Vonage, a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, released a new report—"COVID-19 Reshapes the Global Customer Engagement Landscape"—detailing changing consumer preferences and behaviors and how businesses and service providers need to transform their customer engagement strategies to become more agile and adapt to changes driven by the COVID era. This report follows the January 2020 Vonage Global Customer Engagement Report and captures unique insight about…

New research from Narvar, an intelligent customer engagement platform, illustrates how COVID-19 has affected consumer behavior and expectations, particularly around deliveries, returns, and omnichannel shopping, in ways that will be long-lasting and influence loyalty. The report, "State of Returns: New Expectations," analyzes the sentiments of online shoppers in the U.S. market. COVID-19 has clearly accelerated some shopping behaviors while slowing others. Consumers have been forced to shift towards online shopping to the…

Two-Thirds Still Plan to Travel for the Holidays & Nearly Half Expect to Journey the Same Distance or Further Than Last Year While Holiday Shopping Preferences Have Altered, New Brands Have Opportunity to Get in the Mix The out-of-doors has taken on new resonance in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns, with nearly half (45%) of American adults saying they are noticing OOH (out of home) advertising more than before the pandemic began. This heightened awareness and receptivity are particularly prevalent among those ages…

30% of SMB respondents in India expect business to be as usual post the COVID-19 pandemic Meeting customer expectations and financial management and growth are the top challenges for Indian business growth currently and in the future Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, released its fourth edition of Small & Medium Business Trends Report capturing insights from Small and Medium Business owners and leaders worldwide. This research was conducted by The Harris Poll in two parts, with a study in March 2020 and a…

Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global leader in digital ad verification, released its Media Quality Report (MQR), which found there has been an improvement in most major digital media quality indicators like brand safety, viewability, and fraud. In the first half of 2020, consumers worldwide spent notably more time with various media as they observed the stay-at-home guidance of their respective geographies. According to eMarketer, consumers are now spending an extra hour per day on digital media alone compared to 2019.…

SurveyMonkey research shows that 89% of surveyed C-level executives say that they are extremely invested in CX, and 87% of professionals say that their organization finds customer feedback holds more importance now than before COVID-19 SurveyMonkey, a leader in agile software solutions for customer experience, market research, and survey feedback, today shared the findings from its new report that examines the current state of customer experience (CX). The research identifies how prioritizing CX can help companies in…

COVID-19 threw a wrench in many marketers’ plans, especially when it comes to lead generation. Though events are postponed (or moved to a virtual format), marketing teams are still expected to generate qualified leads. For most demand gen teams, fewer events = fewer leads. So naturally, marketers are turning up the volume on digital tactics. Unfortunately, it’s resulting in a lot of digital clutter. Prospects are now inundated with digital touchpoints at every interaction. How can marketers break through the noise during the…

With FeedbackNow, leading brands gain critical in-the-moment consumer feedback safely to manage customer sentiment Forrester unveiled the touchless version of FeedbackNow, a real-time customer experience (CX) data collection solution at the point of experience to ensure the safety of customers and employees. As businesses reopen and travel becomes normal again, consumers expect safety, comfort, and control of their environment and in how they interact with brands. With cleanliness and hygiene being top of mind for…

Even fast-food is not selling like it used to in the Pre-COVID days -- that's the kind of challenge we are witnessing in retail sales.  It’s been an extraordinarily daunting year for the retail industry so far. With global consumers switching to online commerce platforms, retailers already had a tight noose around their existence. With COVID-19, things have only become much clearer as to where the future of retail actually lies. With every retailer scrambling to adapt to the daily changes in the pandemic conditions forcing…

Exults offers insight on various recent reports detailing shifts in retail and eCommerce purchasing behavior. The emergence of a global health crisis back in March affected just about every aspect of human life, and consumer behavior serves as no exception. Purchasing data now shows that concerns surrounding the health crisis, along with restrictions put in place because of it, forced consumers to rethink the way they buy goods and services. A recent report from McKinsey declares that 75 percent of consumers…

