It's logical to assume consumers might lose trust in a company after a data breach or misuse of personal information. But many businesses vastly underestimate the severity of these security mishaps in the eyes of their consumers.

Shoppers are open to various types of retail technologies—even those that were once considered too creepy. But consumers’ shopping expectations do not align with retailers’ capabilities, according to a recent study.

Some consumers don’t mind handing over personal information, such as their phone number, in exchange for something in return—like a discount. But if they feel they're getting flooded with too many messages from brands, they'll simply unsubscribe.

Loyalty programs have a serious retention problem. Consumers are quick to sign up, but quick to forget about a loyalty program once they get their initial discount.

Michela Baxter, senior director of loyalty at HelloWorld, discusses how brands can move away from the old notions of loyalty programs and meet new consumer expectations.

Loyalty programs are a natural way to collect first-party data, but they suffer from low activity due to consumer dissatisfaction. We examine can be done to deliver rewards to customers and the marketers running the programs.

Guy Cierzan, executive vice president and managing director at ICF Olson, explains how brands can build consumer trust and strengthen their loyalty programs as a result.

Dollar stores have been said to be Amazon-proof because of their solid brick-and-mortar model. But this overwhelmingly analog segment isn't immune to digital shopping behavior. According to June 2018 data from Inmar, dollar store customers like digital coupons even more than the average US consumer.

Although there’s plenty of reasons to shop digitally, a new study found—once again—that some in-store elements can’t be replicated online.

Consumers are always on the lookout for a good deal. In fact, many look for coupons during different stages of the shopping process, whether it's something they planned to buy, something they didn't intend to by, or even a coupon that "planted a seed" in them to shop, according to a March 2018 survey from Valassis.

Despite persistent gloom and doom surrounding the retail industry, the first half of the year has been positive for most product categories. According to the newly released monthly retail sales report from the US Census Bureau, for H1 2018, retail sales (excluding auto parts and gasoline) totaled $2.06 billion, up 4.9% year-over-year.

eMarketer’s forecast for US digital ad spending through 2019 in 10 industries, including forecasts by format and device.

As in many industries, there is a gap between consumer expectations and business execution for restaurants. Operators are often slow to adopt new technologies and those that they've implemented aren't always satisfactory. A February 2018 survey by BRP and Windstream Enterprise found that restaurant operators met consumer expectations on only two factors: mobile payments and free Wi-Fi.

If it seems like there’s been a flurry of retail acquisitions and partnerships recently, it’s not your imagination. Due to slow organic growth, retail and consumer products companies are turning to often smaller, nimbler companies to boost digital innovation—from getting better consumer insights to cutting-edge logistics.

eMarketer has released its ranking of the top 10 ecommerce retailers in China. Combined, the retailers on this list will account for more than 85% of all retail ecommerce sales in the country this year. As expected, Alibaba will take the top spot, with a 58.2% share of all retail ecommerce sales. JD.com will rank second with a 16.3% share.

Multiple studies have shown price plays a strong role in shopping decisions. It's why dollar stores have thrived for the past decade and why many consumers choose to shop online instead of in-store. Still, for many brands, there is a risk in being perceived too strongly for value.

Consumers still have some reservations about retail tech—like chatbots providing customer service or in-home voice assistants suggesting products—so it makes sense that many are more receptive to a combination of AI-assisted and human interactions. But transparency is key: Shoppers want to know if they’re dealing with a human or a computer.

A May 2018 Voicebot and Voysis survey found that nearly 21% of US internet users said they would ask their voice assistant for in-store help, while 17.6% would use their voice assistant to self-checkout.

For the fourth straight year, RichRelevance checked in with US internet users about their attitudes toward different retail technologies—from facial recognition to robots. Interestingly, fewer respondents find certain tech to be creepy compared to how they felt in past years.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, US online sales of fast-moving consumer goods (excluding fresh food) jumped 29% in 2017 to $20 billion. But part of the reason for the rapid growth is that the US has a lower FMCG ecommerce penetration rate than most other geographic regions.