CommerceNext Insights

STORY Demonstrates Customer Experience is The Future of Retail

Elisabeth Anne Boniface January 21, 2020

How does offline customer experience impact retail in the digital age? In 2011, Rachel Shechtman aspired to bring exciting customer experience back to the physical retail space. Since then, STORY has brought its editorial eye to a host of rotating retail themes, curating a collection of inspired and on-theme items for a truly memorable shopping experience. At CommerceNext 2019, Shechtman gave us a glimpse into the inception and growth of STORY, from its founding in 2011 to the recent permanent installation at 36 Macy’s stores. Nine years ago, ecommerce was on the rise and digitally-native brands were starting to popup. Stores were still

Are You Prioritizing Affiliate In Your Marketing Strategy? You Should Be.

Matthew Gilbert December 9, 2019

Despite it being the height of the holiday shopping season, this is a challenging time for many retailers. Many are encumbered by debt loads, overstored in the face of declining mall traffic and struggling to maintain margins in a highly competitive environment. To make matters more challenging, over that past several years there has been a discernible shift in the retail marketing landscape—a shift in power from marketer to consumer—and if you’re a marketer who wants to thrive in this relationship dynamic, you will need to adapt sooner rather than later. With the consumer calling the shots, it has become incumbent upon you

How Retailers And Direct to Consumer Brands Are Investing In Marketing This Holiday Season

Elisabeth Anne Boniface November 27, 2019

The holiday shopping season is upon us. Last year, we saw a staggering 19% increase in ecommerce sales compared to the previous year, for a total of $22.5 billion in sales according to the National Retail Federation. This year, the Digital Commerce 360 projected an estimated 3.8% increase in sales over last year. In anticipation of this busy holiday period, traditional retailers and direct to consumer brands turn to their marketing teams to focus on customer experience and customer acquisition to elevate their holiday sales. To understand how these holiday trends correlate with marketing investments for 2019, we partnered with Oracle to survey

How to Use Customer Service to Grow Sales this Holiday

Travis Cross November 26, 2019

Support requests increase from customers by 65% during Black Friday/Cyber Monday. And 74.5% of large merchants are “concerned” or “very concerned” about customer service during the holidays. It was their number two concern overall. It can overwhelm your customer support, but it’s also an opportunity to use support interactions to promote sales & specials that you’re having! Number of support requests during the holiday season from Gorgias customers. 20 retailers told us how they handled the Black Friday / Cyber Monday and we’re sharing 4 tips that you can use with your support team for the holiday season. Promote Your Holiday Specials in

Personalizing Your Full-Funnel Customer Acquisition Strategy

Elisabeth Anne Boniface November 21, 2019

We all love a brand that makes us feel special. We feel like we’ve reached the jackpot when we find a brand that delivers exactly what we were thinking about or looking for. Moreover, when that brand fits seamlessly into our lives from discovery to delivery, we’re more apt to rave about it. A smart customer acquisition strategy takes all of this into consideration. Improvements in data and tracking for ecommerce-based brands has created a competitive marketplace for catching the hearts and attention of lifetime customers. Getting a new customer into the customer acquisition funnel can feel like half the battle, and

How Walmart Adapts Customer Experience for the Digital Shopper

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 28, 2019

Walmart.com is anything but basic. The retailer is perhaps best known for their sprawling stores across the US, a one-stop shop for everything you could ever need. Denise Incandela, Head of Fashion for Walmart.com sat down with Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Sarah Nassauer to talk about her team’s efforts to expand beyond the realm of basics and establish Walmart as a fashion destination as well as a catch-all for your day to day needs. By overhauling their digital channels to create a more editorial and explorative customer experience, the team at Walmart develops a customer acquisition strategy fueled by testing new brands

Connecting Cause Marketing with Brand Mission for Good

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 16, 2019

Consumers are looking for a cause. Sixty-four percent of consumers said that they would boycott, switch or avoid brands based on their public stances on social issues, and two-thirds of millennials and Gen Z expressed a preference for brands with a socially conscious point of view. IEG reported an average three times increase in spending on cause marketing since 2000, exceeding 2 billion by 2018. Retail brands are heeding the call to stand for something, channeling social responsibility into their growth marketing and customer acquisition strategies. This can take many different forms ranging from an entire company shift in business practices to align

How Retailers Are Investing In Digital Customer Experience

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 7, 2019

Time is the most precious resource. Within our twenty-four hour day, we are constantly curating experiences based on what we need to succeed and feel good. From what we eat for breakfast to the sheets we sleep on at night, brands play a huge role in our everyday lives. So how, as a brand, can you maximize those customer experience moments? If you have ever asked that question, or if that is the goal of your business, you are engaged with the experience economy, and Bob Meixner, Director of Product Strategy at Oracle, has the stats and advice to help. Meixner spoke

Building a Marketing Team to Scale Customer Acquisition

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 1, 2019

“Marketing is hard, but not nearly as hard as building a great team,” Ben Harrel quipped. Arguably the most important touchpoint of a brand’s customer base is mediated through the decisions and actions of its marketing team. Marketing plays an integral role in customer acquisition, retention, and customer experience, but how can you quantify the skills that an ideal marketer needs to succeed? Enter General Assembly (GA); their goal is to transform thinkers into leaders, and their Marketing Standards Board set out to discover what defines a successful member of a marketing team. Kieran Luke, General Manager of Credentials and Business at GA

Customer Experience and Community as the Ultimate Marketing Tool

Elisabeth Anne Boniface September 13, 2019

If you spend time online, you’ve undoubtedly heard of cult-favorite beauty brand Glossier. Moreover, you’ve probably seen their ultra-chic and Instagram-worthy pink and vibrant red branding not on an ad, but in the social content of someone you know. Glossier’s community of raving fans is a large part of what drives their brand awareness, with individuals sharing their beauty routines with the world via social media. This loyalty and passion stem from the customer experience Glossier creates. As a direct to consumer brand, Glossier takes a unique approach to customer experiences beyond your typical beauty counter which has helped propel their digital marketing

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