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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Samsung’s new flagship isn’t a store
Samsung’s new 55,000 square foot, three-story “flagship of the future” in Manhattan does not sell product that shoppers can take home with them. What does Samsung gain from opening a…
Is marketing research breaking down internally?
Despite the promise or more efficient and effective media spending and hyper-relevant communications, marketing departments still fail to receive strong support from the marketing teams and C-suite execs they serve…
UPS is studying same-day delivery
UPS last week led an investment round of $28 million into Deliv, the delivery start-up, in part to learn more about the same-day model. Does it make sense for UPS…
Will Penney’s new campaign make cents to consumers?
Business has been on the upswing at J.C. Penney. And a Dallas Morning News article revealed that Penney was looking to build on its recent momentum with a new tagline…
Canadian Tire adopts Facebook at Work
In mid-February, Canadian Tire became the first Canadian retailer and second largest company in the world to launch Facebook at Work for its employees. Why haven’t enterprise social software tools…
Edward Lampert shouldn’t run Sears anymore
It could be that Edward Lampert, CEO of Sears Holdings, just doesn’t see how badly he has mucked things up since merging Kmart and Sears under one holding company in…
Dynamic pricing ain’t all that
Dynamic pricing seems to be a popular buzzword these days. Nikki Baird’s take: at least half the hype comes from a misplaced definition of what dynamic pricing actually is. The…
Is there any stopping Aldi as it makes SoCal move?
Aldi has grown to be one of the nation’s largest grocery chains, and now is about to become even bigger as it opens stores in the Southern California market for…
Best Buy closes online marketplace
Amazon.com made opening up websites to third-party sellers all the rage, with numerous others jumping on the marketplace bandwagon. One of those, Best Buy, yesterday closed the U.S. marketplace it…
BOPIS means making everything happen at once
BOPIS promises to combine the timesaving convenience of online shopping with the instant gratification of in-store shopping. But problems start when stores can’t make everything happen at once. Which of…
Study: Outlets are not cannibalizing flagship sales
The list of outlet stores being opened by retailers has picked up in recent years, the main concern being whether they will cannibalize a retailer’s full-line format. The answer, according…
Can Amazon dominate apparel with its own private labels?
Amazon’s recent success with its private label Amazon Elements line seems to have gotten the e-tailer thinking about where else it can go. Now Quartz reports that Amazon has rolled…
What Apple’s privacy battle means for retail
Apple’s refusal to help the FBI break into an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in December’s San Bernardino massacre has thrown a spotlight on the battle between privacy…
Will a higher free shipping minimum hurt Amazon.com?
While Amazon has been pushing to increase the ranks of its Prime members (47 percent growth in its U.S. numbers last year), there are still millions who shop on the…
Will dollar-based rewards boost Starbucks’ loyalty program numbers?
Starbucks is making a change to how it doles out rewards for its loyalty program. Instead of issuing a star for every visit, the coffee giant will now reward its…
Walmart associates gain greater control over schedules
Seeking another lever to motivate employees, Walmart is allowing associates greater control over their weekly work schedules. How important is providing more control over scheduling to Walmart associate morale versus…
Visa creates instant cross-marketing loyalty tool
Visa has come up with a new way to reward customers at the point of sale: shoppers are sent targeted offers and rewards on their mobile phones that can be…
AT&T brings virtual reality to stores
Retailers are testing the virtual reality waters, and AT&T is among the first to give the technology a try, rolling out VR in partnership with Samsung Electronics to give shoppers…
Amazon Books is better than Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble
Amazon Books, Amazon’s only physical store that opened in November, fares favorably not only compared to large bookstore chains but to Amazon.com, according to a study by secret shoppers. What…
Can Kmart find success selling liquidated merchandise?
It seems like Kmart has been looking for a new strategy for decades, but now the company believes it may have found a way to get its business moving in…
The Whole Foods of DIY moves into Dallas
TreeHouse has been referred to as the Whole Foods of home improvement and “Home Depot for hipsters.” Now, the Austin, TX-based startup is hoping its emphasis on products for greener…
