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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Retailers Look to Increase Shopping Hauls
Haul videos are popular viewing on YouTube. According to ABC News, roughly 150,000 such videos are currently on the site and some have views running in the millions. Should retailers,…
Lululemon Testing Kids Concept in the U.S.
Lululemon’s unique approach has worked for moms, aunts and big sisters, so why not try younger kids? The Canadian chain is testing a concept called Ivivva Athletica with clothing for…
BrainTrust Query: What It Takes to Innovate
Innovation is an objective that often floats aspirationally to the top of planning processes at the outset, but becomes suppressed, diluted and minimized as the practicalities of business take hold…
IKEA Bags Self-Checkouts
When IKEA opened its massive warehouse store in Tampa back in 2009, it included self-checkouts. That is about to change as the store found self-checkouts were not as “efficient” as…
Groupon Management Left Groping for Answers
A Wall Street Journal piece pointed out that while Groupon Goods — items inventoried by the company and sold directly to consumers from the site — accounted for 12 percent…
Consumers Consuming Conspicuously
Amid all of the talk of the Great Recession and the “new normal” comes an Associated Press piece saying that wealthy American parents are now their dressing toddlers as though…
MarketingCharts: Convenience, Features Drive Selection of Retailer Sites Over Apps
For mobile owners who prefer using a website than an application when shopping on their device, convenience/ease and additional features are the primary reasons for doing so, according to a…
Nordstrom Doubling Down on Rack Concept
Part of the reason for Nordstrom’s push of the Rack concept is that it has found a way to open the discount outlets without cannibalizing its flagship store business. What…
Best Buy Sending ‘Agents’ Into Target Stores
Best Buy sells consumer electronics and so does Target, which would make them competitors, right? Maybe yes and maybe no, depending on whom you ask and when. Target is bringing…
Retail TouchPoints: Starbucks Engages Employees to Reduce Energy Usage With Real-Time Feedback
Starbucks announced an energy-saving pilot project in conjunction with Lucid, a provider of real-time information feedback, to teach, inspire behavior change, and save energy and water resources in buildings. Will…
Mike Rowe – Spokesperson Extraordinaire
Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel’s popular television show Dirty Jobs, is becoming better known as a pitchman in many circles than for his acumen as a cleaner upper. Is…
Walmart Closes Chicago Store, Some Question Urban Future
In July 2011, Walmart opened an Express store to much fanfare in Chicago. Now some seem ready to declare Walmart’s urban venture a failure because it closed the Chicago Express…
EBay Won’t Back Down From Amazon
A grain of salt is required for the next statement. Over the years, from the outside looking in, George Anderson has developed the impression that eBay suffers from Amazon envy…
RSR Research: Supply Chain Transformation – SMB Retailers’ Unexpected Challenge
Retailers’ #1 operational challenge: re-aligning supply chains to serve consumers’ omni-channel shopping behaviors. Retailers with top lines below $500M have an internal issue: organizational friction between the merchants and supply…
Amazon Locks Up Customers with In-Store Pickups
When retail industry watchers point to where brick & click retailers may have an advantage over Amazon.com, they talk about ordering products online and picking up in stores. Amazon has…
Apple and Google Don’t Like Each Other
Okay, so it’s not exactly a revelation that there’s bad blood between Apple and Google. A case in point is the decision to no longer include an app for Google’s…
Penney Taking Bigger Cut of B-T-S with Free ‘Do’ Offer
We never would have “re-imagined” in a hundred years that the offer of a free haircut for kids would actually get consumers to shop in a store they’ve rarely or…
What is the New Normal?
Depictions of the “New Normal” that came out of the Great Recession often paint an apocalyptic view of retail, with hordes of coupon-clippers and other obsessed deal hunters terrorizing store…
Building a Brand One Community Panel at a Time
At the recent Shopper Insights conference presented by IIR USA, Joy Steinberg of Burt’s Bees and Ellie Hutton of Vision Critical discussed how building a community panel of loyal fans…
Best Buy Founder Wants His Company Back
Richard Schulze, the founder and former chairman of Best Buy, left the company on bad terms. On his way out, he vowed he’d be back and now has made…
Study: Funny Ads Often Missing Messages
While funny ads may grab attention, they don’t always lead to the ultimate goal for brands of increasing sales and improving brand image as well as brand differentiation.That’s at least…
