BRAND: Coke has had to adapt to respond to the modern world. On the one hand increasingly diverse consumer tastes, media evolution and the internet have reduced the potential for a single brand and product offering. On the other, the government’s move to tackle obesity.

BRAND: A great metaphor can evoke powerful feelings and emotions. As in the past, some of today’s most popular brands use metaphorical names, including Under Armor, Kayak, and Apple. Each of these names says something about their company’s mission and/or attributes.

ECOMMERCE: The Internet has only magnified the importance of an effective product mix. Instead of competing on a local level with a handful of vendors, Web retailers are thrust into the most ruthless commerce ecosystem the world has ever known. Sure, there are millions of customers to reach. The only problem is that countless other sellers are vying for the same market share.

ECOMMERCE: eCommerce has evolved. Today's e-commerce businesses need to showcase their products in a unique way that not only represents their brand but also primarily focuses on driving sales. Shopify Plus is a fantastic platform to accomplish this difficult task that many e-commerce retailers face. To display the versatility of the platform, here are 10 amazing store designs created by brands and agencies on the Shopify Plus platform. 

ECOMMERCE: eCommerce has become an increasingly complex, ever-shifting realm. Considering the shifting nature of the industry, the way that online businesses deal with potential customers has to change. For too long, web traffic has been seen as little more than a metric. In truth, businesses need to exploit this valuable traffic data, turning insights into informed website changes. These website changes aren’t just bigger call to action buttons or more landing pages. There are a number of web elements that can affect online traffic and ecommerce conversion rates.

BRAND: According to Antonio Sciuto, Nestlé Waters North America's CMO, there are four purposes to the elaborate social space. First, find and listen to consumers through community management. Then, analyze all of the available data that Nestle has about its brand and products and respond and engage with consumers. Finally, the team plans to take all of that data and improve its marketing programs. All of those tasks are ones that Nestle has traditionally outsourced to its agencies—including digital shop 360i—particularly when it comes to social analytics and listening.

ECOMMERCE: 80% of your ecommerce profits are likely coming from the 20% of your highest spenders. Instead of pursuing deal-hunters and budget-savvy folks, retain your loyal customers and frequent spenders with targeted offers. Your loyal top-10% spends 3 times more per order than the lower 90%, and your top-1% spends 5 times more than the lower 90%. In fact, repeat customers will likely to spend 25% more during the holiday season, compared to 17% increase from one-time buyers. 

ECOMMERCE: Entrepreneurs love drop shipping as a business model: It’s easy enough to figure out that one person can be their own research team, buyer, and salesperson. And plenty of services exist to help with different aspects: Product Hunt helps you get traction and Shopify lets you build an online store. But now, Amazon has seen a chance, and they’re taking it: Their new landing page Launchpad aims to be the one-stop-shop for any physical goods ecommerce startup to “launch, market and distribute” their wares.

DATA: Power Tools eliminates the tedium of cleaning up a spreadsheet. It combines several AbleBits tools such as Merge Values, Remove Duplicates, and Find Fuzzy Matches into an all-in-one add-on. With Power Tools, inserting cells and shifting data, AutoSum-ing rows of numbers, and freezing/unfreezing columns become single-click actions. There are tool sets for converting data formats, cleaning up dupes, working with text, and more.

ECOMMERCE: The company first introduced Prime Now restaurant delivery in Seattle last September. Today it’s live in eight cities across the country, including Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin. While Amazon hasn’t guaranteed that food delivery will be free forever, at the moment it’s yet another perk that could rope customers into a Prime membership. In the end, getting more and more people hooked on Prime is exactly what Amazon wants.

DATA: With brick-and-mortar stores, it can be hard to locate salespeople sometimes and Macy’s has decided to use artificial intelligence developed with IBM Watson to help customers out. The retailer is testing one mobile tool in five locations that will let shoppers ask their phones if a product is in stock or where a particular brand might be located in a specific store. In five other stores, it is testing a Macy’s On Call tool that will summon a nearby sales associate.

DATA: Here’s why NPS is widely accepted as the ultimate metric: It is a simple metric to track – Get your customers to answer the one question “How likely are you to recommend our brand to your friends and family? ” on a 11-point scale ranging from 0 to 10. 0-6 are detractors, the utterly dissatisfied ones that could potentially harm your brand image. 7 & 8 are passives, they neither love nor hate your business. 9 & 10 are promoters, your evangelists, your ultimate goal.