Supply Chain

After a year of buying everything from patio furniture to groceries online, consumers are more reliant on Amazon.com than ever, and more positive about the company. For retailers to fight back, they’ll need a two-pronged strategy: meet what are now industry-standard expectations for convenience and shipping efficiency, and spotlight key offerings where Amazon lags. Even…

Looking back on the last year, the retail sector underwent a massive change as consumers were confined to their homes, unable to shop in person. While e-commerce had been steadily growing over the last decade, the industry saw a significant surge in 2020, with online shopping growing 44 percent. Allured by promises of two-day and/or…

The fact that promotions can drive sales is probably as old as commerce itself. However, in a digital-first, e-commerce world, the role of promotions has broadened. In addition to the effect on sales, promotions can also influence purchase timing, which has knock-on implications for fulfillment and the customer experience. This connection was revealed by a recent study of…

In episode 297 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Kristine Moody, founder and managing director of Team Magnus, the leading junior sports and outdoors brand focused on pre-teens. Listen in as Moody discusses the Team Magnus brand and its products, how and why the brand sells about 97 percent of its product on Amazon.com,…

Pre-COVID, we saw the impact of online consumer demand growing and behavior adjusting, but brands often had time to analyze how they wanted to respond to it and when. Once the world shut down from COVID, that power quickly transitioned to the consumer, with brands forced to adjust almost immediately if they wanted any opportunity…

During the pandemic-induced online shopping boom, retailers invested in e-commerce capabilities out of necessity. As consumers shifted to retailers with online ordering, merchants were scrambling to provide new digital order and delivery options. These investments helped capture more market share, but now that stores are reopening and there's little market share remaining to capture, retailers…

Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) might just be the best long-term strategy for brick-and-mortar retailers. Allowing customers to purchase items online and pick them up curbside or in-store accommodates prevailing consumer demands: safety, efficiency, and convenience. BOPIS will soon be a standard feature of most, if not all, brick-and-mortar operations. Virtually every major retailer…

As an experienced retailer, you already know that customer satisfaction rests on product quality and distribution (i.e., delivery). In this day of e-commerce and digital shopping, customers expect products to arrive quickly, whether the product in question is a bottle of dish detergent or a large, heavy refrigerator. If delivery expectations aren’t met, customers might…

Amazon.com on Tuesday announced that Key by Amazon In-Garage Grocery Delivery is expanding to everywhere grocery delivery from Amazon is available, providing service to more than 5,000 U.S. cities and towns, according to a company press release. Originally launched in five cities last November, Key In-Garage Grocery Delivery can now be used by millions of…

Consumer behavior has been evolving over time, but never has it changed so rapidly in such a short period as it did in 2020. COVID-19 almost single-handedly forced consumers to embrace online shopping, as many physical stores shut down or reduced hours to comply with COVID-19 mandates. Consumers turned to online retailers for everything from…