Trends in Retail

Maintaining relevance and responding rapidly to consumer demand has helped Microsoft, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Disney retain their spot in Interbrand's top 10 after 20 years.

Adidas admits that a focus on efficiency rather than effectiveness led it to over-focus on ROI and over-invest in performance and digital at the expense of brand building.

Discounts and low prices are historic holiday asks. But this year, sustainability is also top of mind. According to a recent survey, shoppers are more mindful of who they do business with, especially as it pertains to the environment.

Snapchat has launched a new ad offering which will optimize your campaign based on uploaded product listings.

Tencent will use AI & computer vision to insert ads in existing movies and TV shows

An e-Commerce site is a delicate balancing act. Inventory, pricing, content, CRM, search, recommendations, cart, payments and many other components ne...

E-Commerce may have achieved many of the hallmarks of maturity, but in a lot of ways it still behaves like an adolescent: mercurial, intense and desig...

While cashierless stores aren?t quite mainstream, they are gaining a foothold: 14% of retailers responding to the 2019 Retail TouchPoints Store Operat...

We recently sat down with retailers, including Natori, Article and Enjoy Life Foods, to discuss their current marketing efforts and how they define digital transformation. Previously, we dug into the marketing channels they rely on most, whether they?ve acquired enough first-party data and what a unified customer view looks like. In today?s ?Industry Voices: A Focus on Retail? video, we look at how whether they?ve undergone a digital transformation and what that looks like.

Email is still at the center of marketers? digital programs. No surprise there; it offers several benefits: It?s an owned communications channel, it?s permissioned?meaning consumers have opted in and indicated interest?and it?s a traditional marketing channel that most marketers are thoroughly experienced with.

We recently sat down with retailers, including Enjoy Life Foods, Natori and Knix, to discuss their current marketing efforts and how they define digital transformation. Previously, we dug into the marketing channels they rely on most, challenges they face with measurement and whether they've acquired enough first-party data. In today?s ?Industry Voices: A Focus on Retail? video, we look at how they incorporate all the data they've collected to create a more unified customer view.

For our upcoming report on the future of the CMO, we spoke to Brandt about making the Chipotle brand more visible and relevant to its customers through telling stories about the company's fresh-food values.

At a recent Tong Digital breakfast briefing, the future of Chinese luxury was discussed, and some surprising points were made.

Mintel analysts from across the world highlight one brand in their country that's revolutionising the beauty sector through tech. Read more.

Dick's Sporting Goods is also partnering on "Baseball's Next Level" to let gamers buy limited-edition cleats displayed in retro graphics.

Amazon continues to lead product searches, but its influence is declining, according to the report.

Our 3D digital world just took massive leaps forward. Here's how to make it work for your brand.

Everything on Pinterest should be shoppable: with that in mind, the platform is adding shopping pages, where retailers and brands can inspire customers and encourage them to shop at the same time.

Social media has become a hub of influence on many consumers? shopping. Boomers, though, have been wary of this, whether via ads, postings by fellow consumers or the cajolery of ?influencers.?

eMarketer executive editor Rimma Kats and principal analyst Andrew Lipsman explain how grocery stores will evolve, how many people could replace in-store shopping with voice commerce, a partnership between Alphabet?s drone arm Wing, FedEx and Walgreens and more.

Sports brand Puma and Amazon have launched a joint leisurewear label called 'Care Of', which will be exclusively for sale through Amazon's marketplace.

Consumers are often creatures of habit. They know the products and the brands they like?and getting them to try something entirely new can be a challenge.

Data silos are real. Here?s how Samsonite broke them down ? and optimised their digital advertising

As surveillance technology pervades public spaces, evading Big Brother has become a wearable art

China isn't included, which might help it launch sooner.

While soda may have dominated shelves in the 1990s, today?s shoppers are seeking increasingly sophisticated functional beverages. Data company Kantar has analyzed consumer behavior in a new report that highlights the last three decades in the US beverage industry.

Amazon's biometric payment method at Whole Foods would allow Prime users with a card on file to scan their hand at checkout to make a purchase.

The food industry is upgrading itself to personalize mass-produced food by prioritizing customer...

With 12 stages and hundreds of speakers across two days, there will be plenty to see at the Festival of Marketing. Here's our top picks.

Walmart?s expansion of Delivery Unlimited, its grocery delivery membership, is the latest attempt by a major retailer to make online grocery shopping more appealing. But better delivery value only addresses cost?not quality.

eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman discusses what made the Apple Store so successful, which retailers are nailing the in-store experience, McDonald?s voice-activated drive-thrus, Walmart?s ecommerce initiatives and more.

Marketers have long grappled with how to best leverage the data they?ve collected. It?s certainly a challenge as data fuels nearly all of their marketing efforts?including personalization, audience segmentation and targeting.

"R Message" lets shoppers book in-store appointments, receive product advice and make purchases.

Building links can translate into more sales and return customers. Here are effective link building strategies for ecommerce sites.

A major shift away from TV advertising could cause ripple effects across categories

Lithuanian second-hand clothing and accessory platform Vinted has reached 700,000 members in Belgium and now expands to the Netherlands as well.

Uncertainty about the right size keeps many consumers from ordering shoes and clothing online. It also causes a lot of unnecessary returns, so Zalando works on innovative solutions.

More than one-third of adults said they made a purchase through social media, coinciding with Facebook, Pinterest and Snap's expanded shopping features.

Andrew Little, events and special projects manager at Creatacor Inc., shares insight on how experiential marketing adds value beyond the traditional retail customer experience.

