Retail Trends
Current market volatility has hit retailers hard. Many are struggling to re-orient operations to meet customer expectations. Read our advice.
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Brands: Gauge The Size Of Your Digital Commerce Prize
All brands need to be selling to and engaging with consumers online. The experiences of the 2020 pandemic have only accelerated consumers’ shift to digital touchpoints. When it comes to brands’ digital commerce opportunity, it’s not “one size fits all.” So, where should brands focus their digital direct-to-consumer (DTC) efforts, and what will each yield […]
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The Rising Bar For Retailer Mobile App Experiences — Are You Ready?
Use best-in-class examples to prioritize your retail mobile app development.
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CX North America
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Forrester’s US Retail Recovery Heat Map, March 2021 — Vaccine Rollout
Every month, we estimate how the retail economies of 30 major US metropolitan areas are recovering from COVID-19. By aggregating numerous metrics (across retail sales, local economic indicators, and virus spread), our model predicts that these metropolitan areas will face differing levels of COVID-19 disruption. This month, we added a new variable to our retail […]
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Brand Go-To-Market Series: The CPG Category Is Taking Big Steps Toward E-Commerce DTC Sales
The pandemic has been a pivotal moment for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) category. Before the pandemic, most CPG brands lacked direct-to-consumer (DTC) buy-ability on their website. However, the pandemic spurred numerous CPG brands like Beyond Meat, Bimbo, Del Monte, and PepsiCo/Frito Lay to launch DTC websites. The latest update to our Digital Go-To-Market Review series […]
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Promising Improvements — Forrester’s US Retail Recovery Heat Map, February 2021
Since April 2020, we have estimated how the retail economies of 30 major US metropolitan areas are recovering from COVID-19. By aggregating 11 metrics (across retail sales, local economic indicators, and virus spread), our model predicts that these metropolitan areas will face differing levels of COVID-19 disruption. For these metrics, we looked at US metropolitan-, […]
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The Real Amazon Question: Can Amazon Retain A Day One Culture When The Only Person From Day One Departs?
What will it really take for Andy Jassy and Amazon to retain the culture that has made it so successful in so many areas of business? Here are the five key attitudes that Amazon must retain – and that other companies should learn from.
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Forrester’s Digital Go-To-Market Review: Consumer Electronics Edition
Our latest update to our Digital Go-To-Market Review series for brands looks at the consumer electronics sector. Electronics store sales peaked in 2007, and since then, an ever-growing proportion of consumer electronics sales has moved online.* In 2020, 64% of US online adults said that they made a consumer electronics purchase online on a computer, […]
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Connected Experiences. Inform. Integrate. Grow.
A more connected experience is possible. Learn more at CX North America, Forrester’s must-attend event for CX practitioners.
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Insights From Forrester’s US Retail Recovery Heat Map, January 2021
Over the last 10 months, we have estimated how the retail economies of 30 major US metropolitan areas are recovering from COVID-19. By aggregating 11 metrics (across retail sales, local economic indicators, and virus spread), our model predicts that these metropolitan areas will face differing levels of COVID-19 disruption. For these metrics, we looked at […]
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The Best Is Yet To Come For Grocery E-Commerce In 2021
2020 was a banner year for grocery e-commerce as grocers swiftly responded to a massive pandemic-induced shift in consumer demand. But throughout the year, many grocers faced significant supply chain disruptions as well as costly (and rising) last-mile consumer expectations for same-day delivery and curbside pickup. It was a perfect storm of challenge and consequence, […]
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Retailers: Here’s How Consumers Are Shopping This Holiday Season
The retail holiday season is in the home stretch. We expect US online holiday sales this year will top $173 billion — or fully 24% more than last year.
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Digital Go-To-Market Review: Beauty Brands
Forrester’s Digital Go-To-Market Review evaluates brand manufacturers and how well they are positioned to thrive independently of online marketplaces and even traditional retailers. In our second edition of this study, we focused on the beauty goods sector, evaluating 34 brands on five elements for a total of 20 attributes. From this review, we rated seven […]
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2020 US Online Holiday Sales — Online Holiday Sales Will Reach Historic Levels Despite Uncertainty From COVID-19
US online holiday sales in 2020 will total a historic $173 billion as pandemic conditions lead more consumers to shop primarily or exclusively online. Learn more.
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Predictions 2021 Hub
Explore our blog posts, videos, guides, and other resources to understand the dynamics that will shape 2021.
Blog
Online Grocery Investments: Going In Fits And Starts
There were three interesting grocery developments in the last few days, all pandemic related and all reflective of the fact that digital transformation in grocery is still a work in progress and hardly a home run: Nestlé bought Freshly. This was probably the most predictable in that we’ve seen many big traditional companies buy startups […]
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Black Friday “All Season Long”? Expect The Bots To Follow Suit
I was scouring some of the Black Friday ads this week, and the trend seems to be less “Black Friday” than “Black November and probably most of December, too.” Best Buy is touting, “Black Friday all season long.” Target offers weekly “Black Friday Now” deals. Walmart? “Black Friday Deals for Days!” None of this is […]
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Give Customers The Gift Of Convenience This Holiday Season
This holiday season, many consumers will be forgoing big family dinners and exotic holiday markets and instead playing host to unwelcome guests like worry (for their health) and anxiety (for their finances). This holiday season, everyone just needs a break. Marketers can help consumers make the best of their holidays by making their lives a […]
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What Do Your Customers Want For The Holidays? Confidence
Now’s the time to make sure your customers understand whether they’ve found the right product on your site or app, know when they’ll receive their item in time, and know how to easily return the item if it isn’t quite right.
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This Holiday Season, Delight Customers With What Happens After They Click “Buy”
On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on Vixen . . . on FedEx, on UPS, on DHL, on USPS? There is no online equivalent to walking out of the store just after the moment of purchase, carrying a loved one’s holiday gift. This year, Deloitte foresees US brick-and-mortar sales increasing year over year between just […]
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What Were Other Retailers Up To This Prime Day?
Since 2015, Amazon has hosted its annual summer sale, Prime Day, an exclusive deal event for its Prime members. In 2019, shoppers purchased more than 175 million items during the event, and its sales surpassed the prior year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined. For this year, due to COVID-19, Amazon’s highly anticipated event […]
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Predictions 2021: It’s All About Empathy, Digital, And Virtualizing Customer Care
The purpose of customer service is no longer just to alleviate run-of-the-mill inconveniences; it is to provide fundamental and necessary services for consumers devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how customer service will evolve in 2021.
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Predictions 2021: Retailers, Brand Manufacturers, And Mall Operators
In the wake of the pandemic's deluge of disruption, retailers, brand manufacturers, and ecosystem players such as mall operators are entirely rethinking their businesses, heralding much change ahead. Read what we predict for retail in 2021.
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