Trends Archives - Bryan Eisenberg & Jeffrey Eisenberg

Finding the people and taking the people out of retail

February 14, 2017

NRF 2017 kicked off with a keynote titled “Building Tomorrow’s Workforce: How Retailers Are Attracting and Retaining Talent.” The CEOs of Macy’s, HSNi, Walmart, and Ashley Stewart talked about the value of great people in retail. No one would argue that retail is a people business. I have always found one the best parts of the NRF shows are the people I have met. However, I think we need to start framing this discussion differently, and if the trade-show floor…

Even Your Shopping Cart isn’t Sacred

April 25, 2016

Bryan Eisenberg

Customer Experience, omni-channel, retail, Strategy, Trends

Birth of the Shopping Cart The first rolling shopping cart was created by a Piggly Wiggly owner in Oklahoma City. Once a regular basket got too heavy, customers headed straight for the check-out line. This robbed stores of incremental sales. So in 1936, that store owner introduced a rolling cart to make shopping easier. In CRO terms, he reduced the friction of shopping to increase average order size. The design went mainstream in the 50s. It has remained a retail “best practice”…

Amazon’s Performance Secrets

April 7, 2014

Bryan Eisenberg

Benchmarks, Continuous Improvement, Customer Experience, Ecommerce, Optimization, Personalization, Strategy, Trends

It was a great honor to present at the inaugural ClickZ Live in New York this week. I was asked to share some of what I presented. For years we have paid careful attention to Amazon, and I shared a few secrets we have discovered about what makes them so incredibly successful. Say what you will about them, but they are a formidable competitor to every business out there. However, what we most admire about Jeff Bezos’ approach to business…

SXSW, Not All That Keeps CMOs Up at Night

March 7, 2014

Bryan Eisenberg

Brand, Customer Experience, Trends

It sounds like IT, not marketing! Data breach, identity protection, customer security – these are terms that never concerned marketers much. The breaches that retailers Target, Neiman Marcus, Zappos, and other brands like Evernote, Living Social, LinkedIn, and Adobe suffered have impacted the way consumers are interacting with brands. Security is now also a chief marketing officer’s (CMO) challenge – it is no longer only a worry for the chief information officer (CIO) or chief technology officer (CTO). The challenge…

The Next Generation of Data Analysis

May 21, 2013

Bryan Eisenberg

Big Data Marketing, Trends, web analytics

In the near future you will use voice commands to ask for actionable stories to be related to you from raw data. It sounds like Star Trek but it’s months away, not years. Today is the start of IBM’s SmarterCommerce Global Summit 2013. As part of the program IBM invited several industry influencers to attend the event. Last night, I spent some time chatting with Sandra Zoratti, author of Precision Marketing, Stratigent‘s Bill Bruno and Triberr‘s Dino Dogan. I shared with…

Use the Data

February 25, 2013

Bryan Eisenberg

Big Data Marketing, Trends, web analytics

When I studied the data and made an intuitive prediction that 80 percent of PPC professionals would be replaced by an algorithm in the next three years, my brother Jeffrey and I expected some resistance. We were extremely surprised at the misunderstandings that arose. We wholeheartedly agree that good marketers add value to the online advertising equation. As fellow ClickZ columnist Andrew Goodman responded: It’s certainly true that many “PPC pros” who work like (much inferior to the real thing) robots…

Marketing Analyst, You Better Up Your Game

February 11, 2013

Bryan Eisenberg

Big Data Marketing, Trends, web analytics

Last week, I explained how 80% of PPC professionals will be replaced by an algorithm. However, deeper in to my article I also mentioned that “many of the “web analysts” who only function as data reporters without adding much business value” will also be replaced by technologies like NarrativeScience and Arria. I first came across NarrativeScience’s technology while coaching my son, Sammy’s little league team. I used an app called GameChanger.io to keep the box scores and stats for every game. At the end…

70% of CEOs have lost Trust in Marketers

November 20, 2012

Bryan Eisenberg

Strategy, Trends

According to the recent Fournaise 2012 Global Marketing Effectiveness Program, which has interviewed more than 1,200 CEOs across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, CEO’s have lost faith in their marketing departments with their inability to prove ROI on campaigns: Furthermore, they have: made the conscious decision not to expect more from marketing than branding, look/feel good ads and promotions… CEOs feel marketers “live too much in the brand, creative and social media bubble”. This is a frightening statistic! What can be…