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Articles by Bryan Pearson -
Experience, Relevance, Resilience: 7 Ways Consumers Haven’t Changed
If retailers think customers engagement was easier back in 1992, it’s because they didn’t know what they didn’t know. Back then, Amazon was just a sparkle in Jeff Bezos’ eye. People happily crowded indoor shopping malls. No one owned a smart phone. And most retailers had to guess what their customers did outside of their stores. Then came data technology. Over 30 years, online and “mail-order” retail advanced to $870 billion from $35 billion. Mobile purchases are predicted to control nearly .
Is Alt-Health Retail’s Next Big Growth Opportunity?
Ness may represent a legendary monster in Scotland, but it’s also waking a slumbering need in healthcare, and it’s a need retailers might want to set their alarms to. Ness, a financial-tech company, has developed an app that issues reward points to users for healthy lifestyle choices, from working out to getting a wellness checkup. But it also aims to reduce healthcare costs to individuals.
Gas Prices Raise Costs In 8 Surprising Ways
There’s a reason the price of chewing gum is up 7% from last year, and it’s not all related to supply and demand. It turns out that chewing gum is a crude habit, regardless of personal opinion. The average 42-gallon barrel of oil historically has produced nearly 20 gallons of gasoline and four gallons of jet fuel, according to Earth Science Week. That leaves 18 gallons for other uses, from making plastics and paint to asphalt and ammonia. And yes, to make some candies and gum.
The Big Spending Chill: 5 Ways Gen Z, Millennials Differ
Imagine a crowd of 10- to 25-year-old consumers at one of your stores and a crowd of 25- to 39-year-olds at another. How would each store differ in its merchandise, in-aisle communications and payment options? This is something about which retailers should be thinking. The ways members of Gen Z approach spending are different than that of their predecessors.
Americans Plan To Spend Less, But In What Categories?
Welcome to spring 2022. The luxury bag may be out. Backpacks, however, are in. Reports indicate that some retail spending will decline in 2022 as Americans re-evaluate their priorities. One survey, by Principal Financial Services, reports that 38% of consumers resolve to spend less in 2022. Left unclear is if those respondents really intend to spend less on everything, or just on certain discretionary items.
Why Six Big Retailers Are Entering The ‘Service’ Sector
Image courtesy of Starbucks When the customer is your toughest competitor, it’s crucial you get everything right. This may be the thinking of many retailers now packaging up and selling their own in-house innovations, from last-mile fulfillment processes to touchless checkout technology. Recognizing the value of these competitive advantages, a range of retailers, from ThredUp to Amazon, are turning their proprietary tech into revenue streams, and other retailers are the buyers.
Looking Back And Ahead: What We Learned From 2021 Retail
Tweet Image: Canva If retailers and consumers think price tags are high today, consider all the non-dollar costs that will influence purchase decisions tomorrow, such as time, convenience and (importantly) experience. Any one of these factors could change a shopper’s choice. Every one of them can coalesce to form expectations that are unparalleled and shifting with every rip of the calendar page.
What’s On Trend for Retail in 2022? 5 Predictions
Tweet Image courtesy of Hy-Vee If the past two years have taught the retail industry anything, it’s to meet the unexpected, eye-to-eye, with more of the unexpected. Unexpected as in surprising channels, unpredictable brand partnerships and even a dose of the expected. Because consumer desires have not changed; they still want shopping to be stress-free, convenient, personalized and a good value.
4 Rules - Retail Media Networks And Privacy
Image: Cava Retailers are finally sharing their customer data with other companies in ways that should deliver higher return on investment with each insight. But when opening their doors to buyers, are retailers creating the right experiences by inviting their customers in, as well? The looming demise of third-party digital consumer trackers, such as cookies, has forced brands and retailers to establish their own affordable ways to reach consumers.
Luxury Resale’s High-Class Challenge: Solutions to ‘Frankengoods’
Image: Canva An outsized demand for five-figure watches would seem to mark a good time for the economy, until one follows the chain of fulfillment. Take the Rolex. A second-hand market for it and other luxury watches is mainstreaming fast because, despite rising global demand, the makers of the timepieces are maintaining tight production levels.
What Does Outsized Demand For A 12-Foot Skeleton Tell Us About Customer Experience?
Photo courtesy of The Home Depot In this story, there are no skeletons in the closet. They are, instead, on display for all to see. Back in July, Home Depot did something unusual: It pre-released its Halloween lineup online, and almost immediately, it sold out of everything. It may have its Halloween past, and an unlikely product smash, to thank. In 2020, Home Depot debuted a 12-foot, $299 skeleton that one would think had a limited market.
What Customer Experience Will Generation Alpha Expect From The Mall?
Image: Canva The most important future shoppers can’t yet drive. But they buy. Can retailers steer them to the store? The oldest members of the next generation of consumers, Generation Alpha, were born in 2010, yet in just a decade they’ve learned to become smart online shoppers. In 2020, 81% of children under the age of 12 were reported to influence family purchases, translating to $500 billion in purchases a year.
Lessons Learned From The Dollar Chains’ Expansion Plans
Tweet Image: Canva Regardless of a retailer’s initiative, even regardless of opportunity, factors such as inflation could reel back a merchant’s expansion plans as fast as a shopper can spend a dollar. Or, in today’s prices, about $1.07. This could become the scenario for the nation’s three leading dollar store chains, which combined were planning to open more than 1,600 locations this year, according to Coresight Research. That represents nearly half of all planned U.S. retail openings.
Matching Price To Shopper: 5 Ways AI Can Help, Now
Image: Canva Who invests a database worth of intelligence into the price of a chocolate bar? Turns out, it could be more than half of all retailers. In 2020, 58% of top retailers said they planned to implement some form of AI pricing technology by the end of 2021, according to research conducted for Revionics, a pricing technology company. That compares with 34% in 2020.
