Strategy


  • Sam's Club
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    Courtesy of Sam's Club
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    How Sam’s Club sees fresh food, digital tools fueling its ambitious growth plans

    Walmart-owned club retailer is enhancing the shopping experience with sushi, automated receipt checks and a new app platform, its CFO said at a conference.

    By Catherine Douglas Moran • June 30, 2025
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    Getty Images via Getty Images
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    Opinion

    How to align brand and customer experience

    While brand experience is about crafting a compelling image, CX focuses on understanding and fulfilling customer needs. Both are crucial for delivering cohesive experiences.

    By Leah Leachman • June 27, 2025
  • A person opens a package and reads a note. Explore the Trendline
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    blackCAT via Getty Images
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    Trendline

    Loyalty

    In this Trendline, CX Dive explores where and how leaders are encouraging customer loyalty.

    By CX Dive staff
  • Worried man sitting on a couch looks at a laptop.
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    Kosamtu via Getty Images
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    US customer experience quality hits an all-time low, Forrester finds

    While the decline is considered mild, experts warn that leaders still need to act now or risk getting left behind.

    By June 26, 2025
  • A truck with a message is parked outside a store.
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    Adam Bettcher via Getty Images
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    How ditching Pride now could hurt brands later

    Some retailers that once wholeheartedly celebrated and supported the LGBTQ+ community have pulled away. What if they want to rejoin the party?

    By Daphne Howland • June 24, 2025
  • Shot of a Kroger storefront in Houston, Texas on Sept. 9, 2022
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    Brandon Bell via Getty Images
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    Kroger CEO sees experience as its second market-share driver

    Improvements to customer service, simplified promotions and better in-store conditions are helping the chain grow its share of grocery customers, executives say.

    By June 20, 2025
  • Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during a keynote address at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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    Noah Berger / Stringer via Getty Images
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    Amazon CEO: AI agents will shrink staff but improve CX

    Generative AI’s ability to remove rote work could help the retailer focus on the user experience, but will reduce the number of people required for today’s jobs, along the way.

    By June 18, 2025
  • Woman ordering new high heel shoes in online shop and paying for purchase by credit card.
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    grinvalds via Getty Images
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    Customers keep coming back when product information is easy to find

    Basic details like features and capabilities are an important part of product description pages, a Syndigo survey found.

    By June 17, 2025
  • An image of a brick building with red Chick-fil-A signage
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    Brandon Bell via Getty Images
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    Chick-fil-A leads in customer satisfaction for 11th straight year

    The ACSI 2025 report found challenger brands on the march, sector leaders on the defensive, and Starbucks showing surprising strength.

    By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • June 17, 2025
  • A return of a Shein item leveraging UPS' Happy Returns occurs at a Forever 21 location.
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    Permission granted by Happy Returns
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    Free returns are often a deal breaker for consumers

    Nearly 9 in 10 consumers expect free returns as standard, according to a Rithum survey. 

    By Michael Brady • June 16, 2025
  • A Shein store is pictured, with a rack of clothes on display.
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    Courtesy of Shein
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    Shein pushes consumers toward overconsumption, report says

    An EU consumer group said the fast fashion giant uses “dark patterns” to trigger unwilling spending.

    By Laurel Deppen • June 13, 2025
  • A Starbucks worker in a green apron and a black shirt.
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    Courtesy of Starbucks
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    Starbucks cafes are getting more managers

    The cafe chain is launching a full-time assistant manager program, which will be systemwide in 2026, to fill a critical gap in store-level leadership.

    By Julie Littman • June 13, 2025
  • Guests play arcade games at Dave & Buster's.
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    Mark Davis via Getty Images
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    Dave & Buster’s dials back some of its ‘confusing’ experience changes

    The restaurant company is reversing course on proposed changes, like flexible game pricing, with an eye toward simplification, according to CEO Kevin Sheehan.

