As inflation continues to impact retailers, the basket size of every shopper is critical to profitability. To attract the price-wary omnishopper, you must create a seamless, consistent cross-channel experience. Engaging and retaining them is incredibly valuable, but it takes finesse to understand who they are and how they shop.
The CEOs of Nordstrom and Walmart both spoke this week of continuing concern over inflation affecting shoppers heading into the back half of the 2022 holiday season, as credit cards are maxed out and kitchen table budget meetings weigh using funds for gifts vs. essentials, causing retail jitters.
Sales expectations are somewhat muted based on a welter of surveys and experts, as well as most retail earnings, but Cyber Week is still kind of a big deal, extended season and early deals notwithstanding. There are, of course, no lack of consumer jitters due to nagging inflation, with study after study indicating some degree of hesitancy.
The CPG industry is evolving faster than ever. Nearly everything about the category has changed, including the way brands develop and bring products to market. Also, inflation puts pressure on marketing budgets, loyalty is weakening and younger consumers have higher expectations and tend to be skeptical of advertising efforts.
Amazon is relaunching its discounted version of the vaunted Prime subscription, aimed at providing lower-income consumers perks normally reserved for the full offering but at a lower monthly price, during a period of economic hardship for many as inflation continues unabated.
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.
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.
Amazon has purchased iRobot, naturally raising some privacy concerns about the use of consumer data in combination from Roomba, Alexa and Ring devices. It also fits in nicely with Amazon’s bigger ambition to own the smart home market. Jason Boyce, founder and CEO of Avenue7Media, discusses this as well as antitrust concerns.
Marketers are wondering what issues they should be considering as metaverse marketing becomes a must have. Five issues to keep top of mind: balancing branding and performance; campaign buying methodologies; developing new metrics; what customer data will look like; and how to build secure experiences.
More than a third of U.S. consumers said they plan to cut back on other spending in order to be able to shop for back-to-school items due to ongoing inflation concerns, according to the annual survey from Prosper Insights & Analytics commissioned by the National Retail Federation. More than half had started shopping as of early July.