Ninety-nine percent of consumers who take delivery of online orders in brick-and-mortar stores are pleased with the experience, according to a recent survey. Twenty-nine percent said the option is why they placed the order in the first place.
U.S. retailers are racing to stay relevant in a rapidly changing shopping environment led by growth of e-commerce, the ubiquity of mobile devices, and the demanding expectations of consumers, according to PwC's annual online shopper survey, Total Retail: The Race for Relevance. Based on a survey of more than 23,000 online consumers globally, the report reveals the changing behaviors of consumers, driven by convenience, price, social media and brand trust.
Only 18 percent of CEOs say they have eliminated operational silos and are delivering seamless omnichannel shopping experiences for their customers. This means that the majority of retailers surveyed are still operating in silos, which is taking a toll on retailers' profitability and ability to create a seamless shopping experience for customers.
Retail CEOs say internal silos are holding back omnichannel success. In fact, retailers without these operational barriers are more positive about achieving profitability, according to a new report.
More than half of U.S. shoppers - 54 percent - have admitted to spending $100 or more on an impulse buy, including 20 percent who have spent at least $1,000. In total, 84 percent of all shoppers have made impulse purchases, according to a report from CreditCards.com.
E-tailing behemoths like Amazon Business are infringing on electrical distributors' turf. Large distributors continue to hone and refine their e-commerce offerings. And finally, mobile e-commerce (or, m-commerce) - driven by the consumer who has grown more comfortable making purchases on smartphones and other mobile devices - is on track to hit $700bn by 2017, according to research firm Digi-Capital.
E-commerce giant Amazon handled the warehousing, packing and shipping of 1 billion items last year for merchants that are part of its fulfillment program.
Of the 74 percent of online American adults who are likely to purchase health and fitness technology in the next 12 months, one in three (35 percent) plan to buy a smart watch, according to the latest research from the Consumer Technology Association.
Retail sales may have been down in stores from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but online experiences and retailers' ability to meet expectations were up, according to the DynamicAction Retail Holiday Index.
B2C e-commerce in Canada is dominated by U.S.-based retailers, according to a report from Research and Markets. However, local Canadian retailers could be favored this year by weaker Canadian currency with respect to the U.S. dollar.
