Results Count ... everything else is conversation.

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!

Snapshots in Time … Kodak vs. Lytro today

Case studies of technology and adapting to change

In reading my “Morning News Beat”, I ran across a great post by Mark Sansolo entitled: “Snapshot of the Future”. While his case examples are about the technology of photography, Sansolo does a great job of capturing the essence of change and why companies must continue to evolve, at an even more rapid pace to remain competitive.  Kodak is a snapshot of the past … and Lytro could well be the picture of the future.