Within five years 75 percent of retailers plan to identify customers when they walk in the store according to Boston Retail Partners 1st Annual CRM/Unified Commerce Benchmark Survey. Previously you could rest easy knowing your brand had a presence in multiple channels, both online and offline. Those days are long gone. As the customer’s decision-making process has become the epicenter of retail strategy, unified commerce has emerged as the medium for a holistic customer shopping experience.
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Independent Retailer recently spoke with President & CEO, Andrej Suskavcevic, of the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA), the international, not-for-profit trade association. CHA consists of thousands of member companies engaged in the design, manufacture, distribution and retail sales of products in the nearly $30 billion U.S. craft and hobby industry. Suskavcevic discussed a broad range of topics, including the state of the industry, social media, and how to help customers fulfill their needs for creative expression.
The hashtag has evolved from a Twitter-only feature to having total social media domination. Social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram now have their own hashtag feature. So how do you know if you are using a hashtag to its fullest potential, especially if you do not know what it is? Read on to learn how to optimize hashtags for your independent retail store.
New arrivals are flooding into your store this time of year, and you are putting last season’s merchandise on sale. So what can you do to excite and entice your customers to buy? Implement the following three tips, and enjoy the sound of your cash register ringing.
To meet the needs of the growing number of mobile users among shoppers, retailers agree that mobile must be the number one priority for their digital business in 2014.
Smart indie retailers are always looking for ways to attract customers and build business. One way to grow is to cultivate a local following. Here are some tips for expanding your local customer base and sales.
Building customer loyalty is essential for brick and mortar merchants, and today that requires online customer appreciation. Not only will this encourage engagement on your social networks, but it also will keep your brand top-of-mind when your customers decide where to shop. Your independent business will thrive as long as you address online comments and questions as attentively as you would in your retail store. Here are four tips to help you do just that.
Making buyers lifelong customers should be the goal of everyone operating an online store. Retailers want this golden goose because it is less expensive to keep a customer than it is to acquire a new one. However, it takes a concerted effort to keep first time buyers around for life. Following are three strategies you can incorporate to keep shoppers coming back to your eCommerce site.
Retail payment solutions can and should be optimized to the needs of each individual business. Todd Robinson, VP of Marketing for North American Bancard, a full service payment solutions provider, recently spoke with Independent Retailer magazine about the range of small business payment products such as credit, debit, EBT, and gift and loyalty cards, available to help indie retailers support and grow their businesses.
All ecommerce storeowners want to increase sales conversion rates, and there are many ways to achieve this goal. However, a critical and somewhat overlooked element of the process is visitor engagement. Without higher engagement from visitors, it is going to be difficult to satisfy the need for higher website conversion. Visitor engagement is what ultimately starts the conversion process.