The way retailers speak to the LGBTQ community and portray its members in their marketing can have a significant impact on consumers’ perception of the brand: 31% of shoppers say they are somewhat or definitely more likely to buy from LGBTQ-inclusive brands, according to a survey by FocusVision. Nearly 40% of respondents reported having a more positive impression of a brand after seeing an LGBTQ-inclusive advertisement. However, retailers won’t always benefit from presenting themselves as advocates for the LGBTQ community; 19% of respondents said LGBTQ-inclusive ads gave them a negative impression of the brand. Additionally, surveyed consumers were evenly split on whether they felt brands should advocate for the LGBTQ community. To help determine the best course, retailers should learn how their particular base feels about the issue, and act accordingly. “I think that there is more of an acceptance moving on the LGBT community.,” said Zoe Dowling, Lead Researcher at FocusVision in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “People feel there is a good amount of representation, and some even feel there should be more. For brands and retailers it’s about asking their customers and audience about what they’re looking to see, and creating a strategy around that.” One round…

KEEN Footwear has predominantly operated as a wholesale business since its founding in 2003. But as more consumers go right to their favorite brands to shop, the company has sought a greater share of direct-to-consumer sales. With its growing DTC channel nearing 10% of total sales, the retailer completely revamped its e-Commerce site to appeal to the evolving consumer with one major feature: storytelling. With product categories ranging from steel-toed work boots to sandals to hiking shoes to street-style sneaker boots, KEEN Footwear sought to appeal to several varied consumer audiences. As part of the new experience, the retailer seeks to tell rich stories about the products that are relatable to any shopper browsing the site, according to John Evons, VP Global Direct-to-Consumer at KEEN.

Shopping centers often promote their retailers’ marketing campaigns via various digital and physical channels to drive traffic and sales. While retailers generally pay for shopping center marketing as part of their lease agreements, they often don’t take advantage of these offerings due to the difficulties of communicating with representatives at every complex. James Connell, VP of E-Commerce and Customer Experience at Roots, a Canada-based outdoor lifestyle retailer, noted that while his company recognized the value of advertising correct promotions, hours and store details at every location, it was getting cumbersome to communicate campaign directives to each individual store.

With a global community of more than 1.3 million shoppers, Feelunique, a UK-based online beauty and cosmetics retailer, is leveraging this vast following and turning them into powerful brand advocates. Having already introduced a loyalty program, a social media influencer program and a monthly product sampling offer, Feelunique sought to provide a platform where shoppers could easily share their positive experiences with friends and family. Feelunique has more than 130,000 daily site visits and sells more than 30,000 products from 500 brands. Nearly two thirds (65%)of sales come from the very social demographic of global Gen Z and Millennial shoppers under the age of 35. With 61% of women likely to recommend a beauty brand to a friend or family member, according to Ben Van Pelt, Marketing Manager at Feelunique, the decision to implement a referral marketing program made perfect sense for the company.

Food and New York City are the primary near-term focuses for Jet.com, as the shopping site homes in on an improved user experience and better delivery options. Simon Belsham, recently named President of Jet.com, explained the company’s strategies during a keynote presentation at the eTail East event in Boston, followed by a 1:1 interview with Retail TouchPoints. In the exclusive Q&A, Belsham, who joined Jet.com as President in March 2018, talks about the future of Jet.com, the new Jetblack personal shopping service, the site’s integration with Walmart, and how a hyper-focus on food will help the company move to the next level.

Smart Glass Jewelry is an eco-friendly accessory brand that finds new uses for old materials by creating fashion jewelry from recycled bottles. The SMB retailer recently discovered that both old and new strategies are needed to optimize digital marketing in order to stimulate customer engagement and sales. Beginning in March 2018, Smart Glass deployed the Springbot Exchange Audience Expander to match its customer data and identify look-alike audiences, and then to launch an automated three-series email drip campaign. The Springbot solution automatically adds consumers who engage with a retailer’s email campaign to a permanent subscriber list.

Working to deliver a more relevant customer experience, TUMI was seeking to consolidate business functions “that have a direct relationship with the customer on a 1:1 basis,” noted Charlie Cole, Global Chief eCommerce Officer at Samsonite and Chief Digital Officer at TUMI. “We thought all these functions should live in one place,” he explained, “including online analytics, customer service, sales (retail/online/outlet/drop ship), warranty, repair, email send/open/click, social graph data…” Finding the right solution was a challenge, Cole explained: “We didn’t necessarily know where in the vendor landscape we were going to end up, so we talked to all sorts of partners, including email, personalization, more traditional CRM, etc.” After a thorough search, Cole and his team landed on the Customer Data Platform (CDP) from AgilOne. In this Q&A, Cole shares his learnings and results from the implementation.