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The retail spending outlook for holiday 2023 is bright, as researchers are predicting it to increase 4.5 percent to a whopping $1.3 trillion in the weeks soon upon us. Yet if we’ve learned anything these past few years, it’s that no holiday season for retailers is ever the same. This might be the year to…

In an era when technology reigns supreme, it’s no surprise that the way we shop has undergone a significant transformation. A recent study revealed a staggering 58 percent of consumers now prefer online shopping over the traditional in-store experience. Riding this wave of change, advertisers are strategically capitalizing on the rising trend of “store-less” shopping,…

How is this for a growth story? In October 2022, the shopping app Temu had 850,000 weekly active users in the U.S. A year later, it had 38 million. This eye-watering statistic says a lot about the buying habits of U.S. consumers in the post-COVID era. First, it reveals the insatiable desire of shoppers to…

As retailers gear up for the holiday shopping season, and digital shopping takes a front seat, it's more important than ever to understand what people are really doing, consuming, searching for and buying in their mobile apps. Accessing comprehensive data about mobile behavior reveals the importance of targeted strategies — especially on these smallest, most…

Consumers showed surprising strength in September, boosting retail sales well above expectations despite high interest rates and worries over a weakening economy. Retail sales rose 0.7 percent on the month, well above the 0.3 percent Dow Jones estimate, according to the advance report the Commerce Department released Tuesday. Excluding autos, sales were up 0.6 percent, also well…

When it comes to maximizing holiday sales from your email and SMS marketing programs, discovering the nuances of the season can help brands squeeze as much eggnog out of … whatever eggnog comes out of. With all of the data out there, uncovering the lesser-known can feel overwhelming to downright impossible. Here are four nuanced…

April marked 50 years since the first mobile phone call. Since then, mobile devices have matured to become the remote control for our lives, our primary point of digital interaction. Most desktop activity has moved to mobile, providing consumers the ability to instantaneously search the web, shop for goods and services, track online orders, find…

Venmo users who regularly use the app to gift money can now do so with an accompanying physical Hallmark card, the two companies announced Wednesday. In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, the PayPal-owned digital payment platform Venmo and the greeting card company Hallmark are giving customers a new, unique way of giving gifts. Here's how it works:…

As the holiday season quickly approaches, having a pulse on the performance of various marketing channels is essential for brands to maximize their return on investment. This is especially true when it comes to heavily relied upon opt-in channels like email and SMS. A recently released email and SMS marketing report shed light on these…

How often have you gone into your favorite retailer's store and opened its app, only to face the dreaded spinning wheel? Customers hate slow-loading loyalty apps — and retailers should, too. Customers use a retailer’s app in-store for several reasons: making a purchase, checking which aisle a product is located, processing a return, or redeeming…

Recent research from Square highlighted the importance of customer engagement for retailers. According to the shoppers surveyed, 86 percent wanted to engage with retailers.  Email is typically the preferred form of communication. But with consumers spending more time and making more purchases from their mobile phones, what if you could engage with them in real time on their…

Quick-commerce (Q-commerce) isn't new, but it's gaining traction fast. Consumers want speed, efficiency and convenience, and Q-commerce promises all this with the delivery of goods within hours or even minutes. Q-commerce has exploded in Asia, and its popularity is spreading to the U.S. as well, with many grocery stores jumping on board. In fact, Q-commerce…

When was the last time you were without your mobile phone? Do you remember that sense of panic when you realized your work colleagues, friends and family couldn’t contact you? As a society we're compulsively attached to our phones. Yet every day retail leaders across the U.S. continue to struggle to meet growth targets when…

E-commerce is gradually becoming the preferred shopping medium for consumers. In 2023, nearly 21 percent of purchases are expected to happen online, amounting to more than $6.3 billion in total spending. Today’s shoppers can do almost anything on a computer or mobile device: collaborate with co-workers, buy groceries, and even purchase a new car. As…

Apple has once again thrown e-commerce marketers a curveball with the release of iOS 16. While the previous updates focused on data privacy, the latest update is centered on giving mobile users more control over their devices. This includes controlling their SMS experience, which is a big deal for marketers and e-commerce brands. The new…

With 97 percent of Americans owning a cellphone, it's clear we live in a mobile-first world. Brands that aren’t reevaluating their mobile marketing strategy are missing out on a key channel to engage and create one-to-one relationships with their customers. For beauty and skincare brands, SMS marketing can be an extremely powerful tool, especially given…

Looking for a marketing edge? Of course you are, but little did you know that the elusive edge may be closer than you realize. Omnisend’s recently released yearly email and SMS marketing benchmark report analyzed more than 17 billion marketing emails and 107 million SMS sent by brands in 2022. It showed how deeply consumers…

With increasing emphasis on omnichannel strategy when engaging customers, real-time communication becomes essential as more and more consumers prefer brands to communicate with them via SMS. Consider the following data: 8 percent of Americans opt for SMS as their preferred communication channel to receive transactional updates; and 3 percent of American consumers wish to receive…

During the early 2000s, while the retail industry was getting battered by e-commerce, grocery stores were seemingly safe. Twenty years — and a pandemic — later, much has changed; e-commerce and delivery services have transformed grocery retail. Today, when consumers visit a store, they enter with much higher expectations. A convenient and smooth, seamless shopping…

In case you haven’t noticed, the retail industry has been transformed by digital technology, and more and more consumers are turning to mobile shopping apps to purchase products. However, it turns out that only 33 percent of retailers currently offer this capability, according to a recent assessment of the solutions and services of 300 brands.…