In a world of hyper-adoption – and hyper-abandonment – successful retailing in 2018 comes down to obsessing about your customer’s experience. It’s a tall order: Digital and physical touchpoints now must work together flawlessly – yet also do what each touchpoint does best on its own. And organizations must remove silo shackles to unify disparate data to develop deep customer insights.
Forrester’s 2018 retail predictions call out that as retailers work towards these goals, they must navigate growing their business in an ever-changing world where...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2017/11/16/why-2018-is-all-about-customer-experience-for-the-retail-industry/#573f8de67783/
Retailers know very well that this is the time of year to roll up their sleeves, get out of their comfort zone, and start thinking strategically about how to make the most of the upcoming holiday shopping season. But if you're looking to evaluate how well your business is capitalizing on this season, the real test will only come next year — when you start to see whether your 2017 holiday sales have brought in customers who are sticking around.
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/holiday-season-is-coming-want-a-second-date-with-your-customers/
With e-commerce’s stake in U.S. retail at less than 10 percent, suggestions of a “retail apocalypse” of brick-and-mortar stores is greatly exaggerated, panelists said during a ULI North Texas event on the retail sector. Still, panelists at an event in Dallas said the industry has to find new ways to reinvent itself and connect with customers in order to thrive.
“What we did . . . ten years ago doesn’t work anymore,” said Valerie Richardson, vice president of real estate for the Container Store Inc. “We are in a tectonic-plate shift in our industry. For those of us with longstanding brands, it’s critical that we go deep into our customer base and understand what our customer needs and respond to that appropriately.”
https://urbanland.uli.org/news/retailers-focusing-customer-experience-eye-e-commerce/
We're in the age of voice of the customer. Of course, for retailers, this isn't news. But every year yields new evidence that the digital age continues to restructure the buyer-seller dynamic. In today's trust economy, customers are finding tremendous value — and leverage — in social proof. And brands are seeing it become a powerful and persuasive form of digital marketing.
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/social-proof-is-boosting-holiday-sales-5-steps-show-you-how/
Amazon, Williams-Sonoma and Kohl’s are the top three brands in ForeSee’s annual Retail Customer Experience (CX) Rankings, which are based on survey data from over 40,000 shoppers across their store, Web, and mobile experiences.
The report also examines the success of retailers by individual channel — store, Web, and mobile (See chart). Amazon, Costco, Kohl’s, and Nordstrom each took a top spot in two out of three channels, while Tractor Supply ranked No. 1 in Web.
https://www.chainstoreage.com/technology/retailers-tops-omnichannel-customer-experience/
As any retailer knows, in today's society, the customer is always right; and is increasingly more demanding in terms of what they expect when making purchase decisions. The customer now wants to be able to start, continue and complete their purchases anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Our online society facilitates purchase decisions being made, verified, reconsidered, amended or reversed, in any situation and through any possible channel, or indeed a mixture of many. As a result, providing a seamless payment experience that can follow the customer along their journey across the plethora of touch points is essential for a merchant to succeed in the marketplace.
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/why-omni-channel-is-a-must-and-how-to-make-it-successful/
The best insight on how to enhance, improve, advance and boost the retail customer experience comes from those retailers, whether online or in-store, which are doing just that. And readers love getting that deep knowledge, insight, tips and advice as illustrated by the most read articles and features this year.
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/articles/2017-in-review-top-5-features-highlight-retailer-experiences/
In looking back at 2017 in retail customer experience, there were lots of big headlines, a big wave of emerging technologies and a long list of strategies in play as retailers strive to enhance and advance the customer experience.
As the new year arrives, it's a great time to look ahead at what's to come from those in the trenches. Retail customer experience gurus, leaders and experts shared their insight with Retail Customer Experience via email as 2017 ebbed to a close.
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/articles/industry-experts-offer-up-2018-predictions-on-retail-customer-experience/
Oracle’s Antony Welfare explains why customer experience offers retailers the biggest competitive advantage.
Your customers have unprecedented power, information and choice at their fingertips. As a result, their expectations are higher than ever.
These modern customers – many of them millennials with a mobile phone moulded to their hand – expect the same retail experience, regardless of where their interaction takes place. Whether it’s online, in store, on your mobile app or socially.
https://www.retail-week.com/retail-voice/the-retail-customer-experience-of-the-future/7027916.article?authent=1/
The retail landscape has significantly changed due to the digitisation of shopping and shift in consumer buying behaviour. Consumers today have low attention spans, shop mobile first, use peer recommendations and conduct research before making a purchase.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/01/23/the-future-of-brick-and-mortar-enhancing-the-customer-experience/#76243a273ce3/
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