Ikea has turned its latest catalogue into an audio-book and put it on Spotify. The goal of that campaign is to draw attention to the digital version of the catalogue.

Belgian Ontex, Europe's largest nappy producer, launches its nappy subscription service Little Big Change in the Benelux, after trialling it in France. The service starts today.

AliExpress, an Alibaba subsidiary, has opened its first physical store in the Spanish capital Madrid. The Chinese say Spain is their major target in Europe.

Retailers need to view Amazon as a platform to not only sell more products but to build reputations as well.

Out-of-home digital, known as OOH, is making major strides and promises big changes in consumer shopping behavior. Interactive kiosks and digital signage will play a bigger role at retail.

Marco Lafrentz, vice president, tyntec, shares his insight on how online commerce has evolved significantly over the last two decades, and the ongoing shift is beginning to extend beyond the browser. Today's consumer expects immediate results and conversational customer service.

Zalando tests a second-hand shop for women's fashion items in Berlin, called Zircle. It is the second venture of the German e-tailer into second-hand clothing, following the app Zalando Wardrobe.

Brand shows how the technology will 'revolutionise' how we live.

Make-up artist goes on delivery to launch concealer.

There could be an "explosion" in goods sold via the grey and black markets in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to a British retail expert.

Simon Hay, Outra CEO, explains why the day to day job of delighting customers has to be delivered by ruthlessly efficient, smart, agile technology if you are to compete on an equal cost basis.

 

UK shoppers fail to pick up a surprising number of click & collect orders. But retailers, eager to solve the last-mile challenge, should focus on making the fulfillment option more appealing, instead of abandoning it altogether.

"Buy online, pick up in-store" is a retail service that a dominant proportion of today's youngest consumers are taking advantage of, according to Package Concierge. Nearly two-thirds of US Gen Z shoppers, surveyed by the mailbox tech company in May 2019, reported using BOPUS within the past month.

 

Retailers can?t always rely on customer feedback to measure the success of their ecommerce platforms. Small technical issues, which often go unnoticed by the business itself, can significantly hinder the customer experience.

Scott Heimgartner, director of product marketing at Maropost, believes the key to customer engagement is to not just provide products and services to consumers but also provide the content that will keep them connected with your brand.

Nearly half of consumers surveyed by Paysafe said they?ve used biometrics?typically based on facial recognition technology?to make some form of payment.

The luxury retail segment is experiencing a transformation and with that comes a slew of myths, according to research conducted by the Luxury Institute and its Global Luxury Expert Network. The organization has identified 12 myths ? what it it also views as top obstacles ? to high performance retail this year: 1. Time is the ultimate luxury.

Meal delivery service Deliveroo is quitting the German market as of this Friday. The company says it wants to focus on better-performing markets.

The major Belgian supermarket chains have lower profit margins than five years ago, and that is before Dutch Jumbo is set to disrupt the market even more. The reason is clear: the competition gets tougher and discounts, meant to lure more customers, cut the profitability.

The value of retail property is now also beginning to decline in prime locations. This trend has spread from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands and is beginning to wreak havoc in Belgium too.

Zalando has increased its forecast for the full year 2019 after it had an excellent second quarter, in which turnover went up 20 % to 1.6 billion euros.

The fastest-growing food retailer on the French market is - once again - German discounter Lidl. Market leader E.Leclerc continues to make progress, but Carrefour and Casino are unable to reverse the downward trend.

On the heels of offering grocery pickup, Walmart is working with Ford to explore autonomous car delivery in what it's calling a pilot effort. It's part of Walmart's strategy to innovate when it comes to serving customers, according to a...

In America, it can often seem as though most people?s mentality is ?bigger is always better.? But that no longer seems to be the case when it comes to the retail industry. Recently many retailers are seeing more success with small-format stores, pop up shops, and even mobile shops.

There's an opportunity for innovation and sales growth in brick-and-mortar stores considering only 10% of total retail sales in the US are made online; 90% are made in physical store locations. Some companies are Imagining the possibilities by elevating the in-person shopping experience.

In collaboration with nine small, independent breweries from all over Belgium, Colruyt expands its beer offering with 16 experimental craft beers. The beer department at the food retailer is 99 percent Belgian.

 

After two years of growth exceeding expectations, the wave of profits at Amazon is now coming to an end. Even though sales and profits have increased, analysts expected more.

The traditional funnel is at odds with a truly customer-centric marketing strategy. Learn why the trust funnel is a better model to follow, and how.

Nine out of ten start-ups in e-commerce fail within 120 days. Poor online visibility and low demand turn out to be the main issues.

The key to creating a video strategy is to make sure that you capitalize on your strengths as a local business.

It's not quite Black Friday, but consumers have come to expect the midsummer sales event, and it's not just for Amazon anymore.

Time-crunched consumers on the hunt for convenient, last-minute meals increasingly are opting for food prepared outside the home, but a small and growing portion also are interested in learning new cooking techniques and recipes ? giving the sluggish meal kit category hope, suggests new research.

China is set to overtake the US to become the world’s largest grocery market by 2023 in value terms, according to new forecasts. Studies from

Walmart's effort to try and catch up with Amazon isn't going over well.

Will distribution and pricing be enough to lure GenZ and millennial shoppers, or do luxury retailers need to do more to strengthen their positioning for this lucrative audience?

It's convenient to blame Amazon for retailers' struggles, but the real culprits may be the rising costs and stagnant income dragging down the middle class.

Fashion brand McGregor will be returning to the streets in Belgium and the Netherlands. The label is about to open six stores in the two countries in the coming autumn.