Department stores face an uphill battle as discounters, online retailers take share: Our Industry KPIs show foot traffic declined during the holiday season, emphasizing the sector’s challenges.

Consumers are turning to multiple channels to research and discover new brands, and marketers need to know how to interact with customers in each of these places to encourage them to buy. “Knowing where your consumers discover and research products allows brands to invest in marketing dollars in the channels that drive the biggest impact,” said Cristy Garcia, CMO at impact.com, on a recent EMARKETER webinar. “Without that, you're flying blind.”

This deck provides critical data to help retailers benchmark their own retail sales against the wider market.

Consumers are constantly discovering new products, but actually getting them to buy is a different story. Advertisers must ensure product information is accessible everywhere, as consumers use multiple channels for discovery, research, and purchasing products. Here are five key stats to know about the shopping journey.

Organizations will prioritize governance in 2025 as they ramp up genAI investments in pursuit of business transformation.

Perplexity takes on Google: The AI-powered search engine launched a Buy with Pro ecommerce feature, along with a host of other shopping-related elements to broaden its utility and appeal.

Like all consumers, for high-income consumers (earning $150,000 or more a year), the physical store is the top source of discovery, according to our US High-Income Consumers’ Path to Purchase 2024 report.

Ecommerce trends come and go, but delivering a great customer experience is more critical than ever. With fierce competition, one misstep can make shoppers rethink hitting “add to cart.” Personalization, multi-channel engagement, and seamless integration of digital and in-store experiences are key to staying ahead.

Last month, JCPenney announced it was partnering with Bazaarvoice Visual Syndication Network to collect and post user-generated content (UGC) on its website’s product display pages. The department store is hardly the first retailer to recognize the value of UGC—over a quarter (28.4%) of ecommerce marketers in North America believe that images/video from real customers (aka UGC) is the type of visual content that impacts purchase decisions the most, according to a May 2023 survey from Nosto.

Low- and high-earning consumers are shopping at Walmart, while income groups splinter for off-price fashion retailers. Temu draws households from rural areas, and Amazon shoppers come in all ages. Here are five key stats from Coresight Research’s August 2024 report, “US Consumer Survey Insights Extra,” to help marketers refine their targeting strategies.

Mcommerce spending hit a record $280.4 billion in the first seven months of 2024: The channel steadily gained share this year as shoppers turned to their phones more frequently to make purchases.

Coupons play a bigger role in purchasing decisions as consumers become increasingly value-conscious. More than a quarter (26%) of US adults are using more coupons this year because of the state of the economy, according to July 2024 data by Prosper Insights & Analytics and the National Retail Federation. Here are five stats to better understand how and where consumers are seeking savings.

Although price is crucial in back-to-school shopping this year, consumers are ready to spend. Discounting will be essential for retailers to secure their share of back-to-school sales, as will employing omnichannel strategies to connect the physical and digital experience.

Inflation continues to impact spending in Q2, with 84% of consumers saying inflation had an impact on their spending, a 10% increase over Q1, per Jungle Scout’s research. Meanwhile, Amazon product categories recorded sales increases and social media shopping is on the rise.

“When retailers can offer a delivery experience that the consumer expects, the consumer is less likely to abandon their cart,” said our analyst Blake Droesch. More than one-third (36%) of US consumers abandoned an order last year because shipping costs were too high and another 29% did so because their items wouldn’t arrive on time, per an August 2023 report by Digital Commerce 360.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of May. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Sara Lebow (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Sara Lebow will defend their list against analysts Sky Canaves and Zak Stambor, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

Shopping should be easy, according to Ryan Fagan, vice president of digital at Lowe’s. “Our job is to guide them through their shopping trip as seamlessly as possible.” Fagan shared three ways Lowe’s is enhancing its ecommerce experience, from tailoring the digital experience to specific customer segments to surfacing other relevant products throughout the shopping journey.

Our revised US resale forecast reflects a slowdown for the ecommerce-dominated market, as the cost of selling one-of-a-kind items online comes into focus.

Amazon will continue to gain market share, but new competition from Temu, Walmart, and other retailers could stunt future dominance.