Consumer Analytics

The signs of fall are definitely upon us. The weather is finally dropping into the 70s on the east coast. Summer’s green leaves are slowly transitioning to rich autumn hues. You can’t escape “Pumpkin Spice.” And of course, the biggest sign of fall: Halloween pop-up stores.  

Interactive media continues to shake up retailers’ digital marketing strategies.  

It’s not just how much traffic a store gets. It’s what the store does with the traffic that matters. Chain Store Age will present a webinar on how retailers can increase sales even when challenged with lower store traffic.   Store traffic analytics expert Mark Ryski will draw on real-world, data-rich examples as he provides critical information on how retailers can drive significantly better retail performance for the holiday season and beyond—despite persistent ‘traffic trouble’.  

Visa and Oracle are partnering to provide merchants with new insights regarding their digital ads.   Visa has introducted Visa Advertising Solutions, a new suite of products available to retailers through the Oracle Data Cloud. It is designed to help merchants understand whether their digital advertising efforts are influencing consumer purchase decisions online and in stores.  

According to eMarketer’s holiday sales preview forecast, ecommerce will surpass 10% of total U.S. holiday retail sales for the first time this year.    Total retail sales will increase 3.3% over the same period last year, to $884.50 billion, according to the report.   Holiday retail ecommerce sales will jump to $94.71 billion, representing 10.7% of total holiday retail sales.  

Americans will open their purses for holiday shopping regardless of whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins the election.      A survey of American voters by RetailNext found the vast majority will not let the outcome of election 2016 affect their planned spending this coming holiday season.   

A high-quality site experience makes Amazon the place where more than half (55%) of consumers go to first for products online.    That’s according to the second annual “State of Amazon” study from personalization platform company BloomReach, which found that search engines and retailers lost almost equal ground with consumers, 28% and 16% respectively, while Amazon increased its share by 11% over last year. Fifty-three percent felt Amazon had the best site experience overall.  

Half of all American households might have an Amazon Prime membership by the end of this year.

Cowen and Company analyst John Blackledge estimates that approximately 44% of U.S. households are Prime members, and that  penetration could accelerate to 50% by the end of the year, according to a report by CNBC.   

Prime has maintained healthy growth largely due to [its] increasing value proposition," Blackledge said. 

It’s sad, but true: companies are still taking a “don’t ask, don’t tell” stance when it comes to owning up to data breaches.   

If Yahoo’s data breach announcement yesterday is any indication, cyber-attacks are more prevalent than ever — and gaining momentum.