    By June 13, 2025
  • The American Airlines check-in desk in Portland International Airport.
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    hapabapa via Getty Images
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    As American Airlines puts renewed focus on CX, its advisory board takes center stage

    The carrier’s appointment of three new members is part of a broader CX effort led by CCO Heather Garboden.

    By June 10, 2025
  • EY logo
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    Jack Taylor via Getty Images
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    EY merges design, creative, CX and AI services into EY Studio+

    The practice will leverage EY’s capabilities and experience to help clients meet the changing needs of consumers and “shape markets at scale.”

    By Aaron Baar • June 10, 2025
  • Produce section of Safeway store at 415 14th Street, SE, Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11, 2020. Store opened Aug. 12, 2020.
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    Sam Silverstein/CX Dive
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    Grocers need to do a better job of explaining prices, shoppers say

    Respondents to a poll by The Feedback Group offered a middling assessment about their primary grocery store’s approach to explaining how tariffs might impact food costs.

    By Sam Silverstein • June 9, 2025
  • A Petco storefront. There is a white van parked outside and a person walking in the store.
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    Permission granted by Petco
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    Petco improves service offerings, plans membership program relaunch

    In pursuit of profitability, the pet retailer is matching its assortment to demand and investing in omnichannel services.

    By June 6, 2025
  • A bank branch building features the "Bank of America" name and logo in front of sunny skies.
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    Brandon Bell / Staff via Getty Images
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    BofA’s head of branches: ‘Proximity is still important to people’

    Customers may or may not visit a branch, but the bank’s presence affirms its commitment to a community, and “there’s a brand value” in that, the executive said.

    By Caitlin Mullen • June 6, 2025
  • Pedestrians pass by a Bank of America branch.
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    Spencer Platt via Getty Images
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    Advice emerges as a key aspect of bank customers’ experience

    Banks have an opportunity to build lasting relationships with customers who are looking to their financial institutions for guidance.

    By June 6, 2025
  • A person walks toward a store entrance.
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    Daphne Howland/CX Dive
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    Five Below CEO credits ‘maniacal focus’ on CX for a strong quarter

    More employee hours, streamlined inventory and improved storytelling all contributed to better a shopping experience — and the bottom line, executives said.

    By June 5, 2025
  • Dollar General store California
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    Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
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    Dollar General customer satisfaction rises as it balances ‘value and convenience’

    The off-price retailer’s store standards are improving, and it is offering faster delivery for digital orders — efforts it says will help it weather economic turmoil.

    By June 3, 2025
  • The entrance to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters is seen, with the bureau's logo on a glass door.
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    Anna Moneymaker / Staff via Getty Images
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    CFPB seeks to end open banking case

    The agency had put the rule in place last October to give consumers more control over sharing their financial data, such as bank account information, with other financial service providers.

    By Lynne Marek • June 3, 2025
  • People enter and leave a Costco.
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    Mario Tama via Getty Images
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    Costco calls scan-and-go pilot ‘extremely successful’

    The scan-and-go tests are part of the retailer's efforts to move customers through the store faster, improve checkout and reduce crowding.

    By June 3, 2025
  • The entrance of a Kohl's store.
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    Scott Olson / Staff via Getty Images
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    Kohl’s interim CEO to stay the course of its CX turnaround plan

    Top priorities include optimizing store layouts, adding more sources of product inspiration and improving in-stock rates.

    By June 2, 2025
  • Pedestrians and cars pass by at intersection in front of Old Navy and Gap storefronts.
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    Dia Dipasupil via Getty Images
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    Gap’s experience enhancements push NPS higher at Old Navy

    The retailer is reaping some rewards from the revitalization plan it rolled out in 2023, which includes drawing upon the individual brand identities to revamp each brand’s experiences.

    By June 2, 2025
  • A person carrying a tote bag looks at items on a grocery store shelf
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    Brandon Bell via Getty Images
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    Consumer pessimism eases amid cooling in U.S.-China tariff war

    The share of consumers expecting a recession over the next 12 months fell in May, the Conference Board said.

    By Jim Tyson • May 30, 2025