BEST BLOGS      

A retailer’s time is always at a premium, which makes me very grateful that you are finding a few minutes to read this blog.  But even in the 250 or so blog postings that I’ve written since starting six years ago, I can’t possible touch on the entire range of issues facing independent retailers today.  So I’d like to share a few other blog sites with you:

1)The Retail Doctor by Bob Phibbs.  Although his focus is not just on small retail, Phibbs writes lively short posts with ideas that often apply to stores of all sizes.

2)Retail Minded by Nicole Relyea. Relyea is active in presenting conferences and seminars for retailers, and has a strong interest in “indies.”

3)Shopify presents information on their own program (which I plan to write about in the future) as well as other topics of interest on their blog.  You might want to check out their listing of 25 Retail Blogs.

4)Small Business Trends has articles particularly targeted at retailers in   their section called Retail Trends. This online publication is over a decade old and has a wealth of resources.

5)The Quick Sprout blog by Neil Patel is particularly strong on social media and online marketing.

6)Seth Godin “riffs on marketing” in his blog — and nobody knows the topic better.

7)American Express offers various articles and tools for small retailers through its OPEN program and Small Business Saturday site.

8)The New York Times brings a fresh perspective to its You’re the Boss blog, and some of the stories are about retail stores. The illustration with today’s Specialty Shop Retailing blog is from Julie Week’s article in You’re the Boss about Seattle retailer Lee Rhodes.

I’m sure there are countless other blogs out there with great information —

please let me know if you have others you’d recommend.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder