MCM CommerceChat

GNC is using its Auto-Deliver subscription service to reach customers through various channels.

“Relationship commerce allows GNC to cultivate a long-term relationship with customers and create an affinity with our brand,” said Tricia Tolivar, executive vice president and CFO of GNC.  “It provides us an opportunity to build a level of trust between the customer and GNC by consistently providing a positive experience.”

GNC worked with relationship commerce platform Ordergroove to launch its subscription program.

“It’s all about consumer expectations today and a more frictionless experience,” said Greg Alvo, CEO and founder of Ordergroove. “The more you remove the friction and make consumers’ lives easier, the more they’re ready to reward you with their loyalty.”

Tolivar said relationship commerce done well allows GNC to become a part of customer’s lives. It drives stronger loyalty, higher lifetime value and lower customer churn for the brand.  For the consumer, relationship commerce anticipates their wants and needs.

“[Relationship commerce] has provided us opportunities for increased communication across touchpoints with a significant number of our customers,” said Tolivar.  “We’re able to better serve their needs by leveraging data on their behavior.”

In this latest edition of the MCM CommerceChat podcast, Tolivar and Alvo expand on the concept of relationship commerce and how GNC’s subscription model is helping it deepen engagement and loyalty.

Apparel and accessories brand Tuckernuck is increasing its conversion rates with user-generated content (UGC), leveraging it to share its brand across email marketing and social media.

“We definitely focus a lot on UGC and just content in general for our marketing,” said Kayla Robinson, a marketing associate with Tuckernuck. “We’re putting out new content every day in terms of our Instagram and email marketing. With UGC we definitely try to promote this idea of ‘Tuckernucking’ and we definitely want it to be a lifestyle.”

The company uses UGC to showcase its lifestyle, displaying women generally having fun in its clothing. UGC goes hand-in-hand with the content the brand is creating as well, Robinson said.

Tuckernuck worked with technology company Curalate to increase conversion rates using UGC and lifestyle content.

“At Tuckernuck they view content comprehensively, so they see it as an asset,” said Apu Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of Curalate. “Using UGC can do wonderful things.”

In this latest edition of the MCM CommerceChat podcast we talk with Robinson and Gupta about the impact UGC has had on the brand.

Dog owner apparel and accessories brand I’d Rather Be With My Dog does more than sell apparel and accessories for dog owners. It has made it a mission to give back to animal rescue organizations and animal-related causes.

The concept of giving back as a brand isn’t new, as several have made it a practice. Some might say the “give back” movement began with shoe brand TOMS and its promise to donate a pair of shoes to needy children in more than 70 countries with every pair sold. Now more and more brands are following this movement.

“Ever since the beginning we have always donated a percentage of our sales to animal rescue and not just animal rescue, but different animal related causes from canine cancer,” said Doug Ratner, founder of I’d Rather Be With My Dog. “We help out with emergency disaster situations, donating supplies as well as donating money.”

In this latest edition of the MCM CommerceChat podcast we talk with Ratner about what his brand has done to make a bigger impact on the world.

It’s hard to believe, but June 21, 2019 marks the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in South Dakota vs. Wayfair that forever changed the ecommerce taxation landscape in the U.S. Gone forever is the requirement of physical presence in a state to determine nexus and require tax from online sales. So where are we now? What is the status of state legislative actions? What kind of risks do ecommerce sellers run from non-compliance, and what can they do?

In this latest edition of the MCM CommerceChat podcast we talk with Mike Bernard, chief tax officer at Vertex, about the ongoing ripple effects from the 2018 South Dakota vs. Wayfair ruling.

 

For online vitamin and supplement company OVitaminPro, it’s more than selling products people need, it’s about being experts in the field and providing a personalized experience for customers.

“We have people that can answer questions, a doctor on staff, a nutritional consultant, people can call and ask about a supplement, it’s more personal, it’s not vague,” said Mary Schlenger, owner of OVitaminPro.com.

Schlenger said that people that purchase supplements are pretty savvy already, they know pretty much about what they’re looking for. The company offers information on its site through blogs and videos.

“You have to be an expert in your field, if you are not the expert, they will go somewhere else,” said Schlenger.

In the latest MCM CommerceChat podcast,  Schlenger talks with Dan Breeden, head of content and communication for Yahoo Small Business about how to personalize the customer experience.

Utilizing newly revealed data has enabled Vineyard Vines to put the customer first and uncover how it interacts in different channels.

“Customers don’t just shop in brick-and-mortar or online, there is an interconnectivity there that we didn’t have a full appreciation for,” said Chris Fitzpatrick, vice president of business analytics and strategy at Vineyard Vines. “To be able extrapolate out of that a better understanding of how the shopper is gauging across channels, what their buying behavior looked like and how that was changing the growth in our business.”

Vineyard Vines worked with CCG Analytics Solutions & Services to unveil to get a better view of the customer through its data.

Fitzpatrick said prior to working with CCG Analytics, the challenge Vineyard Vines faced was not having a toolset, system or environment that allowed the brand to understand what was going on in the business in a much more customer-centric way.

“Not being able to understand in a clear manner how our customers were behaving, what things they liked or disliked and how different events or different marketing campaigns we were running were supporting our ability to grow the business and engaging our customer,” said Fitzpatrick.

In the latest MCM CommerceChat podcast, Fitzpatrick talks further on the topic with Dan Rodriguez, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at CCG Analytics Solutions & Services.

Women’s apparel brand Chico’s is connecting with customers in a new way through mobile messaging, which helps the brand connect with its customers on a personal level.

“Some of the challenges was being able to connect with the customer the way she wants,” said Steve Lamb, Director of Digital Marketing and Media for Chico’s.  “I think mobile messaging gives us a new way to talk to our customer in a way we haven’t been able to before.

Lamb said mobile messaging has enabled for the brand to create great engagement, lift average order value, and increase conversion rates. The most important part of integrating this channel, it has helped Chico’s drive customers into its brick-and-mortar locations.

“Messaging continues to skyrocket, messaging is how consumers communicate with their friends, family and more and more brands are using it,” said Jack Philbin, CEO of Vibes, a mobile engagement platform, which worked with Chico’s.

In the latest MCM CommerceChat podcast, Lamb and Philbin, will talk further about the importance of mobile messaging and meeting customer expectations in retail today.

As ecommerce taking a greater share of sales at traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, store sales have become challenged, as evidenced by hundreds of doors closing. But the view into the relative strength of the two channels has been somewhat opaque, especially with retailers including digital sales into their year-over-year comp figures. That is until recently, when Nordstrom began reporting ecommerce results as a percentage of net sales, providing greater visibility.

Multichannel Merchant caught up with Wolf Richter, publisher of the Wolf Street financial blog, to talk about Nordstrom’s channel breakout in its financials. We also discuss the ongoing challenge of balancing support for and investment in physical stores and ecommerce as shopper habits and preferences continue to evolve.

Greater gender equality and diversity are imperative in businesses today.  Companies are making it their mission to create pay parity and provide opportunities for promotion and leadership.  Studies have shown that gender diversity creates a more engaged work culture and increases the bottom line.

The Gallup Poll found that 14% to 19% saw an increase in net profit in companies with gender diversity.  A McKinsey study found that an average 15% increase in net profit within gender diverse units. Gender diversity touches all areas of a business including customer care and the customer experience.

In the latest MCM CommerceChat podcast, Nalani Brown, Implementation Project Manager for Millennial Services, LLC., talks about how gender equality is transforming the way in which companies operate today and promotes a more equitable culture in various areas of retail and ecommerce.

 

 

function registerDownload() {

if (typeof _gaq != 'undefined') {

_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'GatedContent', 'Download', 'How to Foster Gender Equality in Retail']);

}

}

jQuery('#gated-content a').click(registerDownload);

window.onmessage = function(event) {

if (event.data === 'closed') {

location.reload();

}

};

#gated-content a {

display: none;

}

jQuery(function(){

aicore_gating_js('https://apps.decisionbriefs.com/gating/displayjsdiv?mkt=marketing&col=mcm_post&cid=5ca4c03f4170e24a5c8b4634&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmultichannelmerchant.com%2Foperations%2Fhow-to-foster-gender-equality-in-retail%2F&divid=gated-content&twostep=1&delayed=1');

});

Putting customers at the heart of everything you do is vital in order to be successful in your business. It requires what is known as the “customer obsession” where retailers use insights and engagement from customer relationships to create a virtuous cycle.  In order to do this, marketers need features and functions in their technology solutions in order to add value with the path to purchase.

The solutions retailers create must add value at the individual level in order to see the outcomes like higher customer lifetime value and revenue growth. Retailers who fail to connect the functionality to positive customer and business outcomes run the risk of making false assumptions about their customer’s preferences and fall behind in the customer obsession.

In the latest MCM CommerceChat podcast, Ross Kramer, CEO of email marketing automation company Listrak, talks about the customer obsession based off of research Listrak conducted with Forrester Research in late 2018.