Tag: ecommerce

4 Weddings and a Bridal Shower: A Look at How the Wedding Registry Has Changed

4 Weddings and a Shower: A Look at the Wedding Registry

Posted on | by Amanda Reed

It’s been a month since our very own Stacy became a Mrs. As all good coworkers do, we threw her a surprise shower before the big day. Scanning her wedding registry to pick out the best gift got me thinking. Four women from the Ketner crew in Austin have now tied the knot. So, as the retail industry has evolved, how have our registry experiences differed?

From Catherine’s nuptials in 2003 to the Tung wedding over Memorial Day weekend, a number of things have changed.

Quick facts:

  • Wedding years represented – 2003, 2012, 2015, 2019 
  • Retailers represented for wedding registries – Target, Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Crate and Barrel, Pier 1
  • What were the biggest differences? A shift away from formal wedding china to post-wedding travel funds. 
  • And where did we find common ground? Come on, who doesn’t like getting gifts?

Going to the Chapel…and the Store…and Online

The argument in the industry is that despite the rise of e-commerce, brick-and-mortar retail isn’t dead. That trend can be seen in our wedding registry experiences too. Almost 17 years ago, Catherine and her husband did their registering in-store. This meant they didn’t have online access to make changes or sneak peeks to see what was purchased. Fast forward to my wedding in 2012, and Stacy’s this year. You’ll see that the store still has an important role. We enjoyed going in-person to kick off the act of registering, but found the digital experience helpful for reading product reviews and managing our lists.

In the movies, you’ll see couples buzzing excitedly through the store, using a barcode scanner to add to their wishlist. Stacy and her now-husband Alvin found that aspect of registering fun! My husband Thomas and I enjoyed the private event Crate and Barrel hosted (and still offers today). Engaged couples are allowed into the store early Sunday mornings for undistracted registering. Plus, there’s wedding vendor promos and free samples. Cake before lunch? Yes, please!

Love and Marriage, But Don’t Forget the Honeymoon!

Mariana and her husband Richie shared a home before their big day, which influenced their decision for how and where to register. Their two-bedroom apartment was pretty cozy, so they signed up for a Honeyfund account instead of a traditional wedding registry. What they wanted more than bedding or kitchen gadgets was to share experiences together. Through Honeyfund, family and friends could gift the travel-loving Fischbachs a surf lesson or a snorkeling excursion for their Hawaiian honeymoon. Although Mariana did say they received several Home Depot gift cards, which were spent pretty quick!

While Stacy and I share some similarities in our registry experience, Mariana and Catherine also have some parallels. Where they overlap is specific to their housing’s influence on wedding gift requests. While the Fishbachs opted for experiences over “things” because they were saving for a down payment, the Seeds were building a home. For this reason, Catherine needed practical things like end tables and a coffee table for their living room. She was also excited to pick out China settings. While she doesn’t use it often now, Catherine loves having something she will pass down to her kids. 

I Do…Love Wedding Gifts

Wedding season is underway, and we’re not the only ones contemplating the evolution of registries. Just last week, Retail Dive reflected on the history of the traditional registry, and Honeyfund’s founder gives her perspective there also. Here’s a stat we found interesting. Despite emerging trends around experiential requests and cash gifts, The Knot found that 97% of couples this year say they registered for retail products. 

Since we obsess over retail data for clients during the week, it’s fun when we get to discuss the overlap into our lives as consumers. Our conclusion is that retailers who will find relevance with the brides and grooms of tomorrow will be the ones that mirror broader retail trends. These retailers will provide options for both the thrill of in-store memory making, plus convenience and practicality too. Retailers should see wedding registries as a way to build brand loyalty, as couples associate a retailer with a joyful time in their lives.

retail technology newspaper

Retail Technology News Roundup: Q1 2019

Posted on | by Jenna Jordan

At Ketner Group, our year always starts off with a deep dive into the latest retail technology trends at NRF. However, after a three-day frenzy of innovation and announcements, the retail technology news doesn’t stop – it hits the ground running. While it may be hard to keep up with every piece of news, we’ve done our due diligence of tracking the important retail technology news in Q1. Check out the following highlights for the latest and greatest in all things retail.

Amazon Continues To Make Headlines

It’s hard to imagine a quarterly roundup where Amazon isn’t included. However, the company definitely made waves in several different areas in Q1. The first was when they backed out of their plans for a New York City campus. After their announcement, the community and a number of politicians made it clear that they opposed the retail giant’s presence. Surprisingly, the negative attention worked, and the company reversed its decision.

Also in Q1, reports showed that Amazon’s online grocery sales growth had slowed in 2018. Given their struggle with Amazon Fresh and Prime Pantry, it makes sense that their continued focus is on expanding Amazon Go stores. It will be interesting to see if Amazon leaves fresh management to the more veteran grocers and continues to focus on other products. According to Retail Dive, the company has “gained traction as a destination for plenty of products brick-and-mortar stores are known to stock.”

Surprising Statistics

The exciting part about following retail technology trends is that every now and again, new statistics or studies come out that conflict with what we may have thought about shopper behavior. For example, eMarketer forecasted that more than half of U.S. households will have Amazon Prime this year, in part due to their expanded offerings of product categories. Despite this projection, shoppers spent twice as much in physical stores than at Amazon during the 2018 holiday season.

