WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

Average open rates are between 15% and 25% range, depending on industry, so for the 75% to 85% of recipients who do not open any given email they receive, the subject line IS the email. The ultimate email marketing guide is free to discover the trends that will impact email marketing in 2019.

Beyond the world of email marketing in the wider world of business, the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on productivity and employment has risen to prominence in the last two plus years as more affordable systems have become available from vendors. This has naturally prompted marketers to review the potential marketing applications of AI. To answer this question, in our guide to marketing applications of AI , Smart Insights has reviewed the opportunities and tools for AI across the customer lifecycle. This report highlights the critical trends and techniques that will help you transform your brand-customer relationships using the most powerful channel in your marketing mix: email!

The role of a chief executive requires vision above all else. At Shoptalk, execs from Gap, Macy's, Nordstrom, Lowe's and a host of disruptors offered insights from a unique industry perch.

“No industry,” wrote Harvard Business Review at the close of 2018, “is failing faster than retail.” At risk of contradicting the Crimson: bullshit. Sweeping proclamations make for great sound bites and (scholarly) clickbait. But the truth? Not so much.

At the opposite extreme lay headlines trumpeting “voice-search buying,” “Instagram-worthy pop-ups,” and “VR-enabled O2O experiences.”

What the data shows — and what the leaders we spoke to from brands at the forefront said — isn’t that retail is failing nor that success is tied to innovation for innovation’s sake. Instead, it points to the now unignorable center of commerce: customer choice. What is the future of ecommerce for 2019 and beyond? 10 insights offer the answer:
Ecommerce v Retail: The Dichotomy Ends
DTC Emerges as Commerce’s Future
More than “Digitally Native” Tactics
Content Becomes the Holy Grail of Growth
Physical and Digital Solidify Their Relationship
Social Commerce Evolves or Limps to the Grave
Channels Must Deliver on Their Promises
Mobile Buying Is (Almost) the New Normal
Micro-Moments Win or Lose Conversions
International Ecommerce Expands to the East

It’s an incredibly exciting time to be working in the retail industry. Ten years from now, consumers will look back and say: “Did shopping really look like that in 2019?”

In China, the either-or retail equation is being cast aside for New Retail, which merges the best of the in-store and online experiences. To Alibaba, success these days also means helping brands go omnichannel. An increasing number of brands are doing just that, tapping Alibaba’s New Retail tools, erasing the lines between online and offline. 

The key to New Retail is the mobile phone, which provides the critical connection between online and offline retail to consumers. Brands in China have an advantage here because they don’t need to convince consumers to download and use their apps. That’s because they know 500 million consumers already have the Tmall app. “China is moving much faster than the West in this evolution because the Western retail model is built on legacy systems. China’s model is disruptive,” said Frank Lavin, CEO of ExportNow, a company which helps Western brands sell to China. “China does not have the legacy of malls and big-box stores like the West. China has no traditional retail model to defend.”

Online or offline: These cannot be the only options for consumers. See how Alibaba is transforming traditional retail with a complete digitization of commerce.

2018 was one of the best retail years on record, writes Chris Walton, and so it is only fitting to celebrate the highs and lows from the past year.

Key Findings

1. Digital commerce innovators are moving beyond the traditional commerce site, and even mobile, to focus on emerging channels such as conversational interfaces.
2. New business models, such as subscription-based ordering and enterprise marketplaces, enable sellers to generate new revenue streams and focus on customer outcomes.
3. AI is playing a big role in digital commerce, improving customer experience, increasing revenue, reducing costs, and driving double-digit improvement in related metrics.
4. Customer-facing features continue to be the primary selection criteria for commerce platforms. However, agility, ease of deployment, flexibility to update content and deliver new features, and ability to scale are also crucial aspects of a commerce ecosystem.

Mission Capital Clients et Nathalie Innocenti partagen, en partenariat avec Emarketing.fr, les Grandes Tendances Store Tour NEW YORK 30 magasins + NRF 2019: Nouveaux Parcours & Expérience Points de Vente Connectés demain ? Best Practices & innovations les + prometteuses.
Le tout en de 2 minutes. Enjoy !

