Marketing

Over the past decade, retail has undergone a number of shifts that have redefined how consumers find and purchase products. An analyst looking ahead from 2010 would have struggled to predict many of the changes we've seen, especially the ways in which the rise of smart devices have disrupted the retail experience. As we head…

In episode 231 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Melanie Huet, chief marketing officer at Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB), the largest manufacturer and distributor of mattresses in North America. Listen in as Huet talks about her career background in both global brand and D-to-C marketing, as well as where she hopes to lead SSB's…

One thing is for sure: media and retail are both challenging environments. Retail is facing challenges from increased consumer choice — in-store, online, social media — and complexity is everywhere. Despite those challenges, holiday retail sales grew 3.4 percent this year, according to a MasterCard Spending Pulse Survey. With media, viewers have more choice than…

In episode 230 of Total Retail Talks, Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews Eli Winkler, chief marketing officer at La-Z-Boy, a leading home furniture manufacturer and retailer. Listen in as Winkler discusses the furniture retailer's history, how the business has adjusted to consumers' changing behaviors, and the technology enhancements La-Z-Boy offers shoppers in its stores and…

Online shopping’s share of the retail market has been growing ever since Amazon.com and eBay first came on the scene more than two decades ago. The astonishingly fast worldwide adoption of mobile devices created another e-commerce portal, allowing people to make purchases using their phones from anywhere with a connection. Retail branded apps and the…

The notion that millennials are harbingers of the retail apocalypse is, in fact, a myth. New data from Accenture quashes this misconception, having found 82 percent of millennials prefer shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The fact that millennials haven’t simply abandoned brick-and-mortar retail in favor of online shopping is a testament to the power of a smart, unified…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic and many marketers have high expectations for the technology. There are lofty predictions for AI in the future, however, there are already a lot of applications for the technology within marketing automation that retailers have yet to take advantage of. What does it look like in practice?

The advertising industry is undergoing rapid change, and buckle your seatbelts, retail is next. The new era of advertising is called “programmatic,” which simply means the work done by yesterday’s ad agencies and media buying firms is now done by computers. We’re entering the programmatic era of retail, and the survivors will be masters of…

2020 is the year we all envisioned we would be driving flying cars, riding hover boards and walking around with smart contact lenses, all while communicating with our virtual personal assistant. Well … we’re still stuck in traffic, virtual reality is still a gimmick, and Alexa truly can tell the weather, play the music you…

In episode 228 of Total Retail Talks, Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews Marcus Wilson, co-founder of NOBULL, a footwear, apparel and accessory brand for people who train hard and don't believe in excuses. Wilson discusses NOBULL's story, including its expansion into physical retail and its organic growth into various areas of the training market. He…