Cooperation and collaboration are essential to the success of most small retailers — whether it is through your local buy local movement, Chamber of Commerce or merchant association.  Now there is a new tool available to help business owners connect, thanks to Eric Groves,  a former senior executive of the online marketing company Constant Contact.… Read More


“Fifty percent of retailers and brands will disappear,” according to the future predictions made by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart in their recent book The New Rules of Retail: Competing in the World’s Toughest Marketplace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). And as dire as this may sound to independent retailers,  it turns out that the authors don’t… Read More


Changes to the minimum wage laws will have a major impact on retailers across the country.  And yet I think we would all agree with President Obama’s statement that “no one who works full-time should have to raise their family in poverty. Right now, a full-time minimum wage worker makes $14,500 a year – which… Read More


There is no better way to welcome a new business to your community than by encouraging potential customers to patronize it. And one way to do that is by staging a “cash mob.”  You can’t do it for yourself, I’m afraid — but it’s a great gift to help organize one for another business, or… Read More


Are you thinking of adding jewelry, accessories or clothing to your merchandise mix?  As Gifts and Decorative Accessories editor Caroline Kennedy said in a recent seminar, giftable apparel and accessories are a major trend in our industry.  Women enjoy buying non-size specific clothing and accessories for each other as well as to spruce up their… Read More


There is a movement afoot to level one aspect of the playing field between retailers who are David-size (like us) and the Goliath known as Amazon. We’ve all lost sales to customers who prefer to buy from Amazon because they won’t have to pay local sales tax, which in our case comes to 5.5% —… Read More


Need something to add to your Facebook feed, or an e-mail newsletter to your customers?  New arrivals and special events make good copy, but you should also consider mentioning your good deeds.  Customers like to support businesses that give back to the community, and if you are like most independent retailers, you give generously to… Read More


You may recognize this scenario: you want to carry some garden items in your shop for the summer season, but you can’t rationalize placing a minimum order of $250 to $500 with each supplier you want to buy from.  Here is a solution you may want to consider: a stocking distributor. Stocking distributors are consolidators… Read More


On a recent flight to attend a gift show, I discovered that my seat-mate had paid less than half the amount for her airfare than I had paid for mine.  Welcome to the world of dynamic pricing! Technically dynamic pricing means that the price of an item is determined by a specific customer’s ability to… Read More


Curling Cues    Of all the winter Olympic sports, curling has to be one of the least popular. And yet pictures of the Norwegian curling team are being eagerly shared all over the world on Facebook and other online media.  Why? Because their uniforms are so… Colorful. Controversial. Clashing. And totally unrelated to curling, when it… Read More