Retail Trends

Now that consumers have experienced the convenience of online purchasing, shoppers are rethinking the purpose of the in-store experience.

Even before the pandemic, organizations across industries have been grappling with how to manage customer experiences across physical and digital touchpoints. But the context of the 2020 pandemic forced businesses — particularly nonessential retailers and brands — to completely rethink how they used their physical spaces and, in particular, the employees within them. More retailers […]

Forrester’s latest Digital Go-To-Market Review evaluates 27 brands in the apparel and footwear sector to see how well they are positioned to thrive independently. Read on to see how these brands fared across direct-to-consumer strength, brand visibility online, distribution and e-control, organic consumer enthusiasm, and product innovation.

To get a closer look at what other retailers did during Prime Day, we reviewed 48 retailers’ home pages, spanning numerous categories. Here's what we found.

Retail recovery is proceeding at different rates in various parts of the US. See how our US retail recovery heat map reflects factors such as economic sentiment, change in COVID-19 cases, vaccine rates, and retail foot traffic.

In Q1 2021, we surveyed 140 brand manufacturer decision makers who are familiar with their company’s approach to digital sales. Brand manufacturers can use the results of Forrester’s Digital State of Brand Manufacturers Study to benchmark their performance and internally make the case for investments in digital sales strategies.

“When you look forward two years and think about your aspirations for your consumer digital experiences, what will inhibit you from reaching those goals?” Dozens of digital business and experience executives across numerous industries and geographies shared their thoughts with us about digital experience’s current state, emerging tech, priorities, and inhibitors. I’ve summarized the findings […]

Artificial intelligence and analytics are increasingly critical to retailers’ ability to win, serve, and retain their customers. But the landscape of technologies is vast and advancing rapidly, so it can be hard to understand which technologies are overhyped and which have real business value. Retail execs read about initiatives such as Amazon Go and Walmart […]

What’s the outlook for specifically for smartphone and tablet online retail in Europe and the US? This 2-part blog post highlights what’s changed – and what’s ahead – for each region.

What’s the outlook for specifically for smartphone and tablet online retail in Europe and the US? This 2-part blog post highlights what’s changed – and what’s ahead – for each region.

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that, between January 8 (the highest peak in the US) and May 12, the seven-day moving average of new cases decreased 85.8%. Vaccination rates are steadily increasing, and the CDC has relaxed mask guidance for vaccinated individuals. The US is finally entering a […]

Retailers and brands have offered chat for years, but recently it has gained traction thanks to new technology advancements and consumers’ overall comfort using chat. Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® shows that 42% of US online adults said that it was important for retailers to offer live online chat on their websites, up significantly from 27% in […]

Merchants: It’s time to reevaluate the standards you’ve set for your vendors and push them to innovate as quickly as consumers’ needs evolve. Don’t just stay because you’re comfortable: It’s time to choose your “best for me” solutions. This year, be your tech and business users’ hero and look for vendor partners that: Reduce the drain on your resources during upgrades and provide the flexible delivery models to support your […]

Bots are bigger than the security team. Conversations with security professionals concerned about bots often start with credential stuffing attacks, but the bot landscape is much broader and can directly impact your top line. Even the defenses have business impacts: A bot management solution that slows down traffic on the biggest shopping day of the […]

As reopening slowly begins, we’re joined by VP and Principal Analyst Sucharita Kodali to explore how the pandemic has reshaped the retail industry and where retailers should focus their resources going forward.

Retail Media Is Booming I’ve taken more questions on retail media in the past 12 months than any other digital marketing topic that I cover. And it shouldn’t be any surprise, as consumer purchasing and behavior has significantly shifted online during the pandemic. We had already noted growth in retail media in the middle of […]

2020 was the year that every digital business fell in love with their order management system (OMS). With the pandemic exacerbating the need for diverse and effective fulfillment options, retailers and vendors were forced to innovate — and innovate quickly. As a sign of the times: A year ago, there were a handful of little-known […]

It has been one year since we began estimating how the retail economies of 30 major US metropolitan areas were 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. A lot has changed in […]

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 […]