Data & Analytics

The crusade to win the hearts, wallets and loyalty of customers is sometimes waged based on price, store location, or superior product offerings. But often, winning the battle comes down to more emotional factors – a matter of demonstrated care and consideration for a customer’s unique shopping needs. Simply put: A truly exceptional customer experience that both surprises and delights.   

Amazon’s cloud services business is on fire.   Amazon Web Services holds a 45% market share of the worldwide public market for Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which is greater than Microsoft, Google and IBM’s shares combined, according to a quarterly analysis by Synergy Research Group.  

The more help a consumer receives—digital and human—the more he or she is willing to spend while in the store.     Consumers spend twice as much in-store when they receive assistance from a store associate, according to a new study by InMoment, and 2.2 times more when they surf the brand’s web site while in the store. What’s more, a consumer’s average single-trip spend increases nearly four times when engaged by both in-store staff and the brand’s web site.  

Lumber Liquidators widened its net loss in the third quarter, though the retailer did move the needle on net sales, which rose 3.4%.   Lumber Liquidators reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $18.4 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $8.5 million in the year-ago period, amid higher-than-expected expenses, including legal fees, as the company continues to rebound from last year's investigation into formaldehyde levels in flooring it had previously sold.  

Brian Cornell,  chairman and CEO of Target Corp., and Mindy Grossman, CEO and director of HSN,  are among the headliners at  Shoptalk 2017, the nex-gen retail and e-commerce event.   Also on the bill: Devin Wenig, president and CEO of eBay.  

Five grocery tech experts chimed in on the recent report that Amazon is planning a major move into the brick-and-mortar grocery store space, and see the potential for up to 2,000 branded grocery stores over the next 10 years.   

Online shopping is expected to reach record levels this holiday season, with some reports suggesting it may even match — for the first time ever — physical store spending.     

Google is testing a feature that allows users to search for specific products nearby or in a specific area using voice commands.    According to a report by MediaPost, the feature, similar to a search experience, provides the users with a response (verbal in this case) based on local inventory around them.   

Walmart is testing new technology that could revolutionize the way customers pick up purchases they ordered online.     The discounter has installed a giant machine in a store in Bentonville, Ark., close to its headquarters, that automatically distributes online orders to users of Walmart's  buy-online-pickup-in-store service, reported Business Insider.   The machine is located directly inside the store's entrance.   

To bolster its omnichannel efforts, Lowe’s promoted Michael McDermott to chief customer officer.   McDermott, who currently serves as Lowe's chief merchandising officer, will be responsible for creating experiences that best serve customers and differentiate Lowe's in an omnichannel environment. This includes lead-ing strategies, customer insights, customer experience design and market-ing.