Will Vaccines Be A Shot In The Arm For Retail Recovery?
Image: Canva Vaccine mandates may not be a popular topic at some kitchen tables, but when the tables clear, those mandates could determine where consumers spend. Most people are back to shopping in stores, and of them, 53% are likely to choose businesses that require employees be vaccinated against Covid, according to an Ad Age-Harris Poll released in late August. This is a headline-grabbing finding, but in truth it shouldn’t surprise anyone.
4 Answers To The Hardest Problems in ‘21 Back-To-School Retail
Image: Canva Committed workers are the latest in fashion this back-to-school season. And for many retailers, the accessories that will pull their operational outfit together are trending beyond the predictable pay and benefits. In April, a reported 650,000 workers quit their retail jobs – the largest figure in more than 20 years – contributing to shortages not just in stores, but also in retail distribution centers and call centers. By June, the unemployment rate in the retail sector reached 6%.
5 Ways Fulfillment Can Be A Loyalty-Building Experience
Image: Canva There are a trillion reasons why online retailers have to pack each delivery box with something that captures the emotion of the moment. The trick is making those feelings good ones, by seeing what the shopper sees when that package arrives. Online retail sales are predicted to reach nearly $910 billion in 2021 – up 13.7% over 2020, according to a report by eMarketer.
6 Ways Permission Advertising Gains Shopper Trust
Image: Canva In June, an international coalition of consumer rights organizations and data protection experts called for a ban on “surveillance-based advertising.” Are you surveilling the future of your micro-marketing? The most nimble companies are, and this will likely change how online advertising works, soon. More tech companies are placing consumers at the center of the advertising dynamic, giving them the power to choose whether to be marketed to, and by whom.
Tech Is Enabling These 5 Shopper Trends. Is Retail Ready?
Image: Canva The wheel may be one of humankind’s greatest innovations, but keep in mind that it’s what the tool can do – not the tool itself – that guides history. This applies to high-tech inventions as well. Retailers thought digital shopping would forever alter consumer behavior, but actually, it’s the implicit capabilities behind e-commerce that are feeding more widespread, and potentially daunting, change.
3 Shopper Needs Explain Why These 10 Retailers Are Expanding
Image: Canva Why do people get out of the house and go to stores? Don’t ask the retailers with chandeliers adorning their showrooms or the ones with “pile ‘em high and let ‘em fly” deep-discount bins. More than a few retailers have announced plans to open a significant number of stores in 2021. In fact, we can expect 4,000 stores to open so far in 2021, with 10,000 other stores predicted to close, according to tracking data by Coresight Research.
Simple Ideas That Can Help Retailers Win Wellness Tech
Not everyone wakes up with purpose these days. As the clock ticks relentlessly toward another expanse of (for many) open hours, more people are seeking wellness coping mechanisms. And more are finding them in tech-enabled, retail goods. According to American Psychological Association, 47% of Americans are feeling anxiety, 44% are feeling sadness and 39%, anger.
Target, The ‘Apple Experience’ And Training
Image courtesy of Target Corp. Great products sell, but only when sold properly. Eight in 10 consumers will switch merchants because of poor customer service, and this applies even to Apple products. So Target isn’t taking any chances at its shiny new Apple kiosks. The chain is incorporating Apple-dedicated shops in 17 of its stores, building on a long-standing relationship with the tech giant.
6 Pandemic Side Effects On Retail’s Road To Recovery
Image: Canva The pandemic may have unraveled the once-predictable hemline of shopper preferences, but retailers still have the instruments – their data and innovation – to stitch it back in place. These resources are retail’s new black as we enter a year filled with light. They have to be. The many forced changes that caused this unpredictability (curbside pickup, working from home) will become pervasive, if not permanent.
Half A Dozen Rose-To-The-Occasion Retail Ideas To Fall In Love With
Tweet Image credit: Canva Love is never having to say, “I’m sorry, we don’t have kombucha.” When it comes to retail, saying yes to almost anything is increasingly imperative. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the stores that survived the pandemic-enforced closures of 2021 are going the extra aisle-mile to delight returning customers. More than 8,700 locations closed permanently in 2020, while an additional 10,000 stores are projected to close in 2021.
5 Food And Beverage Trends Heated Up By Crisis
Image by Canva When it comes to how the pandemic affects retail, supermarkets are fairly high up the food chain. But if they don’t pay close attention to how those dollars are spent, could lose their footing. As of November 2020, last year’s grocery sales rose to $777 billion, an 11.6% increase over 2019. The cause of the increase, and where those new dollars are going, should interest, and concern, retailers.
7 Must-Do Retail Resolutions For 2021
Tweet Welcome to 2021, retailers. Don’t expect it to get easier. The year about to unfold will likely be a manifestation of all the changes consumers and retailers endured in 2020. That means all the merchandising and fulfillment lessons learned then, and all the new practices retailers introduced, are expected to be applied with improved efficiency and value.
12 Holiday Gifts From The Starbucks Card
Tweet Photo credit: Starbucks Even when it steals market share, the Starbucks loyalty program rewards more than its customers. Starbucks Rewards, with nearly 20 million members, also benefits retailers, even those that compete for the same consumer dollar. This is because the size, channel options, frequency of use and captured data derived from Starbucks Rewards inform industry-changing practices that other retailers can learn from and adopt with less risk.
4 Black Friday Trends That Could Predict Retail In 2021
By now, most shoppers have already unpacked their holiday purchases from Thanksgiving weekend. So now, let’s unpack just what all those orders mean. More than 186 million people shopped in-store and online over the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation. While that’s slightly less than 2019, it is more than 2018’s nearly 166 million, and 44% more shoppers shifted their buying to online.
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