User Experience

Competition in retail has always been intense. Surviving, let alone thriving, requires heavy technology spending. In the modern retail era, customers have all the power. Phones and digital devices serve as entry points into shopping experiences. At the click of a button, consumers have access to unlimited product assortments, price transparency, inventory availability, and crowdsourced…

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for retailers, both traditional and online, to grab the attention (and wallets) of online shoppers. Battling on multiple fronts, from fierce competition to cart abandonment, retailers are feeling the pressure. Part of the challenge is in delivering an “experience.” For the offline world this is tangible and easily iterated upon, however,…

The retail landscape continues to change in dramatic ways, and retailers that want to stay relevant must evolve quickly. For guidance, just look back at the course of the past year to how shoppers’ expectations and engagement preferences are transforming. In March 2018, retail sales totaled $494.6 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This was…

Most businesses will tell you they deliver good customer service, but what do their customers think? Mitel’s Global Customer Experience Survey builds on results from a 2017 global survey of IT decision makers. When Mitel saw that 59 percent of businesses reported being more than halfway through their customer experience improvements, it wondered if its customers agreed. That question and many others were posed to a group of more than 5,000 adults in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Australia as part of the customer experience survey. The results present an eye-opening midterm assessment that reveals many businesses still have a long way to go toward improving the buyer’s journey.

Both property companies and retailers are reporting a crisis and the death of retail. Stores are being shut down or shrinking their footprints, and the traditional retail format with merchandise lined up on shelves is a dying breed. Yet at the same time there's a renaissance going on in retail, and we're seeing examples of…

Futurum Research principal analyst Dan Newman said it best: “Retailers are no longer selling things. They’re selling the experience of buying those things.” The new consumer expectation is one of instant, coordinated, automated and personalized shopping experiences in an omnichannel fashion. It’s no wonder retailers are racing to digitally transform, and their challenges are many.…

In episode 148 of Total Retail Talks, Total Retail's Editor-in-Chief Melissa Campanelli interviews Sid Gupta, founder, president and CEO of Lolli and Pops. Gupta discusses why Lolli and Pops is different from other candy shops, what experiential retail means to the brand, how it's using technology as a competitive advantage, among other topics.

Let’s face it: omnichannel was a cool buzzword 10 years ago. With the acceleration of disruption and change, being “omnichannel” isn’t going to bridge the gap between tomorrow’s leaders and laggards. Nordstrom is a notable example of a retailer with a forward-thinking approach. I worked there in 2008, so I can attest that Nordstrom was…

Since the industrial revolution, retailers have occupied physical storefronts, the hub of traditional consumer engagement. But with today’s integration of the digital experience, online customer experience is the differentiating factor that encourages brand loyalty. New research by NTT DATA Services analyzed the digital and physical customer experience of 15 enterprise retailers to determine where friction…

In the era of e-commerce and its on-demand convenience, there’s a question we hear quite often: Is today’s omnichannel environment killing the physical store? The truth is that many traditional retailers are failing, with physical stores closing in significant numbers. However, it’s also true that certain retailers are alive and flourishing. The winners in avoiding…