How Personal Shopping Services Are Messing Up — And 5 Ways They Can Improve
Personal shoppers, whether they’re entirely human or a human/algorithm combination, typically have a major advantage over a salesperson or a web site welcoming an unknown visitor: Time to plan... But my recent shopping experiences with a number of online and offline services have fallen far short of that expectation.
What the SONOS Store Gets Right
The store experience in Soho definitely lived up to expectations. And it’s definitely an experience more so than a store... The space is beautiful and not only brings the brand to life in a compelling way, but adds more dimension to the brand than could ever be conveyed by a web site or by the speakers themselves.
5 Answers to 'What's up with retail?'
About weekly, I get this question from someone who sees the headlines but doesn't follow US retail - specifically the fashion segment of the industry - closely. Without spewing a lot of stats, I usually touch on some or all of the following.
My Adventures in Chat Commerce (Part 2)
Last month, I wrote about my successful shopping experience with Hamlet, where I discovered and bought a table lamp via text. Around the same time, I needed to book a flight so I downloaded the Mezi app.
Why Singles Day Isn't (Just) About China & eCommerce
There seems to be a perception among US retailers and retail-watchers that Singles Day, or 11.11, is China’s e-commerce version of Black Friday. In fact, headlines have called it that. But there’s more to the story. It’s a story global retailers need to understand.
A Singles Day Primer
As I've told people I'm heading to China this week for "Singles Day", I've found I need to remind some what this holiday - also known as "11.11" - is.
Below you'll find:
1. What I'm most excited to learn more about in Shenzhen
2. Key quotes from Alibaba's earnings conference call last week
Throughout, I'm linking to recent articles about 11.11, Alibaba and its competitors.
My Adventures in Chat Commerce
I read about Hamlet a couple of months ago. Having procrastinated on a ceiling light search because I had a specific aesthetic in mind yet technical limitations to conquer, I decided the time was ripe to try my "personal home stylist, from the comfort of my phone". I'm so glad I did.
Hamlet has a conveniently low barrier for consumer entry because it's just a number to text -- not an app, not even Facebook Messenger.
A New Department Store Just Launched. (Really.) And it's Exciting.
We’ve heard the doom-and-gloom about U.S. department stores. Yet, the retail community warmly received recent news of Anthropologie & Co., which is basically a department store. Why the optimism? Let’s take a step back and consider what made department stores appealing in the first place.
Worm-Topped Ice Cream & As-Seen-On-TV Coffee (aka Experiential Marketing)
Over the course of my retail career, I've been able to build brands and invest in customer experience. At other times, I've run businesses where I had to pull out the discounts to make a sale and put cash in the bank "today" at the expense of long-term strategy. It continues to be physical experiences that raise and re-frame brand profiles that excite me. I've seen two recently.
What was Hot (or Not) at Retail’s Digital Summit
Thanks to the National Retail Federation for inviting me to cover last week’s big event in Dallas. While I listened to speakers, walked the Expo Hall of tech vendors, and concurrently followed #shoporg16 on Twitter, I naturally reflected on what I heard more or less about relative to past trends and my expectations.
How Retailers Can Beat Amazon to the Mobile Sale
To compete for traffic and sales, retailers need to meet consumers where they are - in mobile apps - and reach them before they've decided what they need to buy and gone to Amazon.
The company making both of these objectives possible is Button.
Retail's Online Traffic Problem
The shift in shopping traffic from Google and individual retail sites to Amazon obviously is a concerning one for retailers and brands of all sizes. So retailers need a new way to reach app-immersed consumers when a specific purchase is likely, but not yet underway. This is called contextual commerce and Button is doing it.
