Consumer Analytics

By Murali Nadarajah, Xchanging Malaysia   Consumers can purchase virtually anything they want anytime from anywhere, from the Internet to social media to mobile devices to good old brick-and-mortar stores. As a result of today’s omnichannel approach to retail, chain stores now have access to a massive collection of customer data that hasn’t existed until recently.  

Time is running out for entries into this year's Crash the Super Bowl contest by PepsiCo’s Doritos brand.  From now until November 9, fans from participating countries around the world can submit their 30-second homemade ads celebrating their love of Doritos tortilla chips. 

Sears and Amazon.com both recently came under fire for allowing rings decorated with the Nazi swastika symbol to be posted for sale on their third-party seller sites. While both retailers quickly pulled the items down and issued public apologies, they received a large amount of negative publicity and surely damaged their brand image with many offended customers, perhaps to the point of permanently losing some of them.

Teaneck, N.J. –- Consumers have embraced the use of mobile devices for shopping, but are less than fully satisfied with the current mobile retail experience. According to a new survey of more than 5,000 shoppers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and China from IT services and consulting firm Cognizant, 91% of shoppers have a mobile device, 78% have researched products on a mobile device before purchasing in the last year, and 42% of shoppers reported regularly researching products on a mobile device.  

New York -- Ninety percent of mobile phone users and 80% of tablet users are still “purchase holdouts” and have not made a purchase on these respective devices in the past three months, according to a Forrester survey of more than 4,000 respondents.    Some 53% of holdouts cite that they avoid "checking out" on mobile devices simply because they are either used to buying, or find it easier to buy, on a PC. 

By John Gessau, ACI Worldwide   Wow. What a month in the world of mobile payments.   So much has been said and written since Apple Pay was announced on Sept. 9th, up to its official launch on Monday, Oct. 20. If I had dollar for every time Apple Pay was mentioned in the press and in blogs, well…   But Apple Pay isn’t the only thing that has happened since Sept. 9th. There has been a lot going on around the globe:

New York -- Retail e-commerce in the US grew 16.5% in 2013 to reach $264.3 billion, and will increase another 15.7% in 2014 to reach $305.7 billion, or 6.5% of all U.S. retail sales, according to Emarketer.      In other findings, mobile retail sales in the U.S. totaled $42.28 billion in 2013, 16% of all U.S. retail ecommerce sales, and will increase another 37.3% to reach $58.07 billion in 2014, accounting for 19% of the total US ecommerce market.   

Wakefield, Mass. -- Ninety percent of consumers said they expect the customer experience to be consistent across channels and devices used to interact with brands this holiday shopping season, according to a global study by SDL. The figure represents a 17% increase from what consumers reported last year.  

Washington, D.C. –- More than half of U.S. consumers plan to make at least some of their holiday purchases online this year.