We’ve all seen the annoying pop-up ads that appear seconds after you visit a new website.  They promise a chance to win $100, or to receive a special discount, when you sign up for the business’s email newsletter. Often they lead with headlines such as “Let’s keep in touch” and “Be the first to know… Read More

The National Retail Federation (NRF) notes that Americans spent more than $27 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2020. Remember that Valentine’s Day, just a few weeks pre-pandemic?  Hopefully we’re on our way towards a return to the Before Times, and can promote Valentine’s Day the way we would have before COVID hit. As far back… Read More

The container crisis that led to problems in receiving timely deliveries of merchandise in 2021 is unfortunately not a thing of the past. In fact, most retail pundits are predicting that supply chain issues will be one of the top challenges facing us as we head into 2022. The same shortage of employees that is… Read More

It’s been just over a month since the first case of the Omicron variant was detected in the US, and recent reports show that we’ve already set a record with 2 million new coronavirus cases – many of them caused by this variant – in one week.  If you haven’t thought about your response to… Read More

This time of year can be a bit overwhelming for shopkeepers – there’s too much to do, too few hands to share the work, too little (or too much) merchandise on the shelves.  Maybe you have bigger worries, such as meeting payroll and paying your rent. Perhaps your family is wishing that you had more… Read More

We’re finding it a challenge to keep our shelves stocked this holiday season, which is a welcome problem after last year’s pandemic downturn.  But there is one item we have an almost limitless supply of: gift cards.  They are the perfect items to promote for a number of reasons: Gift cards can bring shoppers in… Read More

Predicting what the future holds in store (pardon the pun) for retailers became much trickier when the pandemic blind-sided us in 2020. But a recent Wall Street Journal article has some good news regarding the future of physical shops. Although writer Suzanne Kapner is mostly discussing online chains in E-Commerce Needs Real Store Locations Now… Read More

Even if you don’t carry partridges or pear trees, you might be able to use the concept of the Twelve Days of Christmas to encourage shopping local during the two weeks before the holiday. Because no matter what your store stocks, it’s bound to be more practical than swans a-swimming and lords a-leaping. The actual… Read More

Making your staff feel appreciated is more important than ever this year as the retail industry faces a severe shortage of employees.  The essential elements of creating an appealing workplace remain the same: offering competitive wages and benefits, scheduling the same hours every week, providing meaningful work and arranging for the flexibility needed to accommodate… Read More

When I wrote a blog post about Google over 12 years ago, I had no idea what a dominant role it would come to play in our lives. At that time there were several other major search engines (Yahoo! Sites was #2).  While the number of competing search engines has declined, the amount of information… Read More