Author: Elisabeth Anne Boniface

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Balancing Brand and Performance Marketing At Scale

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

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STORY Demonstrates Customer Experience is The Future of Retail

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

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

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

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Personalizing Your Full-Funnel Customer Acquisition Strategy

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

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How Walmart Adapts Customer Experience for the Digital Shopper

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

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Connecting Cause Marketing with Brand Mission for Good

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

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How Retailers Are Investing In Digital Customer Experience

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

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Building a Marketing Team to Scale Customer Acquisition

“Marketing is hard, but not nearly as hard as building a great team,” Ben Harrel quipped. Arguably the most important touchpoint of a brand’s customer base is mediated through the decisions and actions of its marketing team. Marketing plays an integral role in customer acquisition, retention, and customer experience, but how can you quantify the skills that an ideal marketer needs to succeed? Enter General Assembly (GA); their goal is to transform thinkers into leaders, and their Marketing Standards Board set out to discover what defines a successful member of a marketing team. Kieran Luke, General Manager of Credentials and Business at GA

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Customer Experience and Community as the Ultimate Marketing Tool

If you spend time online, you’ve undoubtedly heard of cult-favorite beauty brand Glossier. Moreover, you’ve probably seen their ultra-chic and Instagram-worthy pink and vibrant red branding not on an ad, but in the social content of someone you know. Glossier’s community of raving fans is a large part of what drives their brand awareness, with individuals sharing their beauty routines with the world via social media. This loyalty and passion stem from the customer experience Glossier creates. As a direct to consumer brand, Glossier takes a unique approach to customer experiences beyond your typical beauty counter which has helped propel their digital marketing

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The Changing Consumer Behind Rent the Runway’s Success

Direct to consumer fashion rentals company Rent the Runway (RTR) has taken the fashion community by storm. The company’s sustainable and adventuresome subscription service has become a mainstay in the working woman’s closet. With RTR unlimited for just $159 per month, customers can rotate up to four items at any time, giving them access to a virtual dream closet full of 600 plus brands and designers to choose from. With subscription services seemingly taking over the ecommerce and the direct to consumer shopping experience, we asked ourselves: how has the digital-first customer evolved and what consumer behavior is driving this trend?   Maureen Sullivan,

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Important Notice: Avoid Unauthorized Housing Providers

Connections Housing is the exclusive housing partner for CommerceNext and the only trusted source for booking accommodations for our event. Be cautious of third-party companies posing as official housing providers. These entities may attempt to mislead you into booking through them, often resulting in non-refundable deposits or invalid reservations that we cannot assist with.

To ensure a secure and seamless booking experience, always reserve your accommodations directly with Connections Housing. If you are approached by anyone claiming to offer housing for CommerceNext outside of Connections Housing, please report this immediately to commercenext@connectionshousing.com.

For assistance or questions, you can contact the Connections Housing team at commercenext@connectionshousing.com or by phone at 725.201.7302.