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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Are Retailers Neglecting Stores For Digital Channels?
A screenmediamag.com story claims retailers are neglecting stores for their e-commerce websites when allocating marketing dollars. Referring to research from the Platt Institute, the article emphasizes what it calls a…
Who Cares That Guys Influence Grocery Purchases?
Everyone within every household in America has some influence on what gets bought. And if this is true, what is the purpose of research pointing out the influence of one…
Will Beacon Technology Accelerate Shopper Engagement?
Late last month, Apple and PayPal/eBay announced proximity communication products based on the Bluetooth 4.0 specification, bringing both attention and momentum to the technology and setting it up as a…
Walmart to Cross-Dock On a Small Scale
Forget about ship-from-store. Walmart is planning on going store-to-store. To grow sales and share of the American retail market with its smaller store formats, the chain is looking to manage…
How To Handle A Customer Complaint in Six Steps
There are only a handful of customers who enjoy threatening, swearing and throwing a tantrum to get their way. What they want is satisfaction. What advice would you give to…
Should Retailers Try to Primary Tea Party Pols?
In interviews in recent months, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation have made clear they may need to throw support behind candidates who are to the…
Can Every Brand Tell a Story?
Does every brand actually have a story? A recent discussion on Retail Paradox around brand storytelling led to a debate on whether retailer brands known only for low price or…
Older Workers Not Ready to Quit
Government statistics show older workers are not in any hurry to retire. The decision to keep working might be for financial reasons, or a fear of dying, as a recent…
Apple’s New Retail Chief Knows Something About Style
Apple announced late yesterday that it has hired Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, to oversee “the strategic direction, expansion and operation” of its retail and online stores. What challenges will…
How Do You Measure Customer Satisfaction?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that is widely used among retailers to measure their level of customer satisfaction, determine approaches to improve that satisfaction, and measure their…
Macy’s Employees to Work Thanksgiving
Macy’s employees will be working on Thanksgiving. The department store chain, which has kept its stores closed on Thanksgiving Day for its 155 years in business, will break with tradition…
One For All and One-to-One: Sam’s Club Connects Dots to Members
At Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber’s WalStreet speaker series in September, John Boswell, Walmart’s SVP of marketing, insights, and e-commerce, discussed how critical technology and data are to forging connections with members…
Will Magazines Become E-Catalogs?
Last week, MasterCard announced a partnership with Condé Nast that will allow readers of digital magazines to instantly buy items in articles or ads without leaving the page of their…
Are There Better Ways to Drive Unplanned Purchases?
A new university study around drivers of unplanned purchases found ample opportunity for grocers to increase impulsive buys or at least drive higher-margin ones. In your experience, what are some…
Safeway Gives Up On Chicago
Chicago has been a tough go for Safeway ever since it acquired Dominick’s Finer Foods 15 years ago. Now, Safeway has decided it can no longer continue in the market…
Jos. A. Bank Still Likes Men’s Wearhouse Look
First, there were soap opera-like goings on in the Men’s Wearhouse boardroom where the founder and “voice” of the company found himself getting the boot. Recriminations played out in the…
Who Are the 15 Percent Who Don’t Go Online?
Eighty-five percent of American adults were using the internet as of May 2013, representing a new high point for adoption, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center’s…
Five Ways to Seed Innovation
So you’re a retailer and you want to plant the seeds of innovation at your company. Where do you get started? We have five suggestions. What should retailers do to…
Dollar Stores Fight Negative Perceptions
Pretty much everybody loves a deal and the desire to save money has fueled growth in the dollar store channel going back to even before the Great Recession. Should dollar…
Should Kenya Be a Wake-Up Call?
The recent terrorist attack at a mall in Kenya was among the issues that brought Richard Mellor, VP of loss prevention at the NRF, to testify before the House Homeland…
Retailer Could Benefit From Some Inside the Box Thinking
There’s a big reason the vast majority of my online orders are placed with Amazon.com. When one places an order, it arrives on schedule and comes out of the box…