Mom & Entrepreneur focuses on helping other digital marketers & marketing agencies better support their clients Digital Marketing veteran, Mailynne Calvin, wants to help marketers have more time for themselves and better support marketing efforts for teams. "Marketers constantly have to keep up with different platforms, new strategies and tasks. It also changes often. All that comes with digital marketing actions that need to happen every day, week and month," said McMedia Digital CEO, Mailynne Calvin. "Our…

The edtech startup introduces Packs, a free product folded into Element451, its powerful customer relationship management software Colleges and universities beleaguered by the pandemic can now find relief in Packs from higher education software creators Element451. Even before the global health crisis, higher education faced formidable challenges. The pool of college-bound students has been shrinking and costs have been rising. The pandemic brought added stressors, mainly reductions in tuition-paying students. Indeed,…

The life of an email marketer has changed enormously during the COVID-19 pandemic. When most parts of the world is either closed for business or slowed down due to the lockdown crisis, we would expect the number of emails sent to customers and prospects to dry up as sales take the hit. However, things are not slowing down for an email marketing team. In fact, there is so much done in the rapidly changing world around growing demands to stay “socially connected” via online conversation and messaging channels, including…

Consumers are inundated with endless streams of fresh images and autoplay content. By the time this day is over, roughly 95 million new photos will be uploaded to Instagram. There will be about three million new snaps taken by Snapchat users, and 432,000 more hours of video will be uploaded onto YouTube. So, eCommerce stores need to find new ways to keep shoppers engaged. In an era when customers are used to scrolling through endless pages of content, this requires strategic product visual optimization. To do this,…

Ad spend is tumbling globally with advertisers pulling back on budgets since Coronavirus hit. In the UK, the majority of marketers (86%) were delaying or reviewing marketing campaigns at the start of April, which was an increase from just 55% three weeks earlier. A recent Nielsen study of the US market shows marked changes in consumer behavior, even before the official lockdown, with more going online to avoid shopping centers and malls. However, marketers must take steps now to ensure that they remain relevant…

Ninety-One Percent of Online Shoppers Believe They Can Find Almost Anything Online Suzy, a leading on-demand consumer insights platform, today unveiled results from its State of the Consumer: The E-Shopping Revolution Study, which examined the online shopping habits of 1,000 U.S. consumers in August 2020. Among the key findings: 86% of consumers say they will shop online more or the same post-pandemic. The study also found that, compared to pre-pandemic times, 54% of online shoppers are buying more groceries online and 48%…

Magentrix, a software provider specializing in partner relationship management (PRM) portals, and customer success portals, has announced a new feature that can help make engaging partners and customers significantly more likely. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, when engagement with one’s sales channel partners is paramount to success, Magentrix aims to facilitate this process with its new rewards and redemption modules - a functionality very few sales channel management providers currently offer. Marketing Technology…

SurveyMonkey’s new report, Adapting in Times of Crisis 2020, highlights the impact of two key traits for businesses navigating a crisis SurveyMonkey, a leader in agile software solutions for customer experience, market research, and survey feedback, announced the findings from Adapting in Times of Crisis 2020, a new research report identifying the top characteristics needed for companies to successfully navigate the pandemic: curiosity and agility. The study polled nearly 4,000 Americans nationwide, including over 2,500…

One in three organizations admit they were not sufficiently prepared for the impact of COVID-19 Intelligent automation will play a critical role in shaping a new, technologically-enabled, post-pandemic future of work, according to new research by Pegasystems Inc., the software company empowering digital transformation at the world's leading enterprises. The global study, conducted by research firm Savanta, surveyed over 3,000 global senior managers and frontline IT staff for their thoughts on technology's future role in a…

S&T Bancorp, Inc. (S&T), announces the launch of its new website built in a mobile-first, responsive design with easier navigation. S&T Bank has also introduced a one-of-a-kind digital online sales tool, Merlin. According to the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, "as the COVID-19 pandemic places constraints on in-person retail banking and forces customers to increase reliance on digital service channels, banks are facing an important test." The study highlights that "52% of retail…