Restaurants are investing in AI and unified commerce to enhance personalization and the customer experience.

Retailers can learn a lot from quick-service restaurants in delivering a satisfying customer experience. Chipotle leverages first-party data for more personalized and predictive offers, while Sweetgreen experiments with new formats and technologies to provide a more omnichannel experience. Plus, Starbucks has proven that brand loyalty can go a long way even when making changes.

Retailers struggle to find a balance between growth and sustainability: Efforts to reduce environmental footprints often run counter to the desire to grow sales.

Chick-fil-A risks angering customers by devaluing loyalty program: While Chick-fil-A will require customers to spend more to qualify for perks, Subway leans into value with its Footlong Pass.

Consumers are trading down to value-oriented QSR brands: That trend helped Yum Brands and Subway post strong gains in Q4, while higher-priced restaurants like Chipotle disappointed.

Which retailers and brands will win (or lose) in 2023? Retailers that can offer value—either in terms of price or convenience—will continue to thrive, while those that cater to an increasingly squeezed middle class will struggle.

Consumers now expect more from brands and their loyalty programs, which need to incorporate value, ease of use, and personalization to stand out in a crowded market.

BeReal is the newest kid on the social media block. The app has already captured the attention of Gen Z, and its growing popularity has sparked copycat features from Snapchat, Instagram and, yes, even TikTok. But do brands of all stripes need to embrace BeReal—or is it not ready for primetime just yet

AI becomes a must-have tool for retailers: Dick’s Sporting Goods, Levi’s, Panera, and others are relying on the technology across all areas of their businesses.

Retailers take aggressive action to stem the tide of unionizations: Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s, and more are closing stores, delaying negotiations, and pursuing dogged legal action to keep unions from making headway.

Restaurants are experimenting with robots, but customers aren’t enthused: Labor crunches and high costs are pushing fast-food chains like Chipotle and Panera Bread to adopt automation front and back of house.

Price increases hit retailers and consumers hard: As inflation approaches historic highs, retailers have to decide how much of the cost can be passed on without alienating their customer base.

WhatsApp chases Discord's success with Communities feature: The platform's upcoming tools could help create intimate, niche communities—a formula for high engagement and brand interest.

Starbucks invests in more frictionless customer experiences: More fast-food brands are building up their drive-thru and on-the-go ordering capabilities, meeting changing consumer behavior in the process.

Across brick and mortar and ecommerce, the customer experience landscape has changed dramatically—and permanently—during the pandemic.

The short-video landscape is bigger than just TikTok. Marketers must develop a strategy to make the most of this form of marketing across multiple venues.

User-generated short videos are all over the internet, from TikTok to Instagram Reels to Triller, and the marketing opportunities are exploding. Here’s how the main venues compare across usage, paid advertising, organic and influencer marketing, and commerce.

Before the shift to digital, marketers didn’t have a measurable way to track their companies’ growth, which would allow them to prove their worth. As Deloitte Digital's CMO Alicia Hatch put it, “In the C-suite, we were essentially speaking Mandarin to English speakers. No one understood what we were talking about.”

This past year, we sat down with several retailers to learn more about their marketing efforts, the channels they rely on most, and how they’re adapting to the continuous change in consumer behavior.