Today on Total Retail

The end-of-year season is always a make or break time for e-commerce brands that can accrue earnings that see their businesses through quiet first quarters. Although inflation eased in the third quarter of 2023, the holiday season can be unpredictable and stiff competition will fight you for every sale. Therefore, you must familiarize yourself with…

While e-commerce adoption accelerated in the last three years — with nearly three-quarters of Americans (73 percent) now shopping online multiple times a month — e-commerce has become much more competitive. One strategy brands should consider to differentiate is to offer a seamless, enjoyable and personalized shopping experience, enabled by generative artificial intelligence. E-commerce leaders…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling Walmart to move from being an omnichannel retailer to an adaptive one, at least according to Anshu Bhardwaj, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Walmart Global Technology and Walmart Commerce Technologies, who spoke at a session during the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York City earlier…

Retail has historically experienced high employee turnover, leading many companies in this sector to simply accept and incorporate this trend into their business models. The prevailing logic has been that it's more cost effective to continually hire and train new employees than to increase wages or invest in other strategies to retain staff. This approach…

In episode 435 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Mary Ellen Coyne, CEO, and Kevin McLaughlin, co-founder and creative director of J.McLaughlin, an American lifestyle brand. Listen in as Coyne and McLaughlin provide an overview of the J.McLaughlin brand (0:55), detail the origin of the company (1:55), and identify the customer behaviors they…

We've heard for some time now that traditional brick-and-mortar malls are facing a decline with the uptick in online shopping. However, some experts claim the “death of malls” has been widely exaggerated. According to Coresight Research’s The State of the American Mall report, more malls opened than closed in the last year, the first time…

Shipping, and whether or not it’s free, has been the de-facto decision maker for online shopping conversions ever since Amazon.com introduced its Prime membership in 2005. What started out as a way for non-Amazon retailers to remain competitive and to incentivize shoppers to buy more online has now become a very expensive customer expectation. In…

In a keynote presentation at the ICR Conference in Orlando, FL earlier this week, William White, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Walmart U.S., detailed three key marketing strategies for the retailer in the new year. Each of the three initiatives support the marketing team's goal of making Walmart a place where people want…

Let’s face it: Traditional loyalty programs were designed for another age and now they’re necessarily evolving as brands recognize the need for innovative strategies to capture and keep consumers' hearts. The shift towards "surprise and delight tactics" on social media is becoming increasingly crucial in building solid customer relationships and fostering brand association — and…

The retail landscape has undergone tectonic shifts in recent years, leaving managers to navigate sometimes unfamiliar if not entirely new territory. From deploying emerging technologies to training staff on urgent theft prevention strategies, today's retail leaders wear many hats as they work to boost productivity, deliver consistent experiences, and protect the bottom line. With 2024…