Now that the official kick-off to the mad 2014 holiday shopping season is behind us, we were very curious to know how our industry fared this year. Here are some sales and traffic numbers to consider (compared to 2013): The numbers show that ecommerce did extremely well this past Thanksgiving. The decrease in in-store traffic, […]
It wasn’t so long ago that overnight delivery seemed remarkable. In the past, as a retailer, I’ve also guaranteed overnight delivery on orders placed by 11:00 pm EST. At the time, I thought, “WOW! What an amazing customer experience.” Times have changed and the bar has been raised with same-day delivery becoming the new battleground […]
Reminder to self: Bring an umbrella to all tradeshows and conferences in the future. On the first day of the Shop.org Summit, just like the show in Chicago in June, Mother Nature delivered a steady downpour just as the show let out for the day (rain in Seattle…who knew?). Fortunately, the weather for the rest […]
FitForCommerce’s Recruiting Service developed “organically” as a result of requests by clients to help find “best-fit” talent. FitForCommerce consultants help hundreds of companies define and execute strategies to grow their businesses significantly. And, as any good businessperson knows, you need more than technology to grow your business; you need people. Highly-skilled, highly-motivated, smart, hard-working people […]
Yes, “Going Global” is a hot topic and you’ve probably attended numerous conference sessions over the past year. You need to embrace international markets because ecommerce growth rates abroad exceed those domestically; new customers in new markets create an opportunity to diversity, and/or because of you’ve been told to do so. There are many ways […]
Quick Quiz: What do you think was the most commonly overheard thing at this year’s Shop.org Merchandising Workshop held at the beautiful Terranea Resort overlooking the Pacific Ocean? a) Wait, there’s a workshop here, too? b) I miss the humidity and oppressive heat back home. c) What great content, I’m looking forward to implementing the […]
The 10th year of the IRCE show did not disappoint as it drew nearly 10,000 attendees to Chicago and I’m pretty sure about half of you were in the cab line with me on Tuesday afternoon waiting out the rain. In addition to getting educated on Uber surge pricing during heavy demand (and downpours), there […]
Last week’s IRCE FOCUS conference in New York, focusing on brands selling directly to consumers, was fascinating. Around the world, brands are discovering that the benefits of D2C are enormous – to the brand, manufacturers, stakeholders and channel partners (retailers and distributors), and to consumers. Brands are some of the fastest growing ecommerce businesses today; small, […]
Brands need to be selling online – Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), selling Business-to-Business (B2B), or both. Choosing whether or not to play in this game is no longer an option. Your end-consumers are expecting to find your product on your brand site. Your retailers/dealers are giving their dollars to the brands that make their purchasing process the […]
To many, the month of March means March Madness, and March Madness means basketball and brackets. As it turns out, I’m not a great bracketologist – my bracket was done several games ago. Instead, I’m turning my attention to the role of content in retail, and in our last days of March Madness, I’m sharing […]