Retail Stores

Boston Struggles to Get Back to Business
April 18, 2013

A still-shocked Tarek Hassan described the scene in front of his two Tannery stores on Boylston Street Tuesday afternoon, one day after the deadly bomb attacks near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Hassan, who ran the race with Tannery store manager Andrew Hampshire, said he was still reeling from the incident. (He was about a half a mile away from finishing the 26.2-mile race when he heard the explosion.) "This seems like the next big thing after Sept. 11," Hassan said. "It gives us a flashback to what happened [then]."

The Monthly Retail Social Spotlight: Silpada Designs, Boot Barn, 1-800-PetMeds
April 17, 2013

The Facebook pages for Silpada Designs (174K likes), Boot Barn (590K likes) and 1-800-PetMeds (110K likes) are full of color, variety, warmth and humor. All three brands have a lot of fun with their fans on the social platform, and while not all of their posts succeed, they're earning — and sustaining — engagement.

Why Amazon Could Start Taking Business Cues From the 80s
April 16, 2013

When I was a kid, assembling my Christmas list meant snipping photos from the back of the Service Merchandise catalog. I relished the arrival of that thick, glossy tome each fall, not least because its pages meant my first look at that season’s new line

March Retail Sales Figures Tepid Due to Cold Weather, Economy Worries
April 12, 2013

So much for new spring shorts and T-shirts. As cold weather lingered across most of the country, Americans shopped modestly in March. U.S. retailers reported a key revenue figure rose slightly during the month, as shoppers held back on spending because of the cold weather across the nation, particularly the Midwest and East Coast, and continued fears about the economy. Economists monitor consumer spending because it accounts for more than 70 percent of economic activity

Image Search Tips for E-Tailers
April 11, 2013

Traffic from image search isn't paid traffic, but it isn't free either. Those seeking to have their images rise to the top of image SERPs will need to invest time and effort in the images themselves and in the text describing them that help the search engines put them into their proper context and category. Here are a few things you can do to improve the search performance of your images:

Retail's New Industrial Revolution
April 11, 2013

Earlier this year while at the National Retail Federation's conference in New York, I listened to Wal-Mart's U.S. President Bill Simon talk at length about how retail was still a great career for young people to embark on. He reflected on his own career path, and that he put himself through college on the $2 he earned an hour as a young man, implying that today's young retail worker should be able to do the same.

How to Become an Omnichannel Retailer
April 10, 2013

For omnichannel retailing to be most effective, retailers must be willing to connect to consumers in new ways. Reinventing the customer experience means more than just protecting sales; it's about creating a deeper connection and providing true customer value.

Macy's Shows J.C. Penney How to Rebuild After Johnson
April 10, 2013

At the heart of Ron Johnson’s plan to turn J.C. Penney into a mini mall of boutiques was the notion that the department store model needed reinvention. Yet while J.C. Penney faced challenges on Johnson’s arrival — not least that its middle-income customers had been hit hard by the economic downturn — other department stores have been thriving without a radical course correction. Exhibit A: Macy's, which has turned in 12 consecutive quarters of sales growth and managed to remain relevant in an age when many brick-and-mortar retailers have lost ground to the web.

Retail Jobs Collapsed in March
April 5, 2013

The March jobs report is out and it's ugly. By far the ugliest component of the report was retail trade jobs, which plunged by 24,000. "The industry had added an average of 32,000 jobs per month over the prior six months," wrote the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its report. "In March, job declines occurred in clothing and clothing accessories stores (-15,000), building material and garden supply stores (-10,000), and electronics and appliance stores (-6,000)."

Wal-Mart Strains to Keep Aisles Stocked Fresh
April 4, 2013

Michelle Obama visited a Wal-Mart in February to extol the fresh, healthy food in the company's grocery aisles. But Wal-Mart, Ms. Obama's corporate partner in a campaign to make food healthier and more affordable, has been running into problems with food that's not so fresh. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly, according to some employees and industry analysts.