Keeping customer information safe is imperative to establishing customer trust and loyalty. Every day, retailers are tasked to keep all forms of shopper data — from credit card accounts to standard profiles such as full name, birthday, email address and social networking information — from third party access.

To enhance and safeguard customer trust and loyalty, Bob’s Stores keeps data security at the center of its business operations, according to Yaron Baitch, Technology Manager of Bob's Stores. However, as consumers continue to leverage more channels to browse and buy inventory, including online and via mobile devices, information safety has become increasingly complex for most retailers, including Bob’s Stores.

“Consumers now are browsing and buying in stores, as well as shopping online and via mobile devices,” Baitch said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “There are more avenues than ever for people to purchase our products from, but our shoppers also want to make sure their information is always safe.” 

Insightful and informed store associates are essential to improving in-store customer engagement and positive brand experiences. Yet many retailers are unable to effectively serve their shoppers, as showrooming, increased labor costs, technology pressures and other factors continue to affect optimal workforce management.

The majority (65%) of U.S. retailers recently surveyed by Aberdeen Group said they struggle with how to allocate staff, given market pressures and ever-changing demands and expectations. Almost half (47%) said their current workforce was insufficient to meet anticipated business needs. Retailers’ top strategic action was to align daily employee scheduling based on factors such as workload and business demands, but more than half (53%) said they spend too much time producing these schedules.

Brand marketers increased their use of email to capture online sales over the promotional period surrounding Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to a new report from Bronto Software. The study compared email program elements and activity in 2012 versus 2011, including message timing, subject line, word count, number of messages sent per brand, and email volume per hour, day and week.