An 8% increase in free shipping highlights a shift in retailers’ strategies to emphasize customer experience to remain competitive. Despite this growth in free shipping, as well as marketing spend increasing 25% compared to the same time last year, new customer acquisition decreased by 11%. In addition, while the amount of inventory not being viewed by shoppers has decreased by 12%, which DynamicAction analysis suggests means retailers understand which items their customers are searching for, overall customer profitability has decreased 4% year-to-date. Read more in this article by Chain Store Age.