Consequences stemming from the recession have many retailers facing a challenging equation:

Rising cost of fuel + Shifting consumer purchase behaviors + Increasing costs to produce goods = Retailer anxiety.

In order to overcome these challenges, we recommend retailers think local.

By leveraging all that’s local (from manufacturing and supply chains to promotional activities), retailers can optimize operational efficiencies – all while maximizing inventory and preventing rising costs for the shopper. Additional benefits include:

• Relevant product mixes and inventory to meet local consumer needs. The reverse homogenization… read more.

The seasonal nature of shopping always presents a multitude of problems for retailers. The back-to-school season (not to mention the fall and winter holidays) are still months away but for retailers planning what to stock, how to display it and how to get shoppers engaged, it’s just around the corner. Shoppers are looking for ways to save money – but it’s important to remember that they see seasonal shopping as more than simply buying goods.

Like all shopping, it’s wrapped in cultural and behavioral practices that represent a host of emotions and beliefs. If costs and savings were the only factors considered, shoppers would buy exclusively… read more.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about how to approach gender and shopper behaviors in retail. In earlier posts, IV Whitman concluded that we need to think about the “third gender” and Gavin Johnston reminded us that it’s not stereotypes – but context – that should drive retail marketing efforts. Just as there are various ways of thinking about the male shopper, there are equally various ways of approaching him. And, when done properly, brands can increase point of purchase… read more.

Common sense tells us that marketing to women is different than marketing to men. The line that divides each gender’s shopping behavior and style is unmistakable and dramatic. There’s no question that the stereotypes describing a male shopper’s “seek and destroy” sorties and a female shopper’s “leave no stone unturned” expeditions have stood the test of conventional retail marketing philosophy.

But is there more?  Does an individual’s gender determine his or her shopping style, needs and wants? Are women and men limited in the evolution of their retail habits? Not exactly. There are contexts and categories where men shop… read more.

Context shapes everything, and whether hunting or shopping, there is more to our behavior than meets the eye.

First of all, men will always say they dislike shopping and that they treat it like a task. Shopping is a job and all about efficiency and finding the best deal (this is the point at which all of us men are supposed to eat a steak and thump our chests).

Men say it, but is it true? No, it is not. We say it because as a culture we have been trained to say we hunt, we solve problems and we see shopping as a task. It is a cultural norm we use to define our masculinity, not a reflection of reality. As with all shopping, there… read more.

A shopper enters your store and begins to browse. She appears genuinely interested in that new line you recently added. Suddenly, she freezes and turns her attention to something in her hand. Seconds later, she makes a beeline to the door—avoiding any further contact with your products or sales associates.

Was this shopper’s journey interrupted by supernatural forces? A paranormal event? Try “para-mobile” activity—the influence of mobile, social and local information on in-store experience.

Trapped in a dimension that transcends sales channels, para-mobile entities such as Foursquare,… read more.