Studies arrived last week on consumers placing a higher priority on newness, online cart abandonment challenges, digital marketing’s effectiveness, strapped consumers and stores associate bonds helping deter shoplifting.

Consumers Demanding Newness

According to Salesforce’s Shopper-First Retailing report, 69 percent of consumers say it’s important or very important to see new merchandise each time they visit a store or shopping site. Additionally, 75 percent of consumers’ site search queries are brand new each month, showing just how fast consumers are discovering new product types, brands and features. Within the top 5 percent of best-selling products on e-commerce sites, the majority of them (59 percent) change monthly.

Online Shoppers will Abandon Carts if Checkout Process is Complicated

Eighty-seven percent of online shoppers will abandon their carts during the checkout process if it is too long or too complicated, according to a recent survey by monthly installment payment solution Splitit. Fifty-five percent indicated they would not only abandon their carts, but also never return to that retailer’s site. Among age groups, 83 percent of millennials would not complete a long or complicated checkout process. This is compared to 90 percent of those aged 55+, who said they would not follow through with a lengthy checkout. Twelve percent of millennials reported that they would exit a lengthy checkout but return to the site later, compared to only 7 percent of those over the age of 55.

Digital Marketing Found to be Effective

Eighty-three percent of businesses think their digital marketing efforts are effective in helping them achieve their goal, according to a new study from Clutch. The top three digital marketing channels businesses use are social media marketing (81 percent), a website (78 percent) and e-mail marketing (69 percent). The least popular digital marketing channel businesses invest in is SEO (44 percent).

One Third of Consumers Living Paycheck to Paycheck

More than one-third of U.S. consumers (34 percent) report living from paycheck-to-paycheck as their top barrier to meeting financial goals, according to the fourth annual Love and Money Survey by TD Bank. The survey showed that financial stress causes nearly one in five couples of all ages (19 percent) to delay buying a home, with millennials leading the pack at 42 percent. The majority of respondents in committed relationships–60 percent–report talking about money with their significant others at least once a week. Millennials are the most transparent, with 97 percent saying they discuss finances at least once a month, compared with 88 percent of couples across age groups.

Store Associate Bonding can Reduce Shoplifting

A study from the University of Otago found that better employer-employee relationships results in a reduction of shoplifting. The report found that a good relationship between a retailer and their staff would mean employees are more proactive and alert to preventing and informing of theft.

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