retail trends

Along with our customers, we're buoyed by news that Americans, having emerged from winter hibernation, have relaxed their purse strings at quick service retailers. In a recent blog post, "Report: Consumer Spending at Quick Serves Grew in April," QSRMagazine.com points to analysis by First Data Corporation which compared year-over-year sales data for April, 2014.  FDC's SpendTrend report tracks same-store POS...

Report from the front on the ever-changing landscape of retail payment habits. Bricks and mortar retailers, long aware of how their customers have been using their smartphones in stores, are turning the tables and bringing more of their stores into our phones. In the first of a new series, Digiday looks at how Sephora, Sears, Walmart, Target, Ikea, Home Depot