Promotional Strategy

Now that summer is coming to a close, retailers’ thoughts are turning to planning and strategies for the all-important holiday season. The season spans Black Friday to Cyber Monday and through the varied landscape of early shoppers who plan ahead to last-minute shoppers who crowd stores and websites in the last days before Christmas. Retailers…

Amazon.com's Prime Day is proving to be a highly effective “flywheel” strategy that boosts Prime subscriber numbers and, in doing so, creates a captive membership community that’s willing and eager not only to participate in future Prime Day events, but also in year-round shopping. Prior to this year's Prime Day, Periscope By McKinsey conducted research…

To many, it may feel as though summer still has a ways to go. But like it or not, retailers must face the fact that Amazon.com's first-ever 48-hour Prime Day ushered in the unofficial start of the 2019 back-to-school (BTS) shopping season, along with some heated competition for consumer spend. BTS is the second-largest shopping…

In the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2018, U.S. consumers spent a record $850 billion. While Thanksgiving 2019 is still four months away, the competition for holiday dollars is already under way. Discerning retailers are looking to win back some of the holiday dollars going to Amazon.com every year. Amazon had more traffic on…

The retail promotional calendar is how almost every retailer has planned for, managed and executed its seasonal promotions and discount activities. There’s just one big problem with this approach: it doesn’t work. It isn’t well-suited for today’s retail industry, and hasn’t been for some time. The entire landscape is changing at a faster pace, and…

When the clock ticks down on a championship-clinching game, stadium retail teams gear up for their moment in the spotlight, making sure fans can easily grab a souvenir T-shirt or hat on their way out of the building after a big win. Savvy fans have probably noticed that it’s become easier over the years to…

Much has changed in the retail landscape, from the relentless rise of the power of the shopper vs. the retailer, to an explosion of online and brick-and-mortar competitors, to the ease with which consumers can compare prices and promotions across all channels, brands and retailers with a few taps on their mobile device. Some core…

The ever-analyzed millennial generation — currently the largest in history — is expected to spend $1.4 trillion annually by 2020. Their ballooning spending power is matched only by their love of all things digital. Shopping is no exception. Seventy-nine percent of millennials browse the internet before making retail purchases, whether in-store or online, and that…

Many online retailers invest significant resources in email marketing to drive new and existing customers to their sites. Of course, too many emails can cause email fatigue, tuning customers out and weakening brands. There are certainly other ways to drive traffic, such as paid search and digital advertising, but these approaches come with a price.…

The good news is that 2018 showed progress for retailers in several significant ways. DynamicAction’s Retail Index: 2018 Year in Review & 2019 Outlook demonstrates North American retailers exercised more restraint on promotions and improved their inventory value and consumer-driven curation in 2018. It’s a big step in the right direction, but it's just one of many…