These findings are interesting to explore, especially with an overwhelming number of “retail apocalypse” stories in the news. Perhaps consumers prefer eCommerce for routine purchases, but physical stores when shopping for one-off items. What’s more, the growing number of convenient click and collect options may be another factor, as well. This also helps retailers increase foot traffic as these shoppers often end up making another purchase once in the store. Not to mention the ability to be able to touch and feel products is still very important to consumers.

Brick And Mortar Or eCommerce?

This might explain why digital native brands continued to move into the brick-and-mortar space in Q1, including Wayfair. Webrooming and showrooming have only increased in popularity as consumers continue to research products before making a purchase. Conversely, Instagram announced a new checkout feature where users can buy a product without having to leave the app. This new feature offers an even more convenient path to purchase, as a Facebook survey found 87% of people have taken action after seeing product information on Instagram. This has the potential to make a great impact, especially as many influencers continue to use the app.

Ever-Changing Retail Technology News

The speed and unpredictability behind the retail technology industry is exactly why we like it! While certain patterns may emerge, keeping tabs on industry pioneers and leaders is essential to one’s own success. If you’d like to chat about the latest industry trends, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]!

Digital Retail’s Brightest Take Over Seattle This Week for Shop.org 2014

Posted on | by Ketner Group

The annual Shop.org summit is already underway, and it has been a fast and furious few days for the team here at Ketner Group and our wonderful and innovative clients who are exhibiting at the show this week. The months and weeks leading up to Shop.org was full of planning sessions, scheduling meetings with media and analysts and preparing show announcements for our clients. This is a very exciting time of year for the KG team as it represents the unofficial kick-off of the holiday shopping season. We are working with all of our clients on some really exciting holiday-themed campaigns over the next few months, but more on that in another blog post!

Shop.org is a must-attend event for anyone in digital retail. In their own words, it is “a 2½ day event specifically for digital and multichannel retailers. Get the rush of discovering new ideas, getting actionable takeaways and building strong relationships with the brightest and most innovative players in the digital retail world.” The more than 5,200 attendees, 280 exhibitors and 100+ speakers represent the entire digital and multichannel retail community: senior management, marketers, merchandisers and solution providers.

In the first two days alone, attendees have had a chance to participate in various keynote sessions, roundtables and panels. Highlights include:

  • Jamie Nordstrom of Nordstrom speaking on the importance of evolving with your customer or “you die”
  • The Amazon.com story featuring leading Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru and veteran Silicon Valley journalist and author, Brad Stone
  • A special NRF members-only session focusing on “Decoding the New Consumer Mind”

To see the latest and greatest news, tweets and photos from Shop.org – click here!

For those of you still in Seattle and need some advice on a successful Shop.org (or if you have some free time available before your flight home) check out Shop.org’s blog, “12 Tips for Making the Most of the Summit.”

Video Courtesy of Shop.org

The Rise of Consumer Control: What’s a Business To Do?

Posted on | by Ketner Group

ThoughtWorks ParadigmShift 2014, a thought leadership conference on business disruption and customer engagement in Austin, Texas.
ParadigmShift 2014, a thought leadership conference hosted by ThoughtWorks in Austin, Texas, on business disruption and customer engagement.

With the evolution and widespread use of the Internet, mobile devices and social media, we’ve arrived in a fast-paced, noisy and fickle consumer environment.  It takes a matter of hours for consumer opinions to go viral across the web, and in a world where word-of-mouth travels like wildfire, businesses need to keep their ears to the ground to anticipate the next bit of buzz at the digital water cooler. Consumers have infinite stores and brands and tons of ecommerce choices to search for and buy the products and services they want – so how does a business foster a loyal community of shoppers in the digital world? Our client ThoughtWorks says let the consumer take the wheel.

ThoughtWorks has recognized the significance of the customer loyalty revolution in today’s hyper-connected economy, and plans to address the changing face of engagement at ParadigmShift — its 3-day, invite-only thought leadership conference September 21-23, right in our own backyard. “Technology is upending the dynamic of customer engagement,” says ThoughtWorks CEO Craig Gorsline, and ParadigmShift can help business leaders in all verticals prepare and execute the most effective strategies for two-way digital consumer interaction and loyalty.

Today’s shopper has unlimited instant access to information, reviews, social media and news surrounding a business, its products and reputation – all available at their fingertips. ParadigmShift will illuminate the profound changes in the customer landscape and open up the dialogue between top enterprise executives on how organizations can maintain relevancy with each other and their consumers.

Hugh Forrest, director of the ever-evolving and widely attended SXSW Interactive conference, will lead the closing keynote for the event, giving attendees an exclusive look into the dynamic inner workings of the minds behind the 4-day innovation summit that so wildly inspires SMB entrepreneurs and large enterprises around the world.

With redefined roles of engagement and brand loyalty, increased convenience, speedier interactions and the rise of personal choice, businesses must accept that handing the reigns to the consumer is not a bad thing. It’s what shoppers want, and when businesses embrace it, they’ll lead the next generation of successful customer engagement.

Stay tuned for more insights from conference sessions next week!