“Buy American” is a great slogan, and an important means of bringing jobs back to the USA.  But unfortunately there is lingering doubt as to whether customers are willing to pay more money for an American-made product.  The challenge is to source products that are similar in price to imported goods, because it does seem… Read More

Whether you call them a sidewalk sign or an A-frame, you’ll find that people either love them or hate them — and the mayor of Madison, WI has decided that he hates them.  These signs have recently become a ubiquitous part of the landscape in most commercial areas, and there is no arguing that many… Read More

Here’s a new retailing term for you: showrooming.  According to article by Amy Zimmerman in the Wall Street Journal, showrooming is "when shoppers come into a store to see a product in person, only to buy it from a rival online, frequently at a lower price." Amazon helped boost this trend last December when it… Read More

I grew up with the advertising slogan “Four out of Five Dentists Recommend Sugarless Gum to their Patients Who Chew Gum.”  Consumers were theoretically swayed to switch to Trident based on this strong endorsement, without questioning what the fifth dentist was thinking — that sugared gum was a good idea? You too can use statistics… Read More

“Getting local business back in the game” is one of the primary goals of a program call Main and Me, so new that it is still in its beta stage.  (The iPhone app is not yet live, but is expected any day now.) The program encourages shoppers to use photo-sharing to discover new places and… Read More

When you think of doing a color-based display, do you dismiss white as the absence of color? In truth it is, because although clear light is the absence of all colors, in pigment you can’t mix all your paints together to get white.  But using nothing but white in a display can create a powerful… Read More

One of the most innovative shops in Denmark in Søstrene Grene, which translates as “The Branch Sisters”. I’ve written before about how they make use of the mostly fictional personae of Clara and Anna throughout their store to make what is in essence a discount-price shopping experience feel very personal.  Once a year Søstrene Grene… Read More

A lookbook is a collection of photographs used to show off the work of a particular photographer or model — or to profile a certain style or clothing line.  While the term lookbook originally meant an actual book used to show the designer’s “look” for the current season, today it doesn’t have to be a… Read More

Easy EvenIng Events Looking for a new promotion for your store as part of your shopping district or town?  For the price of some wine and cheese, as well as a bit of promotion, you can easily stage an evening event that will hopefully bring shoppers in after hours. This concept is usually applied to… Read More