Forging Relationships

Today, retail is all about engagement: learning what the consumer wants, while promoting products and messages – often without a selling mentality. And it is making everyone more social. McKinsey’s…

Fast Transformation

When consumers think “fast fashion,” their first thought might not be sustainable fabrics.  But after years of hearing about how they are peddling “throwaway” apparel, leading retailers of low-price, trendy…

The ‘I’ of the Tiger

The potential held by China’s enormous population never fails to quicken the pulse of retailers.  And e-commerce, especially via mobile devices, is one of the hottest avenues for doing business…

Countering Showrooming

A specialty grocery store in Australia made headlines around the world when it began charging a $5 fee for simply browsing. But experts say this reaction to showrooming – researching…

Trickle Down Retail

Somewhere between the Wall Street bailout and today’s new economy — where consumers are saving more and spending less — shoppers started turning more and more to mass merchants for…

A Straight Shot

Whether someone’s a small designer trying to make a name for themselves or a legacy retailer in the apparel business for nearly a century and a half, reaching the consumer…

On The Up & Up

Nobody likes feeling tricked, least of all consumers. Which is why government officials are making sure apparel manufacturers know that rayon, by any other name, is still rayon. Recently, Amazon,…

Beyond the Deal

The Great Recession schooled most consumers in the art of the deal. Smartphone apps and coupon websites fed consumer zeal to save in-store or snag free shipping for web orders. …

Rules of Engagement

Not long ago, retail was convinced that online meant the end of regular offline stores, and omni-channel retailing was not yet part of the lexicon.  But “click-and-mortar” selling is transforming…

Rethinking High/Low

Capsule collections.  One-offs.  Affordable couture collaborations.  They are all products of high/low collaborations, but what used to seem unquestionably bankable has recently hit a few snags.   This retail formula has…