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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Limited Editions Tantalize Consumers
Many of us love anything special and can be tempted to try something new if we believe that it is, in some way, exceptional. What are the pros and cons…
Express Goes All-In on Facebook
Express announced earlier this week that it was putting its entire product catalog on Facebook so that its nearly 840,000 friends could go shopping without ever having to leave the…
Big Brother is Tracking You
While much of the media and blogosphere were reacting to last week’s revelations that iPhones and iPads were tracking users’ movements, business observers were taking a possibly more sinister view…
Amazon Hopes New Flash Sale Site is Habit Forming
Amazon is on trend. Well, at least it hopes it is with a new flash sales site designed to outdo competitors, including Gilt, Hautelook, Beyond the Rack, ideeli, RueLaLa, etc…
Luxury Brands Push Store-Within-A-Store Model
According to a Wall Street Journal article, the store-within-a-store model has caught on with luxury icons that are looking to maintain control over brand presentation, prices and sales. The brands…
Compete Blog: It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know Where Your Shoppers Are?
One of the many reasons people love online shopping is the freedom to place orders anytime, anywhere. We’ve all bought a pair of shoes at 3 a.m. once, right? What…
Retail Clinics Growing in Popularity
Retail clinics, particularly those in drugstores, are catching on with American consumers. That’s the conclusion of Kalorama Information, a research firm specializing in the healthcare market. Will drugstores continue to…
Holographic Models Walk Forever 21’s Runway
Forever 21 was looking to create something real with its “fashion for the people” runway show, so it decided to go with holographic models. What do you think about the…
BrainTrust Query: SoLoMo Strategies in Retail
EBay has acquired Where, an advertising company that serves ads to mobile phones based on the user’s location. Amazon also seems be buying up SoLoMo (Social/Local/Mobile) companies, and Walmart’s acquisition…
Victoria’s Dirty Return Secret
Victoria’s Secret got some unwanted press last week when the Today Show ran a story about their store policy of destroying many items that customers return. What do you think…
The Starbucks of Meat
Seattle-based Bill the Butcher heralds its new retail concept as “the return of the neighborhood butcher shop.” But it’s bringing it back with a twist: the focus is on organic…
BrainTrust Query: Lemonade Day Sunday – Battling the ‘Gimme Attitude’
When hundreds of thousands of kids in over thirty cities participate in Lemonade Day this Sunday, they will embark on one of the oldest methods entrepreneurs were exposed to early…
Who Controls America’s Purse Strings?
A study released earlier this year by Yahoo found that fifty-one percent of men involved in the research claimed to be the primary shopper for their household’s grocery needs. Is…
Walmart Adding Gun Sales at More Stores
Under CEO Mike Duke, Walmart is looking to revive its business by going back to “heritage” categories that helped it achieve success in the chain’s formative years. Among the products…
RSR Research: The Most Complicated Supply Chain Idea in the World
A.T. Kearney has done a lot of work around the apparel supply chain, and one thing they discovered was that when a third party gets involved, efficiencies are created that…
Few Direct Paths to E-Tail Purchases
Consumers might just type in the URL of a favorite e-commerce site to do some shopping online, but the vast majority make their way to purchase from some other destination…
Bill Would Limit Personal Data Retailers Collect
In a recent decision, the California Supreme Court made it illegal for retailers to collect customers’ zip information when they paid with credit cards. While collecting zips might be good…
BrainTrust Query: Is ‘Selling’ a Dirty Word in Retail?
In retailing today, “selling” is a dirty word. “What?!” you may be asking, “How can that be? Isn’t retailing all about selling?” Not really. Do you agree that customers today…
CPGmatters: P&G, Walmart Reach Out to Family Shoppers with Integrated Co-Marketing Campaign
Procter & Gamble and Walmart last year began co-developing original family-friendly programming with “Family Movie Nights.” The two companies plan to air five more P&G-produced original movies for TV broadcast…
Retail Therapy Genuinely Therapeutic – For Taiwanese Seniors
As Sheena Hastings of the Yorkshire Post put it, “shopping may be good for your health and even prolong life.” What do you think of the notion of shopping helping…
BrainTrust Query: My Pre-pandemic Pathology of ‘Formatitis’
Although “small” and “urban” are the location-based terms most often used to describe the numerous emerging formats U.S. retailers are developing, they fail to fully explain the pathology of the…
