Every January, the National Retail Federation (NRF) hosts a major trade show in New York City. I have attended as a partner of Springboard Retail for four of the last five years. It has been a unique opportunity to peek into the latest in retail technology. Inevitably, the technology featured at the show works its way down from enterprise to small business over the course of several years. This is a trade show full of buzzwords and acronyms that are sometimes bewildering. Te

I recently conducted a brief experiment, opening five promotional emails from major retailers and five promotional emails from indie retailers (all brick-and-mortar). My goal was to measure how many clicks it would take me to get to a page where I could purchase something. All five major retailers let me shop within one click. NONE of the indie retailers - not one - had a link or call-to-action that led to a shopping page. The results, though not necessarily surprising, provi

Retail is a game of percentages. With sales being 100%, the object of the game is stepping line by line through your cash requirements and maximizing the percentage of sales that you get to keep¹. Inventory, payroll, rent, insurance, merchant fees, etc., etc. all take their piece. The more you can control these expenses, the more you get to invest back into your business. Easy, right? Wall Street has a measurement called Operating Cash Flow which they use to measure the cash

How many sales has your team made this year? How many of those do you specifically remember? Why do you remember them? Chances are, for better or worse, some of your most memorable interactions involve an unhappy customer. As a merchant, you inevitably have to work with a dissatisfied customers. Some customers are going to be unhappy no matter what (I do believe in such a thing as “bad” customers). But the vast majority of your unhappy customers are super fans in waiting. Why

When your customers are browsing your merchandise, they are relying on you to tell them a story. Whether in a store or online, you have seconds to communicate what they need to know: How much is it? Is it on sale? Why should they buy it? Present products without distraction while subtly cross-merchandising compatible items. Provide concise, readable signage. Make sure item prices are accurate and available. Create examples that inspire the customer to picture themselves usin