Posts under ‘Retail’

Budget Day this year doesn’t feel as festive as it has in the past. Kudos to the The Telegraph, which has done marvellous work in lifting the mood, but the overwhelming sense of uncertainty is ruining the festivities for me. How can one possibly predict how Government spending will be allocated when it has no [...]

The Housewares Conference took place in London this week. I didn’t make it along this time, (partly because I rushed in late last year to see Gima director Neil Gow, and knocked over a pile of crockery) but I have been reading all about the goings on. It’s all rather good news for those garden [...]

Interbrand has published its annual ranking (pdf) of the highest-value brands in the US and Europe. There’s a dizzying amount of information here about how brand is created, sustained and promoted. I won’t go into all of it, because I can’t, but there are lessons to be learned from the only two garden/pet retailers that [...]

A year ago, I just wouldn’t have shopped at Morrisons and now I go to my local store do all my big food shops, even though it’s located behind one of the scariest bus stops in North London. I risk life, limb and my personal belongings to do this because I see it as an [...]

I’ve just been at the Retail Week Conference; it’s just down the road so I’ve been dashing back and forth and catching bits and bobs of talks that don’t really concern me. In one of these sessions, Unilever chairman Dave Lewis was defending himself against a crowd of big-name retail bosses for not passing on [...]

B&Q’s website has ranked sixth in an evaluation of the accessibility of the online high street, conducted by Webcredible. The user experience research and design company looked at 19 of the high street’s leading retailers to see how well they catered for disabled users, a group with a combined annual spending power of £80 billion. [...]

The shopper marketing revolution - John Ryan Blog
Digital signage throws up so many opportunities. Retailers will have the chance to adapt promotional messages according to the news and weather. Think how exciting that would be for garden centres in particular! In the long run it’s got to be cheaper than making up signs. Plus, [...]

A rather plucky DIY store in the US has had a visit from former US president George Bush after writing an open letter to him in a Dallas newspaper offering him a job as a greeter. The retired statesman apparently turned up to Elliot’s Hardware with his own name badge and said he was looking [...]

In a market that’s increasingly dominated by value retailers and convenience shopping, it’s nice to know that customers still value good service. It’s also somewhat vindicating to know that good service creates cash money, rather than just a warm fuzzy feeling. This all became clear today as I sat down to have a good read [...]

I expected to be snowed under while I was up here at Spring Fair International, but I was thinking products, people to see and events to cover, not actually snowed under.

This is the view from the NEC this morning; aint it pretty?
Even before the snow flurries started yesterday I was feeling rather festive. While [...]