Retailers these days hear so much about ROI that this simple acronym probably haunts them in their sleep. Sure, short-term return on investment is important, but perhaps also a bit shortsighted. In the long-term, there’s another kind of ROI they should dream about: Return on Involvement. The biggest marketing challenge today is how to engage the jaded or distracted (or both) shopper.
In the upcoming March/April 2018 issue of Retail Executive, I dedicate my Viewpoint article to voice commerce, a topic we’ll be covering more diligently as the technology progresses. As such, I caught up with Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center and Retail Executive Editorial Advisory Board member to get his take on the progression of the technology and how retailers should utilize it.
Today, shoppers want to know exactly what they are buying, where it comes from and how it affects their well-being. According to a recent study by Label Insight, 76 percent of shoppers search online for answers when they cannot find information they are looking for on product labels. There is a desire to obtain information about the quality, the origin and the nutrition, and also the desire to support companies and products that reflect their own values and lifestyle.
Customer service has become a key component of the overall customer journey, and more critically, customer lifetime value. Therefore, retailers need to invest in service options to provide choice and convenience to customers.
Email is the simplest and most cost-effective way to reach consumers, delivering ROI of up to 3,800 percent. Yet, many receive a failing grade for their email marketing campaigns. Understanding the power of digital marketing to reach consumers can be a game changer for your business.
Most retailers use demand-forecasting methods that fail to provide insight into how consumers choose to have orders fulfilled. Download this report from Gartner Research for insights into order fulfillment forecasting and optimal inventory positioning using distributed order management (DOM) systems.
To build engagement and understand customers, you have to know who they are, what they want, and what’s important to them. The good news is, there is a lot of data to aid in this understanding.
To keep pace with growing consumer expectations, retailers must be equipped with modern order management systems that greatly expand their fulfillment capabilities. However, many still lag behind. To gain insight into these challenges and retailers’ top priorities for a future OMS investment, Radial partnered with Incisiv to conduct a quantitative survey of retail executives spanning key business functions across the retail supply chain.
In the old days, consumers went shopping because they had to. However, thanks to a plethora of new options, consumers today must now be inspired to want to shop. To improve the customer experience, retailers are looking toward many different options, such as buy online pick up in store (BOPIS), click and collect and ship-from store. While convenient, these fulfillment methods have only further exposed the problem of out-of-stocks.
Let Radial handle the complexity and risk of payment processing, fraud management and tax compliance. Our fully outsourced solution turns orders into revenue, sends criminals running, keeps governments satisfied, and turns one-time shoppers into repeat customers.
Radial Fraud Zero delivers a best-in-class combination of people, processes, and technology for end-to-end fraud management. We are 100% focused on converting the highest percentage of transactions and keeping fraud well below industry standards to provide a frictionless experience for your customers. Our blending, cutting-edge technology with rigorous expert analysis translates into higher approval rates and happier customers.
Retailers these days hear so much about ROI that this simple acronym probably haunts them in their sleep. Sure, short-term return on investment is important, but perhaps also a bit shortsighted. In the long-term, there’s another kind of ROI they should dream about: Return on Involvement. The biggest marketing challenge today is how to engage the jaded or distracted (or both) shopper.
Retailers that cater to those who are shoppers (not just consumers), need to craft experiences around the act of shopping as a hobby or a way to spend time — especially as more and more buying happens online. How can that be accomplished? Focus your platform around personalization and gamification.
A freemium often delivers additional functionality for a fee compared to what the free version does. But for many the real attraction of an upgrade is the chance to shop, play or work in an ad-free environment. When consumers are willing to pony up to avoid seeing your ads, you know there’s trouble in paradise.
The challenge retailers face during the back-to-school shopping period is navigating how to attract infrequent customers and capitalize on the opportunity for increased sales — without allowing those sales to come at the expense of a poorer experience for “regular customers” who form the backbone of the business over the course of a full year. If you aren’t careful, the sales gains you achieve during back-to-school shopping can come at the expense of diminished revenues over the long-term with your most loyal customers.
Trade policy has been in the headlines quite a bit in 2018. From steel and aluminum tariffs, to proposed automobile tariffs, to back-and-forth negotiations with China, each day seems to bring a new wrinkle. But the single-most important development as far as U.S. retailers are concerned is the potential end of the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA. The three parties to the agreement — the United States, Canada, and Mexico — have been in negotiations since last August, yet there has been very little progress. Should talks break down and the treaty be terminated, the impact on retailers will be significant.
