Rachel Klein

Virtual Summit Spotlights: FTD and UNTUCKit Keynotes

Rachel Klein June 23, 2020

We’re less than six weeks away from CommerceNext Virtual Summer Summit and it’s shaped up to be an agenda of must-see sessions covering how digital marketing, ecommerce and customer experience have been reshaped by the COVID-19. This year, in the midst of a pandemic, we’ve not only pivoted our summit from in-person to online, we’ve also structured both days around the theme “Path to Recovery.” Our goal is to spend two days talking to retail and ecommerce industry leaders about their COVID-19 experiences and plans for recovery. As our “new normals” evolve, we’re using these two days as an opportunity to showcase: New

As Stores Re-Open, Ecommerce Growth Continues Based On 4th COVID-19 Survey

Rachel Klein May 4, 2020

As the economy and stores slowly start to re-open, CommerceNext is continuing to monitor the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail and ecommerce. Last week, we collected our fourth set of survey responses from digital marketing leaders tracking the impact of COVID-19 from April 12th-April 26th. In this survey, we added questions to gauge retailers’ plans for reopening and predictions on recovery, in addition to our regular questions benchmarking sales and ecommerce traffic results against pre-COVID February (you can refer back to our first, second and third surveys for additional information). The good news is we’re continuing to see revenues and optimism

The Era Of COVID-19 Ecommerce: Which Categories Are Thriving?

Rachel Klein April 21, 2020

While the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate, we’ve definitely seen some categories do better than others based on shifting consumer behaviors in a shelter-in-place environment. Our industry can better navigate this dynamic environment by understanding which categories are doing well and which categories are struggling. To help our community do just that, CommerceNext turned to Signifyd, who has been analyzing transactional and behavioral data across 10,000+ merchants in 100+ countries. Below is a summary of their findings. All figures are normalized to the week of 2/25-3/2, as a representation of pre-pandemic “steady state” shopping volumes. We will be updating this data regularly and hope it

Ecommerce Executives Express Cautious Optimism in Third COVID-19 Survey

Rachel Klein April 20, 2020

For the past six weeks, CommerceNext has tracked the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail and ecommerce. Last week, we completed our third community-wide survey tracking the impact of COVID-19 from March 29th-April 11th, benchmarking sales and ecommerce traffic results against our first and second survey results. In our third survey, we added a few new questions on business continuity and longer-term trends. While the overall business sentiment among retailers surveyed is now cautiously optimistic, the retail and ecommerce leaders surveyed continue to express uncertainty about consumer confidence for the 2020 holiday later in the year. Most merchants have experienced logistical and

Survey 2 Results: The Impact Of COVID-19 On Retail And Ecommerce For Last Half Of March

Rachel Klein April 3, 2020

CommerceNext continues our coverage of COVID-19’s impact on ecommerce and retail. We recently completed our second survey to ascertain the effects of the pandemic on digital retail business. The majority of questions remained the same as our first survey, which collected data from the first half of March, in order to benchmark results. While the data from the survey paints a very challenging environment for digital retail, it is uplifting to see that the category hit the hardest (apparel and accessories) is also the category adjusting their operations the most to help manufacture COVID-19 necessities (e.g., masks, face shields, hand sanitizer, etc.). Kudos

Analyzing the Ecommerce and Digital Marketing Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rachel Klein March 25, 2020

WITHIN tracks daily revenue, media spend and conversion rates across major verticals Recognizing the importance of sharing valuable resources with the CommerceNext community to help them understand the impact of COVID-19 on digital retail, we worked with WITHIN to make their COVID-19 Retail Pulse available. Leveraging first-party ecommerce data from its roster of 75 clients, WITHIN’s index tracks trends in ecommerce revenue, digital media ad spend, and conversion rate relative to the pre-COVID benchmark period. WITHIN is seeing many retailers and ecommerce brands altering forecasts to match demand, evaluating acquisition versus retention strategies, and experimenting with various online media and marketing tactics to

Impact Of COVID-19 On Retail And Ecommerce: Survey Results

Rachel Klein March 19, 2020

While our community and country cope with the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we realize that the need for information is more pronounced than ever. Earlier this week, CommerceNext surveyed nearly 100 digital retail leaders to get a quick read on how COVID-19 is impacting brick and mortar and ecommerce business. We also surveyed what initial adjustments they’re making to both revenue targets and their marketing playbooks. Given the urgency, we’re sharing high-level results below with minimal analysis. A webinar is scheduled for next week on Wednesday, March 25th at 2 pm ET (11 am PT) to review the research results in

How To Increase Conversion Rates On Amazon

Rachel Klein March 10, 2020

We don’t need to lament on the mighty, impenetrable ecommerce force that is Amazon. With 66% of product searches beginning on Amazon and 9 out of 10 customers conducting price checks on Amazon before buying, many retailers and brands are jumping into the Amazon marketplace to reach customers. But, a retailer’s relationship with Amazon and its Amazon customer experience is anything but plug-and-play. In other words, “it’s complicated” and you need to be proactive to increase conversion rates in order to drive sales on the platform. Take Dometic: the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile living products that sells in over 100 countries. In

Digital media leaders discuss ecommerce marketing innovation on stage at CN2019.

How Facebook’s Digital Media Can Connect The Customer Journey

Rachel Klein February 27, 2020

Some would say that we’re going through a “retail apocalypse.” Others say, “That’s a little dramatic,” and that the only retailers struggling to survive are those failing to engage in forward-thinking ecommerce and marketing innovation. In order to thrive, brands must implement technology and a digital media strategy that results in seamless experiences across channels. Frictionless omnichannel experiences, while perhaps a buzzy phrase from seasons past, still proves a major obstacle—and a major opportunity—for most retailers. At CommerceNext 2019, Conor Ryan (Co-founder and CIO at StitcherAds) and Kevin St. John (Industry Manager at Facebook) outlined how retailers can adopt Facebook’s retail-focused tools to

The Comeback Of TV: How Direct To Consumer Brands Can Win Big

Rachel Klein February 18, 2020

With the cost of Facebook and Google advertising continuing to increase, television advertising might just be back in style. Until recently, TV ads may have been perceived as outdated by growth marketing leaders given the limited measurability of the platform. Instead of planning robust TV budgets, growth marketers invested the majority of their ad spend into digital—Facebook and Google, the comfortable ground zero of scalable digital advertising, where brands can reliably target key audiences, measure, analyze and optimize. Unfortunately, that means nearly every direct to consumer brand eventually winds up advertising—and spending increasingly more to achieve efficiency—on Facebook and Google. Many brands struggle

Author: Rachel Klein

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