Content about Opinion

May 17, 2013
Stores must level up to match omnichannel hype

Online and mobile marketing have turned the retail supply chain upside-down. Gone are the days of moving volumes of product in efficient, bulk moves to stores across the world. Today, smaller shipments rule the supply chain, delivering — literally — on brand promises to ensure receipt of single, customized packages under same-day or next-day delivery.

May 1, 2013
Evolving expectations keep retailers innovating

In the 18 months since I joined the National Retail Federation, I’ve been struck repeatedly by how rapidly our industry continues to evolve. As we all know, retail has always changed and adapted . . .

April 17, 2013
The Showrooming Effect: Leveraging the In-Store Experience

It seems everywhere you turn there is yet another headline questioning whether traditional retail stands on the brink of extinction due to the rise of showrooming. And it’s not hard to see how the practice of visiting a brick-and-mortar store to try out a product before ultimately purchasing it through an online merchant got its start. As humans, we have an innate need to see, hear, smell, feel and manipulate objects in our physical world.

April 2, 2013
Seven habits of highly sustainable companies

Sustainability is often confused with “going green,” but while environmental improvement is part of the picture, sustainability is bigger than that.

March 21, 2013
"Made in America?" Not Any Time Soon

Allow me to be the group historian for a minute. Does anyone remember, in 1984, the "Crafted with Pride in the U.S.A." advertising campaign, spearheaded by the late Roger Milliken, and funded by a consortium of fiber, chemical and textile companies? This was supposed to have instilled enough patriotism in the consumer to buy goods made in America at a furious enough rate to keep manufacturing here on our soil.

March 18, 2013
The ultimate age of retail

Retail innovation cycles last approximately 20 years. As we take a look at retail history, this cycle becomes self-evident. From the general store to department stores to discount stores and so forth, each variety has their day in the sun as the leading channel for most purchases. Today, we’re lucky enough to be living within two powerful cycles simultaneously. But the fun will soon come to an end.

February 28, 2013
Glass half full

Sixty percent of retailers with at least two years of negative comps turn them positive.

February 11, 2013
Mobile commerce takes flight in 2013

With nearly two out of three* consumers using mobile devices to research products and make purchases, the adaptation to this ever changing consumer shopping behavior is more crucial than ever.

February 5, 2013
2013: the year retail rebounds?

Absent a major upheaval caused by the inability of our politicians in Washington to reach reasonable compromises on debt reduction and the debt ceiling, 2013 could finally be the year when the economy starts to pick up a more significant amount of momentum.

January 29, 2013
Digitizing the retail space

Developments in portable technologies of all kinds have created an increasingly connected world. Aside from the obvious ubiquity of mobile phones (there are nearly six billion of them in use today), everyday objects from pedometers to thermostats are being infused with digital technologies, and networked to one another.

January 25, 2013
What’s wrong with this picture?

Walmart continues to take heat for selling guns, and families in Newtown, Conn., are still grieving. Who wants to go see Warner Brothers’ new film “Bullet to the Head” starring Sylvester Stallone?

January 24, 2013
Crossmark creates new brand experience group

BrandMasters is the name of a new experiential marketing agency created by Crossmark, one of the companies that executes in store activities at Walmart under the Shopper Events banner.

January 18, 2013
What I learned at NRF

Mobile, social, solution, cloud, big data, SaaS, optimize and engage. It was impossible to have a conversation at the National Retail Federation convention in New York without hearing these words a lot.

January 17, 2013
2013 Holiday planning starts now

The 2012 holiday shopping season featured stores opening earlier on Thanksgiving, extended hours shopping marathons, and, according to the National Retail Federation, an additional 585,000 to 625,000 seasonal retail workers.

January 7, 2013
Goodbye response generation, hello dialogue creation

By Mike Wehrs

December 3, 2012
Why Consumer Reports Is Wrong About Extended Warranties

By Joe Erdeman

November 14, 2012
Loyalty Programs: One of the Hottest Trends for Retailers in 2013

By Victor Ho, CEO, FiveStars

November 2, 2012
The case for unconventional collaboration

This holiday season promises to be the most digital of all time with forecasts calling for e-commerce growth to handily outpace overall industry sales.

October 18, 2012
Flash sales feeding full price demand

A funny thing happened on the way to the department store: luxury goods became accessible to consumers online and at increasingly deeply discounted prices.

October 15, 2012
Improving customer experience through premium technology support

In today’s connected world, complex technologies are creating richer consumer experiences, but are also creating greater expectations. With the explosion of connected and mobile devices in recent years, consumers now have better control of their interactions with the companies whom they choose to do business with than ever before.

September 14, 2012
Filling the competitive in-home knowledge void: retailer advertising and promotion

With shoppers making fewer trips and impulse purchases, the need to influence them earlier and more frequently in the purchase decision-making cycle is critical for sales success. To accomplish this, consumer packaged goods (CPG) retailers and manufacturers are increasingly using cooperative advertising and promotion programs that target shoppers at home when they are most likely to be planning shopping trips and creating lists. As retailers, understanding what your competition is planning for in-home is just as essential to staying competitive as what’s happening in-store.

August 24, 2012
Delivering a ‘Zero Disappointment Experience’ in the age of innovation

Many retailers have been slow to embrace technology in their broader operations, technology that has already changed the retail landscape forever – namely by empowering shoppers who are now more tech savvy than the retailers who are trying to catch up.

August 14, 2012
Where’s your merchandise?

As a leading retailer, you know what your customer wants, and you’ve done the hard work of building the right assortment, sourcing from the right factories, and making it available in time for the season. Now you need to make sure that your customers can have what they want when they want it.

July 19, 2012
Making sense of “mandate” madness

For months, the debate over healthcare has almost exclusively focused on the individual-mandate, as we waited on the Supreme Court to determine the fate of the law. As a result many complex and crucial pieces of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), such as the employer-mandate, have received comparatively little attention. Given the enormous implications of changes to employer-sponsored coverage and the 170 million Americans who currently rely on it for coverage, it is time that more attention is paid to the issue.

June 21, 2012
What social media can tell you about grocery shoppers

You can learn a lot by monitoring consumer conversations in social media. It can predict political elections, the Oscars and even the next reality show winner. If you are a CPG marketer, social media can also be a real-time predictor of your new product’s success.

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