Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

By now you probably got the memo that the population in Europe is growing older. That the opening of borders is causing people to migrate. That consumers are using the internet and their mobile phones to make sure they get the best deal possible.

Body scanners and virtual fitting rooms could change online clothes shopping.

Fits.me virtual fitting room creates a mannequin to your sizes. Shoppers can then see how different sizes may fit their shape.

For many people, shopping for clothes online can be a bit of a gamble.You only find out if what you've ordered actually fits you once it's arrived - and if it doesn't, there's the hassle of packing it back up and returning it. It's a bigger problem than you may think.

"Almost 1 in 4 garments are being returned - 70% of those returns are because the customer's got the wrong size," says Heikki Haldre, Chief Executive and founder of London-based Fits.me....

You’re going to have to get used to it: data is everywhere, we contribute to it constantly, and it has a huge impact on the retail industry. In fact, 80-90 percent  of all the data in the world was created in just the last two years. Big data is generally portrayed as having all the solutions to many of the biggest issues in retail (as long as it is mined and utilized correctly), but it still has a lot of quirks to work out.

A big chunk of the problem with big data comes down to how it’s defined. There are dozens of different takes on it, but let’s discuss it as the rapid increase of the creation of diverse and quickly transforming data through multiple channels that must be processed in innovative and strategic ways.

Global retail sales should reach $3 trillion this year, and big data has the potential to unlock a larger slice of the market share pie for retailers. How? Well, that’s the interesting part....

How do we get more people into our stores? It’s an age-old question for B2C companies who have brick-and-mortar presences. How do you get people from thinking about your product to coming in your store and buying it?

The good news is, social media is here to help — and not just with bringing in the crowds. Social media allows you to have a deeper and more multi-faceted relationship with your customers than ever before. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

I’m going to use Seattle ice cream purveyor Molly Moon as my model in much of this post. There’s always a line at Molly Moon’s, especially in the summer but even on rainy Seattle days. That’s not because they’re slow scoopers – it’s because their ice cream is that good and, dare I say, because they use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to their best advantage....

Thunderhead has just published a report that delivers the results of a survey that it took to try and discover how long a customer takes to recover brand loyalty after a single bad customer experience. The top level findings indicate that consumers can take up to a year to reach the same level of brand loyalty, once they have experience a single bad interaction with a company....