Covid-19 Accelerates Retail’s Digital Transformation
Retail's digital transformation, which is the concept of using new digital technology to address business performance, has been ongoing for decades. Covid-19 has forced retailers to invest more money...
View ArticleLive Streaming Connects with Pandemic-driven Consumers
Small and mid-sized ecommerce businesses can use live streaming to sell like QVC and HSN, introducing and demonstrating products as well as providing helpful content. And deploying live streaming now...
View ArticleThe First Steps in Adding Ecommerce to a Brick-and-mortar Store
Brick-and-mortar retail businesses are turning toward ecommerce to generate revenue — online and click-and-collect. As they make this digital transformation, those merchants will likely have questions...
View ArticleAmid Covid-19, it’s time to build
"It's Time to Build" is a popular blog post by Marc Andreessen, the Internet pioneer and investor. He wrote it in April 2020 at the onset of the worldwide pandemic. Ecommerce businesses are lucky. Amid...
View ArticleUse Purchasing Trends to Merchandise Products
You are not alone if confused about the products people are apt to buy today. Even consumers aren't always sure. Most consumers have opted to stay closer to home during a time when family vacations and...
View ArticleHoliday Selling without the Crowds
Pandemic-induced social distancing, reduced hours of operation, and even continued lockdowns and closures could dramatically change Christmas shopping behaviors in 2020, requiring retailers to find new...
View Article2020 Holiday Email Marketing Starts Early
With the fluid retail environment surrounding Covid-19, protocols and expectations change daily. According to Coresight Research, a consulting firm, 23 percent of U.S. consumers plan to start 2020...
View Article9 Holiday Selling Tips to Pandemic-driven Consumers
The holiday 2020 shopping season will be unique. Pandemic-driven concerns of safety and economic uncertainty will prompt shoppers to look for both functional and entertaining gifts at competitive...
View ArticleEcommerce in Q2 Takes a (Much) Bigger Share of Total Retail Market
The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that ecommerce as a percent of all retail sales jumped from 11.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 to 16.1 percent in the second quarter, representing a 31.8...
View Article2020 Holiday Shopping Is a Tale of 2 Consumers
Covid-19 has throttled the U.S. economy, dropping the nation's gross domestic product 31.7 percent in the second quarter of the year. The economic effect, however, has impacted folks differently. The...
View ArticleCovid-19 Is Driving Some Brands to DTC
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation in retail, prompting some brands to focus on direct-to-consumer channels. The retail and wholesale industries have long been...
View ArticleForget Black Friday Sales This 2020 Holiday
The upcoming holiday shopping season is bound to shake the ecommerce sector. If you haven’t yet finalized your holiday sales schedule, now’s the time to get it done. But you may want to rethink your...
View ArticleCovid-19 Exposes Inefficiencies in B2B Accounts Receivable
The ongoing pandemic has exacerbated long-standing inefficiencies with the B2B accounts receivable process, such as manual entry, little standardization, and errant data. Accounts receivable personnel...
View ArticleMall Owners Become Retailers Amidst the Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent store closures have brought new momentum to the decline of brick-and-mortar retailing, especially malls. More than 50 percent of the department stores that anchor...
View Article2020 ‘Time Machine’ Elevates All of Ecommerce
The ongoing global pandemic has accelerated retail and B2B trends that make it relatively more difficult for some businesses to survive while upping the competitive bar for the entire ecommerce...
View ArticleDuring Covid, Ecommerce Founders Can Invigorate Their Companies
Entrepreneur-lead businesses can become unwieldy as they grow. To survive, founders often must embrace a management system and delegate responsibilities. "An entrepreneur slips and falls off the edge...
View ArticleCovid and the Long Tail
An interesting development is happening on the way to retail recovery during the covid pandemic: Brands and retailers are cutting back on the breadth of products they make and sell. In August 2020, for...
View Article‘Shop local’ applies to ecommerce businesses, too
The pandemic has altered the behavior of consumers, moving from in-person shopping to online. We have experienced it here in the U.K. Online ordering has increased significantly. The post ‘Shop local’...
View Article5 Retail Insights from a Covid Christmas
Holiday consumer spending offers insights into the retail industry, including ecommerce's continued growth, consumer spending, and customer relationships. 2020 has been extraordinary — the pandemic,...
View ArticleChina Is Dominating Ecommerce
In China, a drab gray Mao suit was once the required attire for men and women. No longer. The country is poised to become the largest luxury apparel market worldwide by 2025. With a 2020 population of...
View Article7 Customer Retention Strategies for 2021
Retaining ecommerce customers lowers costs and boosts profits. In 2021, customer retention could be critical. “In 2020 we saw multiple years of ecommerce growth….And when we look at [2021], the big...
View ArticlePandemic-driven Shoppers Expect More from Ecommerce
The pandemic has upped consumers' digital expectations. What was once the exception is now the norm. Telemedicine, online learning, virtual meetings — all have advanced in the past year. Ecommerce...
View ArticleB2B Lessons from 2020
Covid-19 forced all of us to change. Companies and employees who had resisted digital innovation suddenly had no choice. Some of the changes have created value and are worth keeping. Others not so...
View ArticleWhat’s the Future of Traditional Retail?
The combination of Covid-19 lockdowns, supply chain problems, and economic woes accelerated the adoption of digital retailing in several areas of the economy. While some experts believe this will...
View ArticleRetailers, Brands, Manufacturers Are Converging in 2021
The distinction between direct-to-consumer ecommerce and traditional retailing has been vanishing for years. But in a post-pandemic 2021, the convergence could be accelerating. The post Retailers,...
View ArticleBike Retailer Solves a Pandemic-driven Problem
Lots of consumers wanted to get outside when the pandemic hit last year. Among the beneficiaries was Erik's Bike Shop, a Minnesota-based retailer, which experienced a massive increase in web traffic...
View ArticleThe Retail Omnichannel Imperative
In 2021 and beyond, successful retailers with physical stores will likely become powerful omnichannel sellers as shoppers choose merchants with superior end-to-end buying experiences. "The reason that...
View ArticleOnline Grocery Lessons from Covid-19
Covid-19 greatly changed the grocery industry, perhaps more than any retail sector. Years of projected evolution occurred in three months as the pandemic altered consumers' lives. eMarketer now...
View ArticleOnline Shopping, Post Covid, Retains Consumers
Covid-19 brought a huge increase in online shopping. Many consumers became online shoppers for the first time. It appears that they will continue to rely on ecommerce for a myriad of items....
View ArticleDriven by Covid-19, India’s Ecommerce Surges
Owing to its large population, India has always been an attractive ecommerce market, even if a relatively small percentage of its residents have access to the internet or adequate income. But ecommerce...
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