Kroger curbside feature

Putting Kroger and Albertsons in Context

| Mike O'Brien

Last week Kroger announced it was acquiring Albertsons for $24.5B, a major deal on the order of Amazon buying Whole Foods in 2017 that immediately reshaped the power structure in grocery. Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData Retail, helps us put the deal in context in our latest MCM CommerceChat podcast.

Delivering Personalized Experiences to Better Connect with the Customer

| MCM staff

By delivering personalized experiences to better connect with its customers, LAWLESS Beauty has become one of the fastest-growing makeup brands in the world. In this Multichannel Merchant webinar, LAWLESS President Rachel Shelowitz and Amber Fullerton of One World Direct discuss the brand’s winning formula for CX success.

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How Grocery Can Survive Uberization

| Madeline Aufseeser

Perhaps the biggest competitive advantages delivery services have over traditional grocery is sourcing and convenience. So, what can traditional grocers do to stop their lunch being eaten? Continue to innovate your channels with products, services and tools that help customers get the most from their in-store experiences.

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Sephora Launches Unlimited Same-Day Delivery Subscription

| Mike O'Brien

Beauty retailer Sephora is upping its convenience game, launching an unlimited same-day delivery subscription for $49 per year, through its website or the Sephora app, a service not offered by main rival Ulta Beauty, which charges $9.95 per delivery without the app option. The program has no minimum and there is a 30-day free trial.

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Curbside Pickup Can Now Include Impulse Purchases

| Mike O'Brien

A new tool allows retailers to offer impulse, add-on products to a curbside pickup order, in similar fashion to a physical checkout line, creating an opportunity to recapture lost purchases as BOPIS adoption continues to grow. The tool, called Curb Up, is a collaboration between Canadian firms Bold Commerce and ecommerce agency Knit.

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Powering Up Your CPG Ecommerce

| Meagan Bowman

Nothing ever happens in isolation in the world of ecommerce. Yet even the largest CPG and distribution companies still rely on lag analytics and siloed information to get a handle on what’s being sold where, to whom and for how much. A more proactive approach, based on digital transformation, makes all the difference.

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Omnichannel Optimization: Automate Store Operations

| Gary Stonell

As the role of the store shifts to meet the needs of omnichannel shoppers, retailers must also evolve to ensure efficient and productive task execution. Make the most out of your omnichannel strategy by automating store operations with digital management processes, exceeding expectations and improving communications.

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Overstocks Today Were Yesterday’s Stockouts

| Jill Liliedahl

When we consider the unpredictability of the last couple of years, overstocks seem a forgivable choice. Retailers who understandably erred on the side of overstocks during the pandemic are now stuck with a mountain of goods they can’t shift. One thing’s for certain: spreadsheets and outdated technology won’t solve the problem.

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Consumer Behavior: The Not-So-Secrets

| Hunter Thurman

While there appears to be no end in sight to the tumult of the retail landscape, behavioral science reveals that much consumer behavior is actually durable and predictable. And while behavior is relatively well understood in academic circles, it becomes murkier in the context of marketing science. Here’s how to understand it better.

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Retailers Struggle to Read Consumer Signals for Q4

| Mike O'Brien

Retailers are looking at a major balancing act heading into the holiday season this year, with consumer signals and economic indicators a mixed bag and absolute boatloads of excess inventory, much of it old, to contend with in order to make Q4 a success.