The Rising Wonder of Smart Vending Machines

A new generation of automated smart vending machines, including refrigerators and coolers, is taking its place within stores (e.g., food, pharma, convenience) and in public spaces (e.g., train stations & airports, malls, service waiting lounges). There is variation in their models and features, but they have some common characteristics: they are AI-augmented, data-driven, and often… Read More

Digital Price Display: Opportunity & Risk

The landscape in food stores is gradually changing with a transition of retailers from printed price labels to digital price tags, formally known as electronic shelf labels (ESLs). When looking from some distance, shoppers may not notice the difference in appearance of the label, but the digital price display can have implications that shoppers may… Read More

A Glimpse on New Advances in Segmentation

Segmentation is a fundamental topic in marketing strategy. Appreciation of its importance has continuously grown since the 1950s. Segmentation is crucial to targeting messages, fitting preferences of different consumer groups, or creating other types of differentiated programmes. In consumer marketing, segmentation may be based on demographics, perceptions and attitudes (mental constructs more generally), and behavioural… Read More

The Issues Troubling Consumers, and Their Search for Answers

For a fifth year in a row, consumers worldwide are living in an era that can be closely described as very busy, oftentimes turbulent, and full of challenges. It is an unstable era. The events or developments of this era, explicitly or through their consequences, touch on multiple areas: health-oriented, economic, political, socio-cultural, and technological.… Read More

Jelmoli Prepares for a New but Different Chapter in Its Retailing Legacy

Jelmoli is a Swiss department store in Zürich well-known to residents and visitors of the city. Last year (2023) the retail brand celebrated “190 Years of Jelmoli” with the tagline “Full of Stories” (e.g., posted on the store’s front windows). However, this celebration also marks in all likelihood a conclusion of its function as a… Read More

Directions for the Future of Research on Consumer Behaviour

There are so many changes and developments that have taken place since the start of the 21st century to talk about — social, technological, and environmental; the social dimension includes both socio-economic and socio-political changes. Consumers are affected by the shifts that surround them, modifying and adapting their behaviours of shopping, purchase and consumption. In… Read More

Digital Changes Coming Ahead for Marketers and Consumers

The digital landscape in marketing and e-commerce is fluid and evolving continuously. In the meantime, the patterns and habits of consumer shopping behaviour also keep changing. Most notably in recent times, consumers were driven to modify their shopping behaviour due to restrictions imposed during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. However, consumers have had to… Read More

Differences and Conflicts Between Metrics of Response to Customer Service Calls

First Call Resolution (FCR) is a key performance indicator for service call (contact) centres. The indicator pertains to success in achieving a resolution to a problem or an issue raised by a customer in his or her first call made to a contact centre. The metric of FCR success rate (%) usually concerns phone calls,… Read More

Retail in Recovery

Wherever relief from COVID-19 is evident, we can see signs of recovery in offline retail, that is at physical stores and shops. In the first months of 2021 countries have lapsed again into third and fourth waves of COVID and lockdowns, which caused a reversal of earlier signs of recovery experienced. But where a recent… Read More