Apology to BOA

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

...and to you.

2011 -- The Year of Retail Redesign

by Mike Wittenstein — Customer Experience and Service Designer, Storyminers

2011 will be the year of retail redesign. There are three reasons why this is true. The winners will be the stores that focus on value creation and do so by…

Five things customers hate about holiday retail

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Repetitive music, crowded aisles are on the list of things that can send shoppers screaming from your store.

NRF announces 2011 award recipients

December 20, 2010

The National Retail Federation has announced that executives from Nordstrom, The Container Store, Urban Outfitters and Sir Philip Green of Arcadia Group, which…

Post Holiday Success: Maximizing the Season of Me

by Doug Fleener — President and Managing Partner, Dynamic Experiences Group, LLC

Starting December 26th retailers move into what I call the Season of Me. Customers will descend on your store for the next two weeks armed with gift cards…

Unexpected Consequences

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

I must admit I never saw this one coming.

Service with a Capital You

by Lisa Biank Fasig — Director, JZMcBride and Associates

It always bugged me that almost every specialty store displays its small-sized clothes on the top rack, where small people cannot easily reach them, while the…

Independent We Stand emphasizes benefits of shopping local for the holidays

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

A new movement called Independent We Stand is taking to the net this holiday season with a message about why consumers should spend more of their gifting…

Visa Mobile app brings location-based services to iPhone

December 14, 2010

Visa Inc. today announced it is making shopping easier and more convenient for budget-conscious consumers by offering the Visa Mobile application for the…

Survey: Most shoppers have half of their holiday shopping left to do

December 14, 2010

Hard to pass up holiday sales helped motivate holiday shoppers a little earlier this year, though most agree they still have quite a dent to make in their…

Four ways retailers can reach out for last-minute holiday sales

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Location-based marketing, personal touch among the ways stores can squeeze every sale out of the season.

Customers Only Care About Price

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

 Conventional wisdom or...

Survey: Holiday shoppers divided over bargains

December 8, 2010

The third wave of StrategyOne's Annual Holiday Shopping Index — examining the "Bricks vs. Clicks" divide — finds that 74 percent of Americans feel that the…

Reflecting on Virtual Success

by Lisa Biank Fasig — Director, JZMcBride and Associates

Macy’s has installed an interesting feature at its flagship store in Manhattan – a 72-inch digital “mirror” that enables customers to virtually try on all…

Survey: Smart phones are changing behavior for bargain-hunters

Couponing could become a more important part of the retail experience as smart phones proliferate.

Study: 60 percent of consumers follow a brand via social media, mostly for coupons or promotions

December 6, 2010

Empathica Inc., a provider of customer experience management (CEM) solutions, has announced the results of its latest Empathica Consumer Insights research.

The Best Price

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

Do you have the best price?Are you sure?I recently saw an ad that said "We offer the best...at the best price." What does that mean?  What is the best price?

A View into Your Holiday Morning

by Lisa Biank Fasig — Director, JZMcBride and Associates

Regardless of the Black Friday hype, the holiday shopping season still has a long way to go. After all, the Saturday before Christmas is often the busiest…

Lessons learned from Macy's: Going local can have big payoffs

A local strategy can drive sales, allow flexibility with promotional campaigns.

Deploying social media to cultivate customer loyalty

Average spending on social media to achieve loyalty increased by 193 percent over the past year.