Pop-up first, Brick and Mortar later
Retail is currently perhaps one of the most dynamic and innovative industries. New technology is constantly being developed for retail, from payment to inventory management systems.
With an ever-changing dynamic between customer and store, independent retailers have a difficult task ahead of them. Luckily for them, the future of retail looks bright for the retail boutique. Nevertheless, whilst we have some tips for independent retail, we felt that whether you’re an amateur or well-established professional in the retail industry, we could all use some extra guidance.
So, we’ve come up with a list of 10 excellent retail blogs to follow to stay ahead of the curve in understanding retail trends, designing window displays, implementing new technology and engaging loyal customers.
Retail Prophet is an extremely informative blog to follow for both insight and advice on the retail industry. Although the audience is not restricted to independent retails, it is vital for getting an overview of the industry. Doug Stephens offers a unique perspective and interesting musings on the state of the retail industry and offers great advice to retailers, particularly about taking advantage of the current lack of tech in this space.
Retail Prohet: The Future Of Brands In A One-Touch World
Posted May 28, 2015 By Doug Stephens- Only a short time ago, the value that brands provided to consumers was chiefly two things – familiarity and consistency. Shoppers had so little access to objective information about products and services that, amid a field of unknown and untrusted alternatives, a familiar brand logo, jingle or tag line provided the much-needed cognitive shorthand to help them confidently choose.
“Technology is no silver bullet for retail success” – Bob Willett
Retail Week provides a wide-ranging look at the retail industry. From technology to fashion, the blog provides an array of advice and information for retailers. This is a great blog to follow to understand how to take advantage of technology and other tools in order to grow your business.
They say quality is better than quantity, but what if you could get both? The Harvard Business Review is a great source of high quality content on the retail industry. Not only does it analyse the latest trends, it also provides comprehensive analyses and predictions of where the retail industry is headed.
Written by RIS News Group Editor-in-Chief Joe Skorupa, the retail insight blog provides readers with direct insight into the state of the retail industry today- from tech trends and new innovations to high-performance solutions, the blog is a source of information for retailers.
Named the Top Retail Blog in December 2014 by PR Newswire media, the Retail Adventures blog is a go-to source for independent retailers for advice and tips to run their businesses. Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender are retail consultants, who offer advice on consumers and the ever-changing retail market.
A blog written by retail consultant Graham Soult, Soult’s Retail View gives a multi-perspective view of the retail industry, featuring insights from experienced retailers and updates on the UK retail industry.
An extremely useful and trustworthy global resource for independent retailers, Nicole Leinbach Reyhle’s Retail Minded provides applicable solutions and news to independent retailers in all aspects of their businesses. In addition to the blog, Retail Minded also releases a magazine. Nicole is also the founder of the Independent Retailer Conference.
Retail Minded
Technology has been a gift and a curse for retail stores. On the one hand, the Internet has given rise to online sales giants like Amazon and pushed formerly hot-selling items like CDs and DVDs into the digital realm.
Providing statistical data and analysis, Retail Economics is an excellent data-oriented source of information for those that prefer to think in numbers. From current retail trends to customer insights, Retail Economics both provides and analyses statistics based on the UK retail industry.
Taking a completely different take on the industry, Retail Focus looks at the window displays of different retail stores. The focus of this blog is on design and it can offer great insight and tips on what to do and what not to do when considering visual merchandising.
Retail Focus Blog: Retail Interior Design and Visual Merchandising
The Blog from Retail Focus – Catch up on the latest window displays and events from around the world.
This website provides the latest updates on what is happening in the retail industry in the age of the chain store. There has been some interesting insight on merging online with brick and mortar, which can easily be achieved by independents.
Chain Store Age: Target goes digital — in Vogue
Target Corp. is going interactive on the pages of Vogue’s September issue. Dan Berthiaume, senior editor of Chain Store Age, recently participated in a one-hour panel discussion, “Consumer Industries: Using Real-time Consumer Insights,” sponsored by SAP as part of its “Coffee Break with Game-Changers” Internet radio series.
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