Blog
Inflation Roars On!
Two very famous retailers who have built their business on a low-price image have announced across the board price increases. These were cost based decisions, not related to consumer centric demand. Can you say panic? I remember the retail world in the 70’s when...
The Great Shopping Reset
As I have traveled the world working with home centers on five continents. I have found that there is a general tendency to over assort the product range. That is to continue to add more and more different products into the store or onto the website with the...
Culture – The Secret Elixir of Success
The winning culture is magic. It can overcome many obstacles and other shortcomings. It can create a force that is unstoppable. It is the most important ingredient in developing a successful business. What are the elements that define a culture? It is not just a...
What is the Store of Tomorrow?
What is the store of tomorrow? This is the topic in every retailer’s boardroom today. Change is a constant in the retail world, especially in historic moments like the current post-pandemic transition. There is not one store of tomorrow; there are many stores of...
The Downward Productivity of Item/Price Promotions
Prime Day has once again been hailed by Amazon as a winning promotional event. However, hidden in the numbers is the fact that the average purchase in 2021was 18% less than in 2020 and 24% less than is 1999. What is not in the glowing report is how many customers held...
Marketplace Selling Versus Curating Model Stocks
Many retailers with famous brands are turning their brands into umbrellas to offer an ever-increasing assortment of products from a wide range of independent retailers and distributors through their marketplace marketing programs. I suggest that this can prove to be...
Advertising is an Investment, Not an Expense
E-commerce created a retail evolution, but digital marketing has created an advertising revolution. Retail advertising in the past was newspaper and catalog print based. This type of advertising is most suitable for item/price sales. However, today people prefer to...
E-Commerce Penetration of Total Retail Sales – A Closer Look
We see many headlines and articles about the incredible percentage growth of e-commerce and can easily get caught up into a false scenario regarding the long run implicatons. It is a fact that e-commerce is a growing and must be a dynamic part to any retail strategy....
Transitory Inflation – What Does It Mean?
Inflation is on the rise at a far faster rate than the Federal Reserve projected just a few months ago. Now they stick to their guns assuring us that this rapid rise in prices is transitory. What is missing is a definition of the word; transitory. Just like the...
Physical Stores Will Lead the Value Parade
There has been a persistent line of thinking in the general media and trade papers that e-commerce would strike a death knell to the brick-and-mortar stores. The headlines tend to read, “Retail Apocalypse”. Nothing could be further from the truth. But you say,...