Policy Guardrails Mitigate Cyber Monday Security Risks
With so many aspects of this year’s holiday shopping experience outside retailers’ control—shipping delays, supply chain issues, and labor shortages, to name just a few—retailers are shifting their focus and using enhanced data security policies in their mobile apps and websites to improve the shopping experience for customers.
How Personalized Packaging Can Drive Loyalty and Conversions
The key word here is experience. Opening a box full of bubble wrap or (get the vacuum ready) packing peanuts does not lend itself to compelling video content. What cements a product in the viewer’s mind is the branded experience. This could be personalized tissue paper, a thematic wrap element, clever inlay design, or custom selected product samples, to name a few.
Unpacking Holiday Trends: What Retailers Need to Know
Although the forecast is relatively rosy, retailers are competing for every dollar. Many are taking a more strategic approach to capitalize on pent-up shopping energy than they did last year. Let’s take a closer look at what we can expect from the 2021 holiday season, including best practices for maximizing sales.
Retailers Use AI to Combat Shrinking Seasonal Workforce, Surging Customer Demands
Increases in customer service tickets are expected to come just as seasonal workforces are hitting all-time lows. According to Puneet Mehta, founder and CEO of the AI platform Netomi, about 25% fewer agents are working in seasonal customer service roles now than before the pandemic. Customer service accounts for a lot of the seasonal roles retailers have traditionally hired for, and now retailers are looking at leveraging technology to fill that labor gap.
Advertising Tactics to Maximize 2021’s Holiday Shopping
With a nimble approach and adaptable strategies, marketers this year can keep up with shifting consumer behaviors and find opportunities for innovation throughout the 2021 holiday season. Aside from being prepared to pivot, there are a few campaign tactics that will help marketers make the most of this e-commerce-driven holiday season.
November Theme: Hybrid Holidays
Sometimes, a theme is so central to the conversation in martech, retail tech, location intelligence, and the other subject areas Street Fight covers that we double down on it, focusing on it for two months in a row. That is the case this November, when we will be concentrating on the hybrid holidays for a second consecutive month.
Inside the Last-Mile Delivery Crunch
High shipping costs, late deliveries, and lost or stolen packages aren’t uncommon during the busy holiday period, but this year feels different. The so-called shippageddon that retailers are bracing for is creating new worries and new opportunities for creative brands to rise to the top.
6 Ways Brands Are Leveraging Human-to-Human Marketing in 2021
The ultimate goal with human-to-human marketing is to tap into consumers’ emotions by using real people to engage potential customers. Advancements in technology, and growth in the gig economy, have made human-to-human marketing a more realistic—and affordable—option for brands this year. As the holidays draw closer and brands rethink how they’ll connect with targeted consumers in the coming months, this is a strategy more brands are considering.
Why Deep Linking is a Must for M-Commerce Marketers this Holiday Season
The 2021 Adobe Digital Economy Index reported that 60% of online retail website visits in August 2020 came from smartphones, which now account for 40% of all online sales. It’s undeniable; mobile commerce — or m-commerce — will be a major factor in retailers’ success this holiday shopping season.
Holiday Marketing Amid Current Supply Chain Disruptions
By using marketing to communicate transparently about potential shortages while at the same time helping shoppers either locate hard-to-find items or come up with alternative gift ideas, companies can overcome the current challenges and actually deepen their relationship with consumers, leaving them well-positioned for when the supply chain does return to something resembling normal.