You can’t talk about retailing today without the term “omnichannel” being mentioned.  This means offering all the various methods of shopping available to consumers today in one integrated operation.  In reality, however, there are really only two viable options: online and in-store sales.  So you need to decide at some point if you want your… Read More

“It is time to stand up for fair and equal rights for all by letting our leaders know that we demand Marriage Equality!” the popular ice cream chain Ben & Jerry’s announced in Australia last month.  And in order to make their views known, they banned two scoops of the same flavor in their 26 Australian stores… Read More

There is a long-standing tradition of night markets or bazaars in many Asian countries — in fact in A.D. 836 the Tang Dynasty in China felt it was necessary to put strict sanctions on the operations of these markets.  Modern visitors still enjoy strolling through the darkening streets while sampling food from various vendors and… Read More

Move over, BOGO (Buy One, Get One free).  The new retail acronym in town is BOPIS, which stands for Buy Online Pickup In Store.  This is part of the movement towards bricks and clicks retailing in which a physical store also has an online shopping cart. At first glance it is puzzling to understand why a… Read More

You may remember the excitement around the requirement that all US retailers upgrade to EMV credit card readers by October, 2015. Some payment networks said they were going to implement a shift that would increase the amount that those accepting credit cards were liable for in the event that a card was fraudulent if the store… Read More

Despite the use of browsing to refer to the Internet — have you emptied your browser cache lately? — and the negative connotations of “No, I’m just browsing,” I think this is one of the finest activities that a specialty shop can offer. Most people go to an art museum open to the possibility of… Read More

A one-year old Brookline, MA startup designed to help small businesses send customers to each other raised $3 million in seed funding in 2016. And although Nift (www.gonift.com) is still in beta mode and focused on 500 Boston-area brick and mortar, service and local online stores, the hope is that the model will expand nationally. The… Read More

Over 21 billion dollars was spent by Americans on Mother’s Day last year, according to the National Retail Federation, a hefty (and inexplicable) increase over the 15.7 billion spent in 2012.  How will you get your share of this growing market?  While 33% of the spending was in department stores, 23% was in local shops and… Read More

Macy’s has recently announced that it is laying off 10,000 workers, and J C Penney is closing up to 140 stores.  This is not great news for those of us watching the health of retailing in the US, especially since one of the reasons given in a recent article in The Guardian is that “people… Read More