2019 Holiday Shopping Predictions
The holiday season is almost here. Retailers have only a few weeks left to finish their to-do lists to prep their stores, online sites, and marketing campaigns. Deloitte predicts overall holiday retail sales to increase between 4.5% and 5% this year, passing $1.1 trillion in sales from November to January. They expect eCommerce sales alone to increase 14% to 18%.
See more holiday shopping predictions for this holiday season below.
(more…)What We’re Reading: Online Returns, Millennials, & Marketing
This week we’re reading about shoppers’ options for online returns, how millennials are changing luxury eCommerce, and how to tell if your marketing is working. Read the articles below!
(more…)How to Run Smooth Online Flash Sales
Online flash sales are a popular strategy to drive revenue. Successful sales can increase a merchant’s sales from 50/day to over 10,000 in a single 24-hour period. This is great for your revenue, but can undoubtedly put major stress on your operations during and after the sale.
When not handled properly, flash sales can quickly turn into disasters for merchants. Your website can crash or stall. Orders can take forever to process. Inventory can oversell. Once disaster hits, it’s hard to see why you wanted to run a flash sale in the first place. When poorly executed, sales can lead to upset customers, lost sales, and erode your brand image.
While the risks of failed online flash sales are real, they can be avoided!
See how theBalm Cosmetics upgraded their technology stack and worked out important backend processes so they can run smooth flash sales multiple times a year.
(more…)What We’re Reading: Collecting Data, ‘Now Economy’, & Black Friday
This week we’re reading about how to collect consumer data to improve your shopper experience, how to prepare your supply chain for the ‘now economy’, and what to expect from Black Friday this year. Read the articles below!
(more…)Omnichannel vs Harmonic Retail
Whether you call it multichannel, omnichannel, unified commerce, or converged commerce, retail experts have been trying to coin the approach merchants should take to best serve the fluid customer journey between physical and online stores. Over the past decade or more, omnichannel has been the buzzword slapped on virtually all advice, case studies, reports, and more.
However, with the rise of online shopping, especially mobile and social, the omnichannel strategy has proven to worn out its welcome. Consumers don’t shop by “channel” so retailers shouldn’t approach it that way.
Instead, retail experts are calling for a new approach, harmonic retail, that better describes how to create remarkable experiences for consumers as they interact with your brand across digital and physical touchpoints. In the end, it’s all about understanding your customers and providing the best shopping experience possible.
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