It took me aback to find my trusty Rolodex on display in a museum on my recent trip to NY. Happily it was in an exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt highlighting good design, not obsolete technology. But still, it made me realize that it might be time for a new approach to the challenge of… Read More

I had time to watch Shark Tank and in my hotel room during the recent trade shows (including an extra night stuck in Detroit on the way home).  I had never seen this ABC reality show, despite the fact that it’s been running since 2009. I must admit I didn’t love it enough to watch… Read More

What is it worth to you to bring your very best customers into your store? Do the math: common knowledge says that it costs five times as much to obtain a new customer as to keep an old one, and that 80% of your sales come from the top 20% of your customers. That means… Read More

Across the country, people are pooling their resources in what has been termed the “sharing economy”.  Need a place to stay? Rent someone’s bedroom through AirBnb.  Want a ride? Call Uber and someone will pick you up in their own car.  The sharing (or share) economy has been defined in many ways, but the one… Read More

Anne Taintor is a company known for its witty, and often sarcastic, products featuring vintage images with clever sayings. We’ve carried Anne Taintor’s magnets and notepads in our shop for many years, and know that there is a loyal following for their products. We recently got a letter from Anne Taintor, Inc. stating that they… Read More

In Praise of Chocolate    When the line of customers got a bit long this holiday season, I grabbed a handful of gold chocolate coins and gave one to each shopper with a sincere apology for the wait.  No matter how harried they were, all the customers smiled at this unexpected treat.  And I like to… Read More

Retailers react differently than others to movies like You’ve Got Mail (you did cry during the scene when Meg Ryan’s shop closed, didn’t you?) and plays like A Christmas Carol.  Every year I am moved by the contrast between Scrooge and his early employer, Fezziwig — and reminded about the importance of being  a good… Read More

The new year doesn’t bring good news for those of us who have gotten used to promoting our shops to existing customers for free through Facebook.  We’ve already seen a decline in the number of organic views each post gets, and in fact our store’s 2,500+ “likes” sometimes translates into as few as 22 people… Read More

Is it time to UP your UVP? Those of us who don’t spent most of our time in the world of marketing might not recognize that UVP stands for Unique Value Proposition — in other words, what your business offers that is unique and is of value to your target customers.  Olga Mizrahi is a… Read More

When you see a customer looking intently studying their smartphone while in your store, you may assume that the shopper is “showrooming” — taking advantage of your shop to look at merchandise before ordering it online. But according to the consulting firm Deloitte and Accenture, recent research shows that nearly 70 percent of shoppers “webroom"… Read More