Promotional Strategy

The all-important holiday season is always a time of intense focus for retailers, but this year it should command more strategic attention than ever. With the added chaos created by the pandemic, all kinds of unprecedented uncertainties loom over the 2020 holidays. Now is the time for retailers to take a fresh and strategic look…

As the calendar turns toward September, shorts, shirts and swimsuits must make way for sweaters and slacks in retail stockrooms. But with consumers everywhere staying home, some retailers’ inventories may be bursting at the seams with backlogged products. Whether they’ve slowed their buying to keep balance sheets in check or are simply reaching the end…

Typically, the arrival of the back-to-school season is a time for retailers to rejoice and shoppers to revel in the comfort of a familiar ritual. This year, of course, that’s all gone out the window. We’re in uncharted territory, and tentative consumer behavior is driving a high degree of anxiety among retailers. Uncertainty around both…

Gift cards, both physical and digital, have often been viewed (mistakenly) by retailers as strictly a transactional product — in most cases to be rolled out during the Q4 holiday shopping season. However, gift cards hold a lot more value to a retail organization than simply as a product that's purchased in-store or on an…

Retail sales during the second half of 2020 — including the pivotal back-to-school and holiday shopping periods — will be exponentially more important than ever before. Not only will retailers be forced to try to recoup as much of the losses from closures caused by COVID-19 as they possibly can, but they also will be…

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has caused many retailers to close their physical stores, causing a sudden increase of excess inventory. Nike, for example, saw an inventory spike of 7 percent in its fiscal quarter ending Feb. 29. As a result of the current crisis, retailers are turning to different measures to keep their businesses afloat.…

Whether you’re a brand or a retailer, the internet is a crowded place to sell things. You're constantly fighting for coveted shopper attention in your emails, ads and paid Instagram posts. Once you have a visitor’s attention, it’s about nailing that conversion to a paid customer. Free shipping could be just the thing to bring…

The holidays are just around the corner. Is your company ready? A recent Periscope By McKinsey study of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers examined shopping attitudes and behaviors for this coming holiday season. Findings not only revealed consumers’ plans, but also emerging trends with big implications for retailers. Consumers Are Seeking Inspiration With almost half…

What is the greatest coffee secret at Starbucks you never knew? Simple answer: a cup of coffee from its Clover machine. I will get to the sales and marketing point of this blog post in a moment. But first let’s talk about a subject most of us love: coffee! If you've never had a "Clover," you're…

Now that summer is coming to a close, retailers’ thoughts are turning to planning and strategies for the all-important holiday season. The season spans Black Friday to Cyber Monday and through the varied landscape of early shoppers who plan ahead to last-minute shoppers who crowd stores and websites in the last days before Christmas. Retailers…