In our 27-criteria evaluation of product information management (PIM) providers, we identified the 10 most significant ones — Agility Multichannel, Contentserv, EnterWorks, IBM, Informatica, inRiver, Riversand, Salsify, SAP, and Stibo Systems — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps digital business professionals make the right choice.

Online grocery spending continues to grow at a rapid pace, now making up 5.5% of total grocery spending in the U.S., according to a new study from advisory firm Brick Meets Click. Nearly 30% of U.S. households buy groceries online, and most of the near-term growth in online grocery spending will continue to come from this group of active online grocery shoppers.
Over the past year, online grocery shoppers increased their weekly online spending from 28% to 46% of their total grocery spend, the firm found. Their average order size increased from $62 in 2017 to $69 in 2018.
The report says that while grocers are well-positioned to meet the growing demands of online grocery shopping, Amazon, which has 77% household penetration, will continue to challenge other retailers when it comes to capturing online grocery spending – especially as it leverages iPrime membership benefits through Whole Foods.

Now there’s Robomart, which wants to bring the groceries, baked goods and prepared foods of the supermarket aisle to your doorstep with a white-labeled service for wholesalers and big box retailers.

Retailers at the Future Stores event in Seattle had a lot to say about where they thought the future of the store is headed. Here are some of the top takeaways.

So instead of trying to battle Amazon using the legacy inventory model — hoping that whatever is in stores will compel customers to make purchases — retailers are focusing experience driven through convenience. To do that, retailers are reducing friction at checkout, giving customers to options to pick up or ship items to stores, and adding digital tools to help find products either in the store or online, if they’re out of stock.

Ocado's new warehouse has thousands of robots zooming around a grid system to pack groceries. The thousands of robots can process 65,000 orders every week. They communicate on a 4G network to avoid bumping into each other. Is this the future of retail?

Shimona Mehta, Head of Revenue Acceleration for Shopify Plus, talks about the future of e-commerce and the key trends that are shaping the space. She talks about the three key trends shaping e-commerce today: Constantly shifting consumer behaviour, the need for retailers to innovate, and the rapid growth of direct-to-consumer sales. Watch the video for insights from Mehta on what these trends mean for your business.

IoT has paved the way for brands to use connected devices in their physical spaces too. Learn how location-based brands can invest in technology-rich locations that raise the bar for customer experience.

Proposed facility part of push to boost online grocery fulfillment. Walmart representative said the concept marks a different grocery pickup approach and would represent its largest pickup-only site. The location also would be Walmart’s first stand-alone, drive-up grocery facility in Illinois. The building would have no customer access and house 41,700 square feet of inventory space. Signs would direct customers driving through the lot to one of three canopied pickup bays, where they would park in a designated space and have their groceries loaded into their vehicle. Customers would order their groceries as usual via the Walmart Grocery app or website and select a pickup time in one-hour windows. Pickup trips and parking spots would be coordinated to avoid congestion.

Une enquête menée en 2018 par 421 Research pour Ayden auprès de 5 033 Européens (Royaume-Uni, Allemagne, Espagne, France et Pays nordiques), rend compte de l'importance de la vision "Smart Phygital" pour les acteurs de la distribution. Comme le montre notre graphique, les attentes des consommateurs vis-à-vis de l'expérience d'achat se concentrent autour de 3 axes : la personnalisation, la stratégie omnicanale et l'innovation digitale.

Are you wondering what the future holds for your eCommerce website? Want to know the future trends likely to decide the success of your online shop?
Here’s a quick summary of the key points of focus:
Personalized experience
Multiple shopping channels
Customer service automation
Cryptocurrencies as a payment method
On-site and in-app mobile commerce
Same-day delivery
Pay-monthly models
The future of delivery services
Increasing video use
Pop up shops

From store-grown produce to a renewed emphasis on service counters, retailers are focusing on innovation as well as time-honored strategies in an effort to keep their stores relevant.