe Grusman, general manager, e-commerce marketing at Zappos, detailed…

The Amazon.com marketplace is constantly evolving, and it has become a lot more complex over the past few years. In order to stay competitive, Amazon sellers must remain agile. The most successful brands continue to adopt new strategies, ensuring their sales are protected from these frequent changes. Here are three tactics you can implement to…

In the last decade, the word “personalization” has become a staple in all digital marketers’ dictionaries, especially those in retail organizations. But when it comes to truly implementing personalized strategies, most marketers don’t have a real sense of what consumers desire. To answer this question, we surveyed 900 U.S. consumers aged 18-64 to gauge their…

Marketing is crucial for many reasons, but perhaps most importantly because it helps businesses and brands create and maintain relationships with their audiences. Creating an effective marketing strategy isn't an easy solution for companies’ problems, as it requires continuous testing and brainstorming that's always evolving in order to make a positive impact on a business. This…