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Year in Review: 5 popular articles of 2015

As a new year beckons Retail Customer Experience, takes a look back over this year’s most read stories and offers up a chance to catch up on insight and trends brought to light during the past 12 months.

December 15, 2015 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

As retailers embrace new technology, craft and deploy new marketing and merchandising strategies, and assess and evaluate how to not only enhance the customer experience but advance it to gain the greatest optimization 2015 highlights reveal how busy today’s retailer have been over the past 12 months.

To make sure readers didn’t miss out on the compelling move and terrific insight from experts working with retail clients or sharing insight at great industry events, Retail Customer Experience offers five of the most popular articles of the year as 2016 looms near.

5 loyalty program dos and don'ts
Loyalty programs can boost retail efforts but as new brands embrace them, more is learned about their implementation. Sometimes the experience doesn't always jive with the intended outcome, so with every success story, there are loyalty initiatives that fall short of the mark. Kevin Yeow, president of Americas, ICLP, explains what makes for a successful loyalty program and the five fundamentals.

Under Armour boosts customer experience with digital signage in new Chicago store
Athletic apparel and gear brand Under Armour moved into Chicago, opening its newest specialty "Brand House" on the city's iconic Magnificent Mile retail corridor "with a focus on cutting-edge products and design.” The move will let the retailer “establish Under Armour's presence in one of the most vibrant and iconic shopping destinations around the globe," said Susie McCabe, the athletics company's senior vice president of global retail.

Apple Watch aims to alter payment and shopping experience
Apple Monday gave the world a more detailed look into its newest product line in the Apple Watch and the device shows the potential to put a new twist on the shopping, payments and personal financial management experience for consumers. Apple CEO Tim Cook waited until the end of its "Spring Forward" event to discuss the new device, and even then the company mostly focused on fitness and health features.

Commentary: The tech and features that shoppers want
When the advent of smartphones made browsing the Internet an anytime/anywhere proposition, the assumption was it would bring very bad news for traditional retailers. The nightmare scenario was "showrooming" — that shoppers would go to a physical store and look at an item they were interested in, but then pull out their phone, order it from an online retailer and go home without buying anything. (This made the traditional store a de facto showroom for online retailers like Amazon or eBay.)

How digital signage is leading retail's 'Internet of Things'
The Internet of Everything (IoE) has changed the retail landscape when it comes to the customer experience. With the variety of information available to retail employees, they not only need it to be analyzed, but need to put it into action. One of the principal endpoint solutions being utilized across that landscape is digital signage. It can be tailored and set to whatever the operator chooses and, more importantly, can change depending on the customer viewing the display.

PLUS: In case this month has been exceptionally busy and you haven’t been able to keep up with end-of-the-year news and trends, here are some additional stories that are catching readers’ attention and some articles that have been historically popular with Retail Customer Experience readers:

Dell CIO talks ecommerce strategy, building a rich customer experience
Dell CIO Paul Walsh says a successful retail customer experience requires caring about each kind of customer, from the moment they log on to the moment they log off, whether it's on a PC or a mobile device.

The birds and the bees of customer experience design
Meeting customer expectations has changed forever. Meantime, corporate initiatives can take a long time to implement and poorly executed inititives can really challenge the return on investment.

7 questions to ask in choosing a mobile payments solution
The unprecedented evolution of the payments space can be intimidating to any business, but it's not an insurmountable challenge.

5 'don’ts' and 1 ‘do’ for making the customer experience rich and robust
Simple, common sense strategies in communicating with shoppers can prove rewarding for businesses and consumers.

Creating a personal experience: Misconceptions why data is a critical element
The good news is that technology is making it an easier and more affordable strategy, but retailers need to have the right data. They can’t afford to push the strategy off to the sidelines.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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