Commerce Next Blog: Learn Customer Acquisition from the Experts

Conversations With CommerceNext: CEO Perspective on Consumer Behavior in the New Normal

Scott Silverman May 4, 2020

CommerceNext is excited to share the first episode of our new video interview series called Conversations with CommerceNext, in which we feature short video conversations with different retail and ecommerce industry leaders. In our first episode, we interviewed Exponea CEO Peter Irikovský about digital transformation and new customer behavior in the COVID-19 era. Interviewee Bio Before founding Exponea to help ecommerce executives grow their businesses, Irikovský walked in their shoes as the CEO of Czechloslovakian-based Slevomat. He turned that company from a startup into a successful e-commerce enterprise with over €100 million in revenue. Interview Snapshot I caught up with Irikovský in his

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

Everything Has Changed: How Marketers Should Respond To New Consumer Behaviors During COVID-19

Hailey Riggle May 3, 2020

While no one knows what the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be, social distancing and economic shutdowns will have a lasting impact on consumer behaviors and the way people engage with digital media. As the crisis continues, 95% of Americans are currently under stay-at-home orders and new social distancing lifestyles and behaviors are changing the way consumers interact with content across platforms. In recent weeks, internet usage is reported to have increased by 50-70%. Social platform usage, messaging and video communication are all on the rise, along with short-form video, streaming OTT and podcast engagement. This increase in time spent with

4 Tips for Brand Communications During COVID-19

Brooke Burdge April 30, 2020

There is no doubt that right now, we’re all navigating through a completely unprecedented time—both personally and professionally. As marketers, we spend a lot of time thoughtfully planning campaigns in advance: our content calendars, product launch outlines, and coordination across teams and channels. But what happens when those plans and priorities become unclear, as they are now during the COVID-19 crisis? Marketers are always thinking from the perspective of their audience. We craft personas and actively try to envision the people behind our messages. What are their motivations, fears, hopes? We conduct focus groups to hear feedback first-hand. We carefully consider and A/B

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

How To Engage The Right Consumer Tribe For Your Brand

Sai Koppala April 14, 2020

The coronavirus has had devastating effects on people and businesses around the world. Many brands are stepping in to help by providing personalized offers to support medical workers, who are among the groups that have been hardest hit. Headspace is helping nurses and doctors manage the stress of treating COVID-19 by giving them free access to its meditation app. And, vineyard vines and Tuft & Needle are just two of the businesses who are giving exclusive discounts to first responders to thank them for their heroic efforts on the front line of the pandemic. These programs aren’t just anecdotes about how a company

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

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