Today on Total Retail

Season’s greetings from the busiest time of year — at least for brands and retailers. While gift shopping may be in the early stages for most of us, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) preparations are well underway for merchants. And the stakes get higher with each passing year. As the CEO and founder of…

Bed Bath & Beyond brick-and-mortar stores are set to return in a new, smaller format. The plan is part of a partnership between Beyond, which is the owner of Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, Zulily and other online retail brands, and Kirkland’s, which is a specialty retailer focused on home decor, the companies said in a Monday press release. The partnership…

In episode 467 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Frank Crowson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, and Jim Nelson, fractional executive creative director at Northern Tool + Equipment, a family-owned, leading supplier of high-quality tools and equipment. Listen in as Crowson and Nelson provide an overview of the company and its 40-plus…

Last holiday season, I found myself in a familiar situation: scrambling to find a last-minute gift. I had my eye on a pair of boots for a family member, but it was the day before our gift exchange. Because I live far from a major city, large e-commerce retailers don’t have the proximity for next-day…

It’s not unreasonable to say most of us in leadership probably got there because we were really good as individual contributors and someone saw potential in us to lead others. Alternately, and statistically more likely, we were thrown into leadership in the hope we could duplicate ourselves or at the very least keep things moving…

According to Statista, Halloween consumer spending this year in the U.S. is estimated to reach $3.5 billion, a significant jump from previous years. With spending steadily increasing, brands must take action to provide efficient service and high-quality customer experiences even during peak seasonal times. Delivering high-quality customer experiences during the build-up to Halloween is critical for…

Over the last 12 months, businesses have witnessed a significant jump in refund fraud. This growing menace operates on a more subtle and insidious level, unlike conventional fraud types, which require stolen credit card details or sophisticated hacking tools. Fraudsters exploit the trust-based nature of customer service policies, manipulating return and refund processes without needing…

The National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts holiday spending to grow between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent this holiday season, potentially easing concerns over any economic downturns expected. The retail industry trade association said we should expect people to spend between $979.5 billion and $989 billion in November and December, compared to $955.6 billion in 2023.…

In this episode of Total Retail Tech Insights, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Mitesh Lakhani, senior director of solutions consulting at Adverity, the integrated data platform for the modern marketer. Listen in as Lakhani details his career background and Adverity's offerings (1:00), the evolution of marketing data management in retail (2:50), and the biggest data management…

The Retail Worker Safety Act (S. 8358B) applies to each retail employer in New York with at least 10 employees working at a retail store. Retail employers are defined as those “sell[ing] consumer commodities at retail and … not primarily engaged in the sale of food for consumption on the premises.” The Act's Requirements The…