Sucharita Mulpuru says, “In a recent Forrester-Shop.org study, we found that 70% of online retailers are investing in “content” in the coming year. What sort of content you may ask. Usually when they say “content” retailers mean videos, blog posts and magazine-like content that is best for consumers at the top of the shopping funnel. This type of content though is notoriously difficult to monetize though. A number of companies like Babycenter in the late 1990s were the first wave of content-driving-commerce digital players to try this. They quickly realized it was not only difficult... [...]

Nicole Dvorak says, “If you’ve noticed fewer window shoppers on the streets lately, it may be because they’re at home window shopping from their couches; that is, they’re discovering and exploring products without necessarily intending to purchase. For our 2015 US Mobile Landscape report*, Forrester analyzed mobile audience data from our behavioral tracking panel to understand how consumers use smartphones and tablets in 2015. We found that although professionals often group both devices under the “mobile” umbrella, consumers use smartphones and tablets in very different ways.... [...]

Peter O’Neill says, “Last month, I enjoyed working with my colleague TJ Keitt as he prepared his report “B2B CX Professionals: Find The Full Range Of B2B Customers”, now published for customer experience professionals who are Forrester clients. As he writes, “Despite the clear benefits of improving B2B customer experience, there’s a hitch: Before B2B CX professionals can help their customers, they have to identify them. But at most of the B2B firms we spoke to, it’s hard for CX professionals to locate and engage customers other than the complex groups of decision-makers... [...]

Ryan Hart says, “Every March, children run around, eagerly filling baskets with Easter eggs. The eggs come in all sorts of colors and sizes, some hard to find, some more easily discovered.  The ritual continues every year with the Easter Bunny (or parents in rarer cases) hiding eggs to impart joy and wonder in innocent children. One can analogize that smart companies have taken over the role of the Easter bunny, trying to bring joy and delight to customers, not children. While the holistic brand experience, or Easter egg hunt, looks at the sum of these interactions – each interaction... [...]

Anjali Lai says, “This week Facebook released “Reactions” for two pilot markets: Ireland and Spain. The new reactions available for posts? Love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and angry. Myself and Forrester analysts Jennifer Wise, Samantha Ngo, Brigitte Majewski across mobile, social, and advertising pow-wowed on this new addition.  Here are our thoughts: Facebook wins from this move. Hello new and granular consumer data. Facebook can continue to optimize its own news feed experience, and grow monetization of its data with improved audience profiles and targeting for ads – on its site, and... [...]

Paul Miller says, “The hordes gathered in Las Vegas this week, for Amazon’s latest re:Invent show. Over 18,000 individuals queued to get into sessions, jostled to reach the Oreo Cookie Popcorn (yes, really), and dodged casino-goers to hear from AWS, its partners and its customers. Las Vegas may figure nowhere on my list of favourite places, but the programme of Analyst sessions AWS laid on for earlier in the week definitely justified this trip. The headline items (the Internet of Things, Business Intelligence, and a Snowball chucked straight at the ‘hell’ that is the enterprise... [...]

T J Keitt says, “Your customer experience (CX) is the product of the interactions between your employees, partners, and customers within your operating environment. Forrester has labeled this as a customer experience ecosystem. It’s important to understand CX ecosystems’ two components — the people and the operating environment — for two reasons: People participate in the ecosystem if they get value from it. Each actor in the CX ecosystem is asking, “What’s in it for me?” Employees want things like professional development, recognition, and advancement.... [...]

Anjali Lai says, “For US online adults, wearable technology is no longer the stuff of myth. Over the past year alone we’ve witnessed the launch of the Apple Watch and iterations on early wearable products. Wearable devices are now making their media cameo across a variety of channels and topics ranging from politics to pop culture. According to Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® survey data, around one-fifth of US online consumers use a wearable gadget. While the adoption rate is higher among young, wealthy males, wearables are already breaking into segments that aren’t typically... [...]

Brendan Miller says, “My mission at Forrester is to help ebusiness executives transform the role of payments from financial utility into an engine for customer engagement, revenue growth and improved customer experience. A barrage of new innovation and business models are upending how consumers and businesses make and receive payments.  If merchants and businesses do not consider or implement these new innovations they risk losing customers and ultimately relevancy. Customer obsessed businesses can turn payments disruption into business advantage.  Success hinges on making technological... [...]

Jim Nail says, ““Hey…you got chocolate in my peanut butter!” This line from a 1980’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups campaign is a classic in advertising…and aptly describes what is happening in marketing measurement today. (For a blast from the past click here to view this oldie!) Two proven techniques that work great separately – attribution and marketing mix modeling – work even better when merged into a unified measurement approach. I suspected the convergence of different marketing analytics approaches was inevitable so earlier this year, my colleague Tina Moffett and I began... [...]