User Experience

The wild ride of holiday retail has spun through COVID uncertainty, supply chain challenges, and now inflation and fears of a looming recession. While the only reliable prediction retailers can make about the 2022 shopping season is that it's bound to be unpredictable, early data indicates that a focus on digital excellence and efficiency can…

Customer experience (CX) is as important as ever, but meeting customers where they are has become significantly more complex. As technology adoption has exploded, consumers get and engage with content from many sources, including the metaverse. Though it has existed in certain circles for years, the public really became aware of the metaverse when Facebook…

The pandemic has introduced a number of challenges for retailers, from the chip shortage to in-demand items being out-of-stock to now severe overstocking that's forcing some retailers to cancel orders in an effort to save profits. The retail market continues to change rapidly along with the uncertain economy, and this is driving ebbs and flows…

Calling the pandemic and its aftermath a black-swan event at global scale is an understatement. Besides being a personal tragedy and suffering for millions, it dislocated the world order along several vectors, some irretrievably. As we put it behind us, it opens vast opportunities for the bold and decisive. One of the winners, if such…

If there has been one sweeping theme across the retail landscape in 2022 — and there has been — it’s supply chain. A new benchmarked study of 1,150 online consumers from Dotcom Distribution suggests several areas brands and retailers can tackle to shape the ideal customer experience, even during a period of uncertainty in the…

Retailers that refuse to embrace and perfect an omnichannel experience will lose customers and revenue. Whether they’re shopping via mobile app, website, social media or in-person, consumers expect a seamless and consistent experience when interacting with a brand. Optimizing the omnichannel customer journey has become a competitive differentiator and a necessity in the retail world…

Is this brand using sustainable business practices? Is this retailer aware of its social impact? What values am I supporting when I buy from this brand? Many of us have probably asked ourselves these questions before making a purchase. In fact, as of 2019, 70 percent of consumers take the social impact of a brand…

Like many sectors, luxury retail has weathered more than a few challenges, crises and storms over the last few years — illustrated by the 23 percent drop in sales (or around $228 billion) in 2020 worldwide. These challenges have put considerable pressure on brands to keep pace with changing market trends and customer behaviors. For decades,…

Waiting in line has been called a “timeless form of torture.” In the U.S. alone, Americans spend roughly 37 billion hours each year queuing. And the problem of waiting has only gotten worse. Restarting life as we knew it has proven more challenging than we initially anticipated. Supply chain issues and staffing shortages have thwarted…

The disruption and shifting demands of the past 24 months have elevated retail’s focus on the “consumer experience,” as e-commerce transformed the way retailers do business and forced large-scale technology adoption and innovation. But while it may seem like the shift to experience-focused retail delivery happened overnight, these changes were already underway, even before the…