The new LEED rating system passed last November by the U.S. Green Building Council apparently is spurring retailers to adopt environmentally sound building practices. Although retail sales rose by 8.3% in 2010 compared to 2009, an extremely competitive retail environment still exists. Retailers, constantly looking for ways to enhance the shopping experience and increase customer [...]
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Consumers in the second decade of the 21st century have multiple ways of shopping: stores, online, or catalog. So what’s new? Today’s retail convergence is driven by consumers and emerging technologies more than ever before. A 2010 survey of U.S. consumers by Buzzback Market Research http://www.buzzback.com/ indicated that: • 88% of shoppers are more likely [...]
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Gone are the days of in-store communications with a static message that is replaced seasonally or as a result of a new advertising campaign! By integrating proximity marketing with digital signs, messages can be matched to consumers’ interests, shopping trends, or demographics. Shoppers with shared characteristics tend to shop at certain times. Digital signage, informed [...]
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Continuing the Disney Store tradition of razzle-dazzle, storytelling, and entertainment, the new “immersive” concept announced at the National Retail Federation conference in New York on January 11 is a fusion of technology, innovative store design, and 21st-century customer service. Customer service with an iPod touch New retail-sales technology designed by Oracle incorporates the iPod touch [...]
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Upon entering the lobby area of Columbus Ohio’s Nationwide Arena, visitors encounter a 70- foot, glass-enclosed atrium visible from the arena’s many levels. Within this environment is nestled the vast and impressive BlueLine Store, official outlet for National Hockey League Columbus Blue Jackets merchandise. Architectural wonder Nationwide Arena, an architectural and technological wonder in the [...]
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Whole Foods rocked the foodservice world in 2005 when it opened a new flagship store in Austin, Texas with six different in-store eating concepts under one roof. Today, the store’s restaurants offer chicken fried tofu, press-to-order panini and wheatberry quinoa Waldorf salad. The Austin Whole Foods’ wine department now sells wine for drinking either in [...]
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What tech innovation is providing a Bloomingdale’s location with inventory accuracy of 95%, Dillard’s a 96% time savings in cycle counts, and American Apparel with 14% increase in sales? Many retailers are keeping closed mouthed regarding their testing of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging at the item level, but industry reports indicate that J.C. Penney has [...]
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RETAIL STRATEGY Click here to read the article. INNOVATIONS Click here to read the article. GREEN BUILDING Click here to read the article. SOCIAL MEDIA Click here to read the article. NEWS Click here to read the article.
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Posted in Consumer Trends on Oct 7th, 2010
In a recent article on consumer shopping behavior during the recession, Retail Forward, an internationally known retail consulting and information service, states that Gen X could lead the way out of the recession. They maintain, “… the recession has changed shopping behavior for 72 percent of all shoppers,” and advise retailers to “tune up their [...]
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Walmart’s fine jewelry counter, once hidden at the back of stores, is now being positioned as prime real estate at the front of some newly opened units. Retail industry analysts believe that this decision may be an indication of a strategy to take advantage of national demographic trends, shopping habits during the economic downturn, and [...]
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