Results Count ... everything else is conversation.

Will Target & Best Buy Avoid “Race to the Bottom”?

Vendors can’t just “sell to retail” … it’s much harder now

The current retail trend seems to have become a “race to the bottom” for most retailers. It’s not a race that most retailers can afford to win.  The corporate headquarters of Best Buy and Target are both based in the Minneapolis area.  While they are from the same town, they are competing with the low price leaders in very different ways.  It will become a classic case study of who survived … and which vendors adapt to be successful in this new retail environment.

Retail best practices – from the Girl Scouts?

Cutting edge tech for a lean, mean selling machine

The Girl Scouts is a nonprofit organization focused on developing life skills of girls.  Their biggest fundraiser is their annual cookie sale, where members historically sold cookies door to door.  Even in the face of Walmart selling “knockoff” cookie clones, the Girl Scouts sell over 200 million boxes in about 10 weeks.  Retailers would do well to study how Girls Scouts today have pulled out all the stops in using social media, apps, mobility, advance marketing and logistics.

The CPO is alive, well and definitely in charge

If you doubt the power of the CPO, check the latest stats 

In Retail University, we’ve been highlighting the “CPO” for a long time – Chief Procurement Officer.  In the US, the CPO definitely controls the purse strings and influences a majority of the purchase decisions for the American home.  The latest “infographic” from the Business Insider confirms that women are definitely in control.  Yet, it is amazing how many retailers and manufacturers fail to understand this fact, and how to effectively market to women.  Clearly, Apple is a notable exception.

“Emerging” retail markets are exploding …

Growth of the “small screen” moves retailing online

I always relish the opportunity to take Retail University courses abroad.  Inevitably, I find that the Professor learns as much as the students.  While much of US and western European retail has been homogenized by the large big box chains, Asia is truly a land of diversity in retailing. There is nothing like first-hand experience of visiting retail stores in Asia.  But, the biggest retail trend is not about stores … it’s happening online!  Read on to discover a new resource to watch the trends unfold in Asia.

The Future of Retail – Assortment is Job #1

Have retailers lost the art of managing assortment?

To be fair, the new normal of retail is change at an ever increasing pace.  Retailers are not just competing in stores, but online and on mobile devices.  Yet, as many as 75+% of consumers still purchase in store, at least for consumer electronics.  In the frenzy over competing on ads, promos and price, retailers have tended to neglect their most important job of managing assortment.  If management can’t answer the basic question of why consumers shop their stores, they are in deep trouble!

Are you 1 of the 80% that will fail multi-channel?

#1 Challenge of retailing today - It ain’t what it used to be 

As I’m preparing for teaching a Retail University class in Singapore next week, I asked myself the question I always get asked:  What is the #1 challenge in retail today?  The answer use to be different by region.  But today, retail has become a multi-channel reality worldwide.  An interesting study by Gartner predicts that by 2015, 80% of retailers will fall flat in a multi-channel world.  What will retailers and suppliers need to do differently worldwide in order to succeed in retail by 2015?

6 Amazing Stats on Smartphones in Store Aisles

A quick update on smartphones & mobile price checking 

Normally we strive to post something weekly about an emerging trend or retail topic.  Since our post yesterday, we have seen a bunch of posts and tweets on the emerging trend and retail store threat of consumers doing price shopping in aisle with their smartphones.  We ran across this infographic with some amazing stats that was just too good to pass up.

Target takes aim at Amazon & Price Apps

The war over smartphone price checks is heating up

It happened rather innocently the last couple of years as consumers started surfing the web while shopping in retail stores.  But, the battle for price conscious consumers reached a fever pitch last holiday season. Amazon poured salt in the wounds of retailers by offering an additional $5 off if consumers used their Price Check app to scan bar codes in a retail store.  Will it be an Amazon world, or can big box retailers fight back?

Pinterest … “Fantasy football for women”

Is Pinterest a fad, or opportunity for today’s marketers?

One of the hottest items in social media of late has been Pinterest.  It seems to be particularly attractive to women, who like the visual bulletin board interface.  One of the best descriptors I’ve seen for Pinterest is “fantasy football for women”.  While Pinterest has been getting a lot of press, is it another passing social media fad or an entirely new format offering new marketing and branding opportunities?

How Target spoke volumes without saying a word

Sometimes the “Art” of retail outweighs the “Science” 

With a blog title of “Results Count”, we do a lot of posts on the science and numbers of retail.  If you scan the archives in the search bar on our blog site, you will find a lot of previous posts on scorecards and metrics of retailing. This week’s post is about the “art” of retail and how Target made a bold statement without saying anything.  Kudos to Target!