Marketing

Researching the perfect gift is a vital step for consumers as they plan their holiday shopping, with 54 percent saying they begin their fact finding in October or earlier, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). A RetailMeNot survey also revealed that 45 percent of consumers planned to start shopping before Nov. 1, and nearly…

Tis’ the season for retail sales. Today the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported retail sales in November increased 0.9 percent over October on a seasonally adjusted basis and were up 6 percent year-over-year unadjusted, according to calculations. Online and other nonstore sales grew 10.5 percent year-over-year, reflecting the growth of online shopping. The numbers exclude automobiles, gas…

Most retailers consider Black Friday weekend to be one of the largest events of the holiday season. In the mix of all the deals for early-bird sales and cyber week extravaganzas, sometimes Giving Tuesday (along with the holiday spirit) gets lost in the shopping frenzy. However, 2017 proved to be the year Giving Tuesday went…

Successful businesses must be customer-centric. Retail marketers know it’s important, but they’re confused about how to make it happen. This is understandable, considering some of the challenges they face. Retailers still have a myopic view of customers, and thus they're lacking answers to basic questions such as the following: Where is most revenue coming from? What are the challenges associated with generating repeat purchases from loyal customers? Where do we need improvements to our customer marketing, channels, products and services?

I read an article recently that found that AmazonBasics was driving more sales than some other Amazon.com private brands. The article’s conclusion was that the success of AmazonBasics meant that the company may not need to “disguise” its private brand by removing the Amazon name from its products to drive sales. This premise didn’t sit…

With the rise of “conversational experiences,” just about every business function — from marketing to commerce to support — must be redesigned to be conversational. The greatest impact felt due to conversational marketing is that businesses interact with far more consumer prospects than they do with paying customers. Each one of us will soon be…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the mother of all marketing buzzwords these days. Defined as the theory and development of computer systems to be able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, the broader applications of AI are much bigger than using a machine to order your food vs. having a waitress come to your…

While currently almost all of Amazon.com product reviews are written by users, the online shopping behemoth is pivoting to video later this month by inviting some of its 2 million merchant partners to post promotional and instructional videos to the site in mid-December, according to a report from business research firm L2. According to the report, “this feature…

Shopping isn’t what it used to be … it’s better. Smartphones and instant access to deals via thumb swipes and mouse clicks have perpetuated deal-seeking behavior and have turned everyone (including millennials) into professional shoppers and deal seekers. Consumers now have an emotional and habitual propensity to stretch their dollars and maximize purchase value —…