Retail Plan of Action

Retailing is a challenging business, and sometimes you may wish for less demanding customers, more motivated employees, and more cash in the bank. Granting these wishes means work, and as a small business owner you need to be a natural optimist in the world of big box retail, but also a realist. If you don’t [...]

Offline and Online Service

As brick and mortar retailers join the online community in an effort to reach more customers, many are at a loss for the appropriate marketing and customer service strategies for their virtual store. Used to face-to-face interaction in which a smile and a greeting could make a sale, traditional brick and mortar retailers are now [...]

Amazon and Web Taxes

As most of the retail industry is aware, online retailers such as Amazon have been flying under the radar in regards to the collection of state sales tax, relying on the upstanding honesty of online shoppers to declare taxable purchases. For nearly a decade, local brick and mortar stores have been fighting to level the [...]

Markups & Mardowns

Is Your Initial Markup Enough? One question I am repeatedly asked by retailers is how to increase maintained margin. Several answers readily come to mind, the most obvious being to avoid overbuying, and therefore reduce the margin eroding markdowns that accompany such a practice. Another way of increasing maintained markup is to find ways to [...]

Adding Digital to Gifting

Gift cards continue to be a popular item for consumers. In 2009, Javelin Strategy & Research reported that 61 percent of U.S. consumers used gift or prepaid cards for purchases, and that number is only expected to grow. As more families connect via digital means such as email and social networks, the traditional plastic card, [...]

fCommerce & Facebook

Businesses and independent retailers have a legitimate place on Facebook. With an unimaginable 600 million members and a more routinely visited website than Google, Facebook promises more than friend requests and fan bases, but also acts as a marketing tool to access the millions of shoppers that login on a daily basis. Yet after two [...]

Paperless Receipts

The national movement to go Green has independent retailers investing in eco-friendly bags, displays, and now, paperless receipts. According to the Boston Herald, “Major retailers such as Apple, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom already give customers the option to go digital. For instance, Whole Foods is piloting a paperless option in the mid-Atlantic region that [...]

Royalty or Reality, Celebrities Sell Well on Independent Retailer Shelves

Independent retailers sell celebrities, whether they be royalty or reality.

Retail Shoppers’ Spending Rose in March, Despite Predictions

Higher gas prices and cooler temperatures failed to dissuade shoppers from hitting the stores last month, much to retailers’ delight.

Local Coupon Giant Valpak Adds Mobile App for Shoppers

Realizing consumers are embracing technology in a big way, coupon company goes after their mobile devices.

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