Elisabeth Anne Boniface, Author at CommerceNext

Balancing Brand and Performance Marketing At Scale

Elisabeth Anne Boniface February 3, 2020

It seems that these days, every marketing team’s goal is to create a unified view of their customer in order to help them market most effectively. From creating brand awareness with the brand story in mediums like TV and podcasts to finding high value customer segments for targeting on platforms like Facebook, brand and performance marketing are deeply intertwined when it comes to the overall return on spending. Perhaps the most dextrous in the art of balanced brand marketing and real performance metrics are the direct-to-consumer brands. Two notable digitally-native companies playing in today’s digital marketing sphere are thredUP and Chubbies. At CommerceNext

STORY Demonstrates Customer Experience is The Future of Retail

Elisabeth Anne Boniface January 21, 2020

How does offline customer experience impact retail in the digital age? In 2011, Rachel Shechtman aspired to bring exciting customer experience back to the physical retail space. Since then, STORY has brought its editorial eye to a host of rotating retail themes, curating a collection of inspired and on-theme items for a truly memorable shopping experience. At CommerceNext 2019, Shechtman gave us a glimpse into the inception and growth of STORY, from its founding in 2011 to the recent permanent installation at 36 Macy’s stores. Nine years ago, ecommerce was on the rise and digitally-native brands were starting to popup. Stores were still

Forbes + CommerceNext: Marketing Predictions From The CommerceNext 2020 Advisory Board

Elisabeth Anne Boniface January 17, 2020

How can retailers and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands get ahead of the industry trends of 2020? CommerceNext co-founder, Veronika Sonsev, rounded up the CommerceNext Advisory Board to identify this year’s top five marketing shifts for brands like FabFitFun, Nike, Casper, Samsonite and many more. Shaped by themes of profitability, brand purpose and heavy reliance on digital analytics, 2020 will be the culmination of several years’ worth of marketing experimentation for many brands. Unlike years past where VC investments drove companies to invest heavily in advertising in order to capture market awareness and drive revenue, 2020 will be the year that marketers, especially those in

Forbes + CommerceNext: Patagonia Demonstrates How Brand Purpose Results In Good Business

Elisabeth Anne Boniface December 19, 2019

Brand purpose and storytelling play an increasingly important role in retail, with swells of younger consumers looking to shop sustainably and responsibly. Patagonia puts their mission first and is a leading example of a purpose-driven company. Their dedication to environmental preservation is reflected in every facet of the company, from the causes they support to the products they sell. Corley Kenna, Director of Global Communications and Public Relations, and Lisa Pike Sheehy, Vice President of Environmental Activism at Patagonia sat down with CommerceNext Co-Founder Veronika Sonsev to talk about how they found their north star, the company’s dedication to its mission and their

How Retailers And Direct to Consumer Brands Are Investing In Marketing This Holiday Season

Elisabeth Anne Boniface November 27, 2019

The holiday shopping season is upon us. Last year, we saw a staggering 19% increase in ecommerce sales compared to the previous year, for a total of $22.5 billion in sales according to the National Retail Federation. This year, the Digital Commerce 360 projected an estimated 3.8% increase in sales over last year. In anticipation of this busy holiday period, traditional retailers and direct to consumer brands turn to their marketing teams to focus on customer experience and customer acquisition to elevate their holiday sales. To understand how these holiday trends correlate with marketing investments for 2019, we partnered with Oracle to survey

Personalizing Your Full-Funnel Customer Acquisition Strategy

Elisabeth Anne Boniface November 21, 2019

We all love a brand that makes us feel special. We feel like we’ve reached the jackpot when we find a brand that delivers exactly what we were thinking about or looking for. Moreover, when that brand fits seamlessly into our lives from discovery to delivery, we’re more apt to rave about it. A smart customer acquisition strategy takes all of this into consideration. Improvements in data and tracking for ecommerce-based brands has created a competitive marketplace for catching the hearts and attention of lifetime customers. Getting a new customer into the customer acquisition funnel can feel like half the battle, and

Grow Commerce by Taking Search, Social and Video to the Next Level

Elisabeth Anne Boniface November 4, 2019

What’s old is new in the world of marketing, with teams and channels constantly innovating and evolving to reach their customers in new and interesting ways. In the digital age, the foundations of search, social and video lay the groundwork for much of how consumers interact with the brands they love and discover daily. This year’s CommerceNext included a panel with executives from startups, subscription services, DTC brands and solution providers to compare how these leaders achieved the new and noteworthy in their efforts to grow commerce. Emily Hickey, Founder at Chief Detective Growth Consulting asked our panelists about the advantages of search,

How Walmart Adapts Customer Experience for the Digital Shopper

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 28, 2019

Walmart.com is anything but basic. The retailer is perhaps best known for their sprawling stores across the US, a one-stop shop for everything you could ever need. Denise Incandela, Head of Fashion for Walmart.com sat down with Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Sarah Nassauer to talk about her team’s efforts to expand beyond the realm of basics and establish Walmart as a fashion destination as well as a catch-all for your day to day needs. By overhauling their digital channels to create a more editorial and explorative customer experience, the team at Walmart develops a customer acquisition strategy fueled by testing new brands

Connecting Cause Marketing with Brand Mission for Good

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 16, 2019

Consumers are looking for a cause. Sixty-four percent of consumers said that they would boycott, switch or avoid brands based on their public stances on social issues, and two-thirds of millennials and Gen Z expressed a preference for brands with a socially conscious point of view. IEG reported an average three times increase in spending on cause marketing since 2000, exceeding 2 billion by 2018. Retail brands are heeding the call to stand for something, channeling social responsibility into their growth marketing and customer acquisition strategies. This can take many different forms ranging from an entire company shift in business practices to align

How Retailers Are Investing In Digital Customer Experience

Elisabeth Anne Boniface October 7, 2019

Time is the most precious resource. Within our twenty-four hour day, we are constantly curating experiences based on what we need to succeed and feel good. From what we eat for breakfast to the sheets we sleep on at night, brands play a huge role in our everyday lives. So how, as a brand, can you maximize those customer experience moments? If you have ever asked that question, or if that is the goal of your business, you are engaged with the experience economy, and Bob Meixner, Director of Product Strategy at Oracle, has the stats and advice to help. Meixner spoke

Author: Elisabeth Anne Boniface

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