Tackle Holiday Marketing & Payments in 2016
In the heat of the holiday shopping season, merchants ask themselves things like, “How many consumers are shopping on mobile?,” or “What will my omnichannel mix look like this year?”, and “How do we balance the quantity and timing of discounts and promotions?” Let’s take a fresh look at each of these questions:
Groceries Online? Amazon's Take on Omni-Channel
The Amazon Dash button was so disruptive in concept that people thought it might be an early April fools prank on launch day, March 31st. The concept seemed so futuristic that it couldn't have been real. The main reason? Americans don't buy groceries online. In a world where omni-channel shopping is everywhere, groceries still remain are one of the biggest spending categories and one of the only categories almost exclusively available in-store. Some grocery stores, like Whole Foods Market, are piloting programs to make online groceries a possibility with delivery to consumers' homes part of the package. The concept is considered disruptive to the market, however, and since the concept is so new, adoption has been slow. Here are three ways that Amazon Dash could cause the biggest grocery disruption yet.
Digital Gift Cards: The Omnichannel Answer?
86% of digital marketers agree that investing in implementation of omnichannel strategies outweighs the challenges. The outcomes can yield a great success story, but the challenges are many. Supply chain management, product availability, and now payments and gifting are all components of the customer experience that need to remain consistent across both online and in-store buying experiences. However, as retail marketers look for new innovative solutions to omnichannel adoption there may be one sitting right in front of them, ready to go. Digital gift cards can't solve all of the omnichannel questions but in terms of payments and gifting they offer an already packaged solution. Digital gift cards are flexible by design, making sending, delivery and redemption easier for the gift giver, the gift receiver and the retailer administering the card. The flexibility and ease of use of digital gift cards helps accelerate
