The question most frequently asked of people who consult to retail and consumer products manufacturers is: “What can we do in an age of Amazon to get people to shop our (customer’s) stores?” It’s like an image from War & […]
What’s a Specialty, Hard-to-Ship Product to Do in an Amazon World? Read More »
Across industries, backbone systems are showing heavy signs of wear and tear. TOBE fears that the remedy may be more rebuild than renovate. Easier said than done we know, but it bears a frank discussion. The bright side: there are
TOBE Says We’re On Shaky Ground Read More »
In a world of “fake news,” “alt facts,” “crooked media” and terrible Tweets, consumers are asking the biggest question since “who shot JR?”— namely, who do you trust? It’s certainly not the political and ideological spinmeisters floating around Washington’s bureaucratic
The Credibility Crisis Read More »
It’s happening. And even though the chatter about traditional retailing’s disruption has been going on for several years, it’s like all of a sudden, OMG, it’s upon us. Is it the great department store meltdown, as Macy’s, Kohl’s, Sears and
The Great Department Store Meltdown? Or a Bumpy Transformation? Read More »
Our first Retail@250 article explored one of the most significant strategic and structural shifts in retailing, one that will continue past America’s 250th birthday in 2026. That shift is the convergence of technology with consumer power, each fueling the other’s
Retail@250, Deeper Into the Future Read More »
The 2015 holiday season was all over the map, but at the end of the day, they spent well, to the tune of a 7.9 percent gain over last year, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse. That number exceeded pre-holiday predictions of
Learning from the Hiccups of Holiday 2015 Read More »
A couple of years ago, the head of Nabisco called me because of a problem his channel partners had plopped down on his doorstep. Seems they had videos of women starting down the cookie aisles of their stores—and then backing
The Decline & Fall of Retail As We Know It Read More »
“That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another.” Adlai Stevenson I\’ve never been one to use traditional demographics in my product or marketing. I acknowledge it, but don’t rely on
The Rise of the Perennial Millennial Read More »
I think athleisure is rolling over for fall and its growth rate will dramatically slow, and then stall out. Let’s take a look at current market darling Lululemon. Admittedly, Lulu has great technical product for yoga. And, it makes pretty good
The Demise of Athleisure Read More »
The Boston Consulting Group, which I think is pretty good, is not on my wavelength when it comes to online sales. Here’s an excerpt from comments in the study they recently conducted regarding consumers\’ intentions about future online purchasing: \”A vast majority of U.S.
