A recently released Mastercard SpendingPulse report showed a year-over-year (YoY) retail sales increase of 7.2 percent in April. However, within this figure, we see that in-store sales increased 10 percent while e-commerce declined by nearly 2 percent.apt their marketing efforts to these market conditions to increase customer retention, reduce paid media costs, and increase profit.

Retailers are constantly looking to improve the customer shopping experience. For e-commerce brands, it may mean implementing live chat, improving site speed, using 3D product images, and offering free returns. However, the shopping journey isn’t isolated to technical website details and store policies; it also applies to marketing.

Consumer expectations and shopping habits are constantly evolving. How brands adapt to the constant evolution, from logistics and staffing to marketing strategy and tactics, ultimately determines whether they stay relevant in consumers’ eyes and their business continues to grow.

We’re witnessing another evolution in purchasing behavior, ushering in a new breed of consumers — the "buy it now" consumer. What exactly is the "buy it now’" consumer, what propelled their emergence, and what do brands need to know about them in 2022?

Picture this: Your company's email campaigns have an average open rate of around 15%. Then one day it suddenly skyrockets to 40%.

Maybe it's just a fluke, you think... until it happens again. And again.

In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.

Email marketers at e-commerce brands use traditional reporting data such as open, click, and conversion rates to measure email campaign performance. But what happens when you suddenly take away one of those long-established data points?

Buckle up because we’re about to find out.

Relevant, personalized and timely transactional emails are virtually impossible to over-hype as they can generate five times more revenue than non-transactional messages. Even though these messages are some of the most highly read emails sent by retailers, because they're so common improving them is often an afterthought. However, their value shouldn't be overlooked, as each additional open holds the potential to increase engagement and generate sales.

We know COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of the retail industry and increased online sales. We saw a 40% year-over-year rise in the number of unique digital shoppers in Q1, and year-over-year unique page views and order count reached 15% and 21% respectively in March before skyrocketing in April to 96% and 88% percent.

The world is a different place than it was just a month ago. As companies try to maintain their business and stay afloat, many are wondering about the long-term impact of coronavirus on the retail and ecommerce industry. Here are some ways the dynamics of retail and services may be impacted in near term and in the years to come.

Marketing in a crisis, any crisis, is not easy. Marketers need to balance their human side with business needs, and knowing where that line sits is not always clear. But know this — what you do now will determine how your brand is perceived in the future.

This post by Whitney Blankenship explores the right way to approach your customers during a crisis, whether it’s COVID-19, or another future catastrophe, and how you can add value to your customers while trying to maintain your needs as a business.