Main and Me and You “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
White on White 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
Belly Up to the Counter There is a new player in the customer loyalty game, and games are in fact part of the appeal to consumers. The program is called the Belly Card, and the company’s goal is to reinvent customer loyalty rewards through gamification and digital check-ins. Belly is based on an in-store iPad, supplied by the company, that… Read More
Sister Day 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
Taking a Page from a Lookbook 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 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
Should We Be Flattered? If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I suppose as independent retailers we should be pleased that Target is rolling out a new concept called The Shops at Target on May 5. They even took out six pages of advertising in O: The Oprah Magazine to promote this innovative idea. (Would anyone like to… Read More
Being the Boss “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” This quote, attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, gets to the heart of what can make a boss either well respected or disliked. Are you a leader who inspires your staff to do well, or a boss whose very presence… Read More
A Unique Selling Proposition If your customers need ESP to determine the USP in your ads or signs (as in this fun example from New Zealand), then you are not doing a good job of conveying your message. Keeping things simple makes it easy for consumers to understand what you sell — and why they should but it from… Read More
Made You Look! If your first inclination when merchandise isn’t selling is to mark it down, you may not be doing your bottom line any favors. Try changing the location of the items in your display first to see if that will help spur some interest. After all, the term visual merchandising is based on the premiss that… Read More