It was a vintage year at #NRF this time round, despite the floor perhaps being a little lighter than some previously, the array of delights on offer was as impressive as ever. It feels like something of a shock that it’s all over, but having had a week to digest the highlights over some much…
NRF 2020: Day 1 Round-Up
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – there’s never a dull moment at NRF (except perhaps when queuing to get passes…). Having taken a booth for the first time this year – #1362, thanks for asking – has given us an even greater appreciation of the huge amount of effort that goes…
TruRating named Best Customer Analytics and Retail Insights Solution at VIP Awards
Coming in hot just before NRF 2020, the TruRating team was delighted to pick up another award for the mantle having been named Best Customer Analytics and Retail Insights Solution of of the year, at the inaugural Vendors in Partnership Awards in New York last night. The awards, setup by payments veteran Vicki Cantrell, were…
How To Make Customer Analytics Work For Your Business
Last week, we looked at how customer experience programs are failing the needs of modern retail. Today we’ll look at how a new generation of customer analytics is changing this. But first a quick recap. Modern CX falls down for four key reasons: No connection to revenue – CX programs show no link to what…
Why Customer Experience is Failing Your Business
In 2019 the term customer experience was mentioned over 2,500 times on US earnings calls, x5 more than 2008. While this growth has been praised as positive by the industry, for the average shopper, the real question remains – what’s in it for me? In May, The Wall Street Journal published an article called ‘The…
What can the last US election teach us about Retail in 2020?
Could an unrecognized phenomena be at the heart of the ‘retail apocalypse’?
How to make the most of the holiday season – a retail guide.
While it may feel like the holiday season is still a little while off, it’s a given truth of retail life that the season tends to creep up earlier and earlier each year. While for some, this might be enough to make you want to exclaim ‘Bah Hambug!’, the fact of the matter is holiday…
Has an experience-focused HMV found its mojo again?
For those with an interest in the retail landscape, the opening of HMV’s flagship store the Vault presents yet another interesting example of a well-established retailer taking an ‘experience-first’ approach. Considering how things were looking for the brand at the beginning of the year, the fanfare which the opening of the Vault is a receiving, is…
Finding the Right Retail Metrics for Your Business
In his recent article “The Way We Measure Retail Store Performance Needs to Change” M&A banker Richard Kestenbaum puts forward a strong case for retail to re-consider which metrics they are using to measure success. Retailers tend to rely on two key metrics for store performance: sales per square foot and store income statements. Sales…
How Did I Do?
Top retail influencer and friend of TruRating Andrew Busby, recently celebrated the publication of his first book: Harry Was Right All Along is a collection of short stories from the high street, tracing the ups and downs of the ‘profoundly human’ business of retail. Writing with an experts eye for detail, the collection offers “a refreshing…
Is Nordstrom putting customer convenience above the competition?
In ‘shock of the week’ news Nordstrom, announced that it will be accepting returns from two major department store rivals – Macy’s and Kohl’s – at its recently opened NYC concept stores, Nordstrom Local. With returns a pain point for customers and retailers alike, the strategy marks a bold leap into the prioritisation of convenience…
3 CX Improvements To Drive Revenue Growth
We recently submitted a guest blog post for our fantastic partners Retail Pro about three simple customer experience tactics you can implement to drive revenue growth for your business. Because we’re generous, we’ve decided to share the intro of the article here, enjoy this taster and be sure to click through for the full read…
The Influencers: Andrew Busby
Second up to bat in our new series The Influencers, we were lucky enough to speak to the fantastic Andrew Busby. Having worked in the retail industry for over 20 years, Andrew’s time is now primarily spent working as a retail analyst, writer and keynote speaker. As the principal and founder of Retail Reflections, Andrew regularly…
Introducing… the CX Primer
Making Sense of CX In today’s information overload world, while it may feel like access to near anything imaginable is only a quick Google search away, it can be hard to cut through the noise to find the relevant information you’re looking for. Sometimes what we really need is a curator’s hand to point us…
RetailNow 19: The TruRating Round-up
The TruRating team was lucky enough to be in attendance for the annual RetailNOW event in San Antonio this past week. While we certainly enjoyed our panel session on Innovating as an SMB Retailer – thanks to ScanSource’s Kevin Kent and TSYS’s Marc Castrechini for being such good sports! – there was more than enough…