New York SBDC Research Network

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit  eMarketer "Email marketing is one of the most evergreen retail tactics. It's also one of the most targeted forms of messaging since recipients opt-in and often provide solicited information or preferences. Despite these factors, personalization can still be hit or miss. An April 2018 Evergage and Researchscape International study found email content was by far the channel that more US marketers personalized, cited by 71% of respondents. Personalizing home pages (45%) and landing pages (37%) were a distant second and third. When asked how email was personalized, 76% of respondents said they use a first name in the message or subject line. Just over half recommend products based on audience segment, while one-quarter suggest products on an individual basis."

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit  eMarketer "Based on the titles of two new studies, “Stress Shopping” and “Retail Nightmares,” it’s a sad state of affairs for shoppers, in-store and online. Emotions play a role in shopping behavior even if consumers don't think that they do. According to a recent survey of UK and US internet users by analytics firm Clicktale, 78% of respondents believe they are rational when they shop. Yet 40% said they shop to calm down, and 74% said they have "stress-shopped" in the past. Younger shoppers and women were more likely to engage in this behavior; 62% of those ages 16 to 24 stress-shop and women were 12% likelier than men to shop for this reason."

Excerpt from an article by Remie Arena To read more, visit  eMarketer "A global survey by marketing platform Hubspot found that among a variety of emerging concepts, cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, blockchain, leave the most people scratching their heads. Interestingly, though, those surveyed seemed to perceive that blockchain and cryptocurrencies were not one in the same, because while more than one-quarter of respondents called cryptocurrencies overhyped, only 10% said the same about blockchain. Two other emerging technologies that were also fairly widely perceived as being overhyped were driverless cars and artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the survey found that half of respondents did not expect AI to ever have an impact on their jobs."

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit  eMarketer "Much has been written about value exchange and the push-pull of consumers' willingness to give up personal info for personalization, offers or other supposed special treatment. Many US internet users, however, are reluctant to reveal anything more than their name and email address to marketers. At the minimum, a retailer should be able to discern and differentiate a consumer at some point during a shopping journey. An April 2018 BRP (Boston Retail Partners) survey of retailers in North America found very different capacities for identifying customers in-store vs. online. That’s not completely surprising since digital activity has been easier historically to track than behavior in-store. The bulk of customer identification in-store happens at checkout, cited by 57% of respondents. One-fifth of retailers said they couldn't ID a customer in-store at all, while 13% said they can ID a customer whe...

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit eMarketer Despite persistent gloom and doom surrounding the retail industry, the first half of the year has been positive for most product categories. According to the newly released monthly retail sales report from the US Census Bureau, for H1 2018, retail sales (excluding auto parts and gasoline) totaled $2.06 billion, up 4.9% year over year. With the exception of sporting goods, which shrunk 1.7%, and department stores that stayed flat, all other segments experienced growth in H1 2018. Furniture and home goods (5.3%) and apparel (5.1%) saw the biggest gains. Now par for the course, ecommerce outperformed total retail with 10.0% gains during H1 2018 compared with the same time last year.

Written by Krista Garcia For more, go to eMarketer : It's logical to assume consumers might lose trust in a company after a data breach or misuse of personal information. But many businesses vastly underestimate the severity of these security mishaps in the eyes of their consumers. An April 2018 CA Technologies and Frost & Sullivan study demonstrates this perception gap. They aggregated variables like consumer willingness to share personal information online and the belief that companies protect their information to come up with a digital trust score ranked on a scale of 0 to 100. US internet users gave businesses a trust score of 61, the same as the global average. But businesses gave themselves an average score of 75 when asked if consumers trusted them. This is important because levels of trust correlate to spending. Consumers across all levels of trust—low, moderate and high—increased spending in the past 12 months, but low-trust consumers decreased spending by large...

Excerpt from an article by Krista Garcia To read more, visit  eMarketer "Amazon Go got a lot of attention, but it could be downplayed since there was only one small store near the company’s headquarters in Seattle. Could it even scale? That looks like a tentative "yes" as Amazon appears to be expanding the convenience store concept to Chicago and San Francisco. Walmart's answer, Scan & Go, debuted in August 2017 and worked with in-store devices or an app on a shopper's smartphone. However, it was reported that the retailer had shelved this trial. According to CBC News, after rolling out this service to about 120 US locations over eight months ago, the adoption rates were still low. The goal was to provide convenience, but it appears customers didn’t like scanning and bagging their own items. There has always been a degree of skepticism about self-checkout, whether because it’s too complicated, shopper preference for human interaction or resistance to ...

Excerpt from an article by Jen King To read more, visit  eMarketer "For the most part, consumers have a game plan when they enter a store—they know what they intend to buy and stick closely to their shopping list. Still, in-store shopping has one advantage that online doesn't: the ability to see and feel items in person. That's likely why many people end up spending more then they intended to. A May 2018 survey conducted by AYTM Market Research for Blis asked 2,000 US internet users ages 18 and older whether they spent more than intended when shopping in-store."

Excerpt from an article by Stewart Hodgson To read more, visit  MarketingProfs "Building a brand for your company is one of the most important things you can do as a marketer. A brand allows you to differentiate yourself from industry competitors with a unique image, a memorable voice, and an identity that resonates with your target customers. But establishing and launching your own brand from scratch can be difficult—particularly when you're a startup with limited resources. It can be tempting to rush through the process of market entry and start selling products as quickly as possible, but the way you introduce your company to your customers could have a huge impact on your potential for future sales. After all, you really do have only one chance to make a first impression."

Excerpt from an article by Megan Ray Nichols To read more, visit Thomasnet "You probably already know about consumer sharing services such as Uber and Airbnb. These services involve the peer-to-peer acquiring or providing of goods and services, which are selected by users via an online platform or app. This system is mutually beneficial, since the people who rent out their cars or houses on these marketplaces and platforms can earn money and develop a positive reputation, and the people purchasing have a viable, often much more affordable and personalized alternative to traditional services. When the greater economy subsides, the sharing economy rises. In these situations, people generally have less individual wealth to devote to temporary goods or services, prompting them to search for shared resources. The sharing economy is also growing as the supply chain shifts. Consumers now expect fast deliveries, from anywhere in the world. As a result, shared fulfillment centers...

From eMarketer The US economy is in relatively good shape when looking at measures like unemployment (it's down) and gross domestic product (it's up), but consumers are still feeling financial pressures. According to a Q1 2018 study by market researcher IRI, 47% of US internet users said they are making sacrifices to make ends meet. That's down from 50% in Q1 2017, but it's still a sizeable percentage. Even so, one-quarter of respondents plan to buy more premium brands in the next six months. This intent was stronger with higher-income brackets, as well as with retirees and seniors. When asked what they would be willing to pay more for, benefits beyond basic nutrition had the most interest (36%), followed by natural or organic products (29%). Paying extra for home delivery and in-store pickup of online orders were less popular.

From eMarketer : A new survey finds that many consumers worry about how much personal information they've shared online. Indeed, a January 2018 survey of internet users in Western Europe and the US by digital identity management service provider ForgeRock found that more than half of respondents are concerned. What's more, they regret sharing different types of personal information online, particularly the sensitive kind.

From eMarketer Retailers still trying to unlock the question of millennial spending patterns, take note: Millennials are sagging under a heavier debt load than Gen Xers faced at this point in their economic lives. It's the makeup of that debt gap that hints that millennial spending might not be unlocking anytime soon. Gen X had more mortgage debt than millennials, while millennials have more education debt than Gen X. A research paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis compared the overall finances of millennials in 2016 to Gen Xers in 2001. It found that millennial households in 2016 had an average net worth of about $90,000 vs. $130,000 for Generation X households in 2001. Millennials, it noted, had fewer assets and more debt. The combination of education debt and a lower level of investment in real estate could hold back spending on a host of items, from furniture to hardware to garden supplies.

Obtained From:   eMarketer A recent  HRC Retail Advisory  survey of consumers in North America found that nearly all respondents (95%) only want help from a sales associate when they need it. Therein lies the issue—how to balance shoppers’ need for self-sufficiency with in-store tech investments meant to help staff on the front lines? More than half (53%) of consumers surveyed ranked the in-store experience as the most important factor while shopping, but what does that exactly mean? A good number of respondents (30%) said mobile checkout was important to them, and almost as many thought apps that would make personalized recommendations were as well. But sales associates who served this same function were less desirable, cited by just 17%.  A separate survey of US internet users by  Zebra Technologies  discovered that the younger the consumer, the more likely they are to be receptive to sales associates using tech for assistance. Indeed, 58% of respo...

Obtained from:   MarketingProfs At many companies, the frontline of customer experience—the contact center—isn't meeting customer expectations. Although brands are adopting new technologies to better interact with customers and understand their wants and needs, the answer to delivering the right experience may be simpler than that. At the very core of customer experience is human interaction, so to truly see return on customer experience investments, brands should invest in their most valuable assets: agents in the contact center. According to  new research  from Calabrio, customer demands are increasingly complex, the number of inquiries are swelling to new levels, and agents feel ill-equipped to solve the ever-growing list of customer requests. There's a lot riding on agent interactions, and the lack of support has many representatives feeling stressed out, abandoned, and stuck in a pressure cooker of expectation. The effects of a burned out contact center workforce...

Obtained from:   MarketingProfs  IT buyers tend to research products/services across a wide range of online channels, prefer to be contacted by vendors via email, and favor firms with excellent customer support, according to recent research from Spiceworks.  The top factors that drive whether IT buyers will respond to a new sales/marketing outreach effort are the relevance of the product/service and the inclusion of detailed pricing information in the message. IT buyers say the top factors that drive their brand loyalty to vendors are great customer support, consistently fair pricing, and a history of reliable products/services.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) publishes information classified by characteristics such as income, household size, and age of the reference person. This article uses 2013 CE data to examine the relationship between age and consumer expenditures. This relationship is important because the aging of the baby-boom generation will influence the overall level and composition of consumer spending in the years to come. Data show that: Outlays on pensions and Social Security increased with age up to 45–54 years before declining. The share of the food budget devoted to food at home increased with age while the share devoted to food away from home declined. Healthcare spending, in dollar amount and as a share of the household budget, increased with age. CE household data classified by age of the reference person show that annual expenditures and pretax income are “hump” shaped over the lifecycle, lowest for the under 25 years group, then increasing to their highest levels for the...

U.S. consumer spending accounts for about 68 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). As goes the consumer, so goes the economy. This month, AIER looks at various aspects of Americans' economic behavior and factors that tend to drive spending such as attitudes, income and wealth. In particular, it highlights areas that may contribute to consumer sentiment since historically this has been a good indicator for future consumption.  Click here to read more.

ome 84% of consumers are willing to pay more for a good or service from a company they feel is socially responsible, according to a a recent survey by Lab42. In fact, "buying from a socially conscious brand" ranks in the top 5 drivers (after price, quality, customer service, and variety) that influence purchase decisions. So, how do consumers view companies as socially responsible? The biggest indicator for consumers is that the company offers high-quality products, according to 70% of respondents. Some 69% mentioned the company's reputation for being employee-friendly and fair as an indication of social responsibility. Read more from MarketingProfs

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics In the latest recession, employment supported by U.S. consumer spending declined by an estimated 3.2 million jobs between 2007 and 2010, over a third of total job declines during that time frame. Compared with the overall economy, consumer-related employment demonstrated relative resilience, recovering in 2012. Through 2022, consumer spending is projected to support stable job growth with increasing expenditures on labor-intensive services like health care. However, consumer spending and its related employment are projected to grow slower than in the past and at rates similar to the overall economy.