Author
Shelley E. Kohan

Retail expert Shelley is a TRR writer, Associate Professor FIT, podcast host RetailUnwrapped, and senior contributor at Forbes.com. She is a Top 100 Global Retail Influencer, professor, podcaster, retail pundit, and speaker. Having grown up in Japan, Iran, Germany, and the U.S. Shelley has a unique perspective on people and places. Led by curiosity and a genuine interest in learning, she sees herself as a retail warrior with an insatiable passion for the industry. She literally eats, drinks, and sleeps retail.
The Direct-to-Consumer Model Is no Retail Panacea
Shelley E. Kohan
June 15, 2021
The academician in me needs to clear up some persisting confusion about direct to consumer (DTC) — even for those working in retail. DTC was ...
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The Point of No Return
Shelley E. Kohan
February 24, 2021
The cost of returns is estimated at $550 billion for 2020 and the number of online returns has more than doubled. In 2020, the pandemic ...
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The New Chief Marketing Officer
Shelley E. Kohan
December 30, 2020
The average age of a CMO is 52 for the consumer industry segment — and the CMO position has the shortest tenure of all C-suite ...
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Grey Is the New Black
Shelley E. Kohan
November 26, 2020
An increasing number of major brick-and-mortar retailers-led by Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and The Home Depot-will not open their doors on Thanksgiving, giving employees the ...
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Coronavirus Shakes Up and Reshapes the Retail Ecosystem
Shelley E. Kohan
November 1, 2020
The pandemic that took the U.S. retail market by storm in March changed how consumers shop and will have long-term effects on the retail industry. ...
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If You Can’t Join Them, Buy Them!
Shelley E. Kohan
September 1, 2020
Walmart\’s bid (with Microsoft) to buy TikTok, the video-sharing social networking service, is a way for the juggernaut to continue to compete with Amazon. A ...
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Don’t Be Fooled by Virtual Sizing Apps
Shelley E. Kohan
August 18, 2020
Sizing and fit are top concerns for consumers shopping apparel. According to Shapeometry, in 2019 the apparel returns related to fit hit $60 billion, half ...
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Pandemic Planning Is No Panacea
Shelley E. Kohan
June 14, 2020
Business continuity planning alone is not enough to survive a global pandemic. There is no amount of planning that could have prepared retailers for what ...
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