All Retail Articles
  • What dairy pros need to know about the USMCA

    Ted Jacoby Food & Beverage

    The wait is (kind of) over. Trade authorities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada have agreed to a trilateral free trade agreement that replaces NAFTA. The finer points of automotive manufacturing earned most of the headlines during the protracted negotiation period, but dairy trade was another key sticking point. Here, we hope to offer some details and context to provide a clearer picture of how things will look once the deal is effective. Or, more like if. The deal first must survive legislative review in three separate national capitals.

  • Travel2020 at CES2019 — Technology for a better trip: Part 2

    Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

    There is no place like CES, the Consumer Electronics Show that happens in Las Vegas every year, to find the latest skills that Alexa can perform or new ways to conquer your world one robot, one pair of smart glasses, or one new 8K television at a time. Travel2020 cut through the clutter (and that’s a lot of cutting with 4,500 products to peruse!) to come up with the latest in newfangled travel gear for travelers looking to make their trips more comfortable. This is part two of a quick glance at technology that is changing the way we travel.

  • How to create Facebook content that performs better in 2019

    Emma Fitzpatrick Marketing

    New year, same problems! Every social media marketer on the block is still trying to figure out what to do about the ever-dwindling numbers on our Facebook Pages. For the umpteenth year in a row (or since 2014 if you want to be exact), organic reach is down. An Agorapulse analysis found organic reach for Facebook Pages dropped, on average, 13.62 percent in 2018. Not only are fewer people organically seeing your Facebook content, but they’re also engaging far less.

  • When it’s better not to focus on profit

    Lisa Mulcahy Business Management, Services & Risk Management

    Making as much money for your company as possible is a no-brainer — that's why you're in business, right? That's true, but there are some situations in which it can actually benefit your company's long-term bottom line not to strategize for immediate maximum profits. Your reputation, relationships, and long-term planning can be used to an even greater advantage if you know when to pull back and how to refocus your aim. Use these tips to reboot for the short term and become even more successful in the long term.

  • What’s old is new again in retail for 2019

    Catherine Iste Retail

    Regardless of age or profession, every citizen in a small town understands retail’s fundamental principles: trust, word of mouth and network. As Amazon, voice-controlled devices, and smart homes change the way consumers and retail interact, these fundamental principles of human interaction will continue to become more important. Here are three old practices that will enjoy renewed importance in the year to come.

  • Travel2020 at CES2019 — Where the robots hit the road: Part 1 of 2

    Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

    What do you get when 180,000 verified geeks and 4,500 newfangled gadgets descend upon a few long blocks in Las Vegas? A lot of enhanced plastic, paper, wires and a possibly scary vision of the future at what is now fondly called CES. The Consumer Electronics Show that has been happening yearly since 1967 has come a long way from the portable Motorola televisions and next-gen eight-tracks that were once the siren song of a budding battalion of obsessed electronics fans. Today, it is more like an ocean of FOMO enthusiasts looking at the latest in any field of technology you could imagine.

  • Have you heard of TikTok?

    Emma Fitzpatrick Marketing

    Apple recently announced 2018’s most downloaded apps. Unsurprisingly, the top five free iPhone apps were all social media platforms and included YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Messenger and Facebook. But a few spots down on the list at No. 16, a new social media app emerged: TikTok. It’s an app that lets users create short videos set to music that are up to 15 seconds long. The company differentiates itself by saying it’s "not your ordinary destination for short-form mobile video. It's raw, real, and without boundaries."

  • Should you invest in real estate or stocks?

    Patrick Gleeson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

    In the long run, stocks have a higher return on investment than real estate. But in some circumstances, you’re better off investing in both. If you’re trying to figure out which is a better investment over the long term, you might begin by searching the internet with a simple query like "real estate or stocks better?" You’ll be surprised to find that while most sources conclude that stocks are the better long-term investment, there are writers that come to the opposite conclusion. But not all of these writers rely on appropriate data.

  • ‘Fail’ your way to the top in 2019

    Fred Berns Business Management, Services & Risk Management

    Make 2019 the year you really get to know "no." Make it the year that you get turned down by more prospects, try and fail to "upsell" more clients, lose out on more bids, miss out on more opportunities, come up short on more proposals, and attempt unsuccessfully to close more deals than ever before. In short, make it the year that you "fail" more. Why? Because only when you put yourself out there more, can you fail more. And only when you put yourself out there more can you succeed more.

  • No thanks — I have enough customers

    Anne Rose Retail

    A business has to walk a delicate line between serving existing customers and prospecting for new ones. It’s hard enough when you have a big company with distinct departments to handle the unique needs of each. But when you’re a mom-and-pop operation or a solo entrepreneur, those challenges are magnified. And if you decide you can’t take care of your customers and solicit new ones at the same time, the repercussions for ignoring one of those constituencies are negative. Choose to serve existing customers only, and you’ll find, one day, you have no fresh pool of people who needs your services.