Consumers have reaped the benefits of the rise of e-commerce by capitalizing on its emphasis on speed, convenience and accessibility of information. Despite that growth, retail and physical store locations remain dominant due to their legacy status and long-term prominence in the economy.
For some retail companies, the rise of the Internet and the prominence of e-commerce has been an insurmountable challenge. Others have made changes to their company’s structure and adjusted resources to react toward the changing retail landscape and accommodate for a more online-orientated consumer base.
Reports and articles across the market have highlighted layoffs, foreclosures and bankruptcies of some of the industry’s biggest players, essentially constructing a narrative where online-exclusive stores will eventually phase out the brick-and-mortar experience.
Individual characteristic and demographic changes among consumers have been occurring across multiple markets throughout the past couple of years. The bigger picture forecasts a future in which e-commerce is expected to grow at continuous rates.
Dirxion customer Ulta Beauty spoke at the annual CRM Conference in Chicago earlier last week,as reported by TotalRetail. Ulta Beauty’s SVP of Marketing Strategy Eric Messerschmidt spoke on the company’s CRM and e-commerce strategies and how they increase customer loyalty.
In this year’s first quarter, U.S. consumers spent a collective $106 billion and drove e-commerce sales up 14.7 percent from a year ago, according to a recent article published in U.S. News. The article includes the Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales report for Q1 2017, as published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
