One of the top influencers in the world of predicting customer behavior, Peter Fader, Ph.D., discusses customer lifetime value and the advantages of adopting a customer-centric approach. Dr. Fader is Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In a conversation with Sidecar, research fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Michael Schrage argues that investing in one's customers, and in turn creating better customers, is the key to groundbreaking retail innovation. The most successful companies today have embraced this paradigm shift by making their customers more valuable to their business, says Schrage. Netflix, for example, has transformed consumers into movie and TV bingers through careful technology investments in recommendation engines and streaming. Subscribers who avidly watch Netflix’s programming and enthuse about their favorite shows with friends are far more valuable to Netflix than the average consumer.

In this podcast, Schrage explains how retailers can emulate top companies like Netflix and actually create better customers.

If anyone understands the past and future of department stores, it's Mark Cohen. As former CEO of Sears Canada and as a 40-year veteran of the industry, Cohen boasts key insights into the challenges and opportunities department stores face. Many of these are the same opportunities and challenges retailers in general are struggling to grapple.

In this conversation, Cohen provides key lessons all retailers can apply in order to remain competitive in a changing industry. In particular, Cohen says that retail executives must be flexible and anticipate that trends today may not exist tomorrow. Executives must constantly assess their markets and use up-to-date and even predictive analytics to stay ahead of the curve.

There's no doubt that customer reviews inform consumers purchase decisions. Research from Nielsen reveals the strong influence of online consumer opinions–71% of global consumers trust them–but very little research is available that uncovers just how much of an impact this user-generated content can have on retailers’ bottom lines.

The Spiegel Research Center, a research division of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, wanted to fill this knowledge gap. Executive Director Tom Collinger and Research Director Ed Malthouse conducted several research projects on the effect of customer reviews on conversions. Their research explored how the number of reviews, the average star ratings, the price of the items reviewed, and several other factors impact the ultimate purchase decision.

In this podcast, we explore the actual impact of reviews on sales, and how retailers can increase conversions as much as 270%.

Vicki Cantrell, Executive Director of Shop.org and SVP of Communities at the National Retail Federation, is speaking at the 2016 Shop.org Digital Summit in Dallas, TX. Shop.org will gather more than 5,000 retail professionals to network and discover the latest in digital retail. 

Last week, Vicki provided Shop.org 2016 preview on the podcast podcast. Our chat is the perfect appetizer for Shop.org, but it’s a must listen for anyone working in e-commerce.

We discussed what’s on tap at this year’s Shop.org, new ways to think about mobile, social media’s ongoing evolution, and skills retailers need to win in today’s e-commerce landscape. Listen to our complete conversation to get a taste of one of the most important annual events in retail.

Few people know e-commerce like Zak Stambor, Online Marketing Editor at Internet Retailer magazine. While reporting the latest industry news, Zak speaks with a wide assortment of retailers and marketers — providing him with a truly holistic understanding of this exciting space.

In this podcast, we discussed IRCE, the ever-changing Google SERP, tactics for search success, and why mobile is still a challenge after all these years. Our chat is the perfect primer for IRCE. If you’re not going, check it out anyway for a quick survey of today’s e-commerce terrain.

Having started in e-commerce during the industry’s early days, Brock Weatherup has a lot of perspective on what digital marketing strategies work to grow an online retail business, and what efforts fall flat.

Much of his experience is rooted in the pet care segment. He was CEO of PetFoodDirect, then took the helm at Pet360, which was acquired by PetSmart in 2014. After the acquisition, Brock became PetSmart’s Chief Digital Officer.

In this podcast, Brock shares some of the lesson for success he's learned during his career and offers insights on the trends that will shape the industry in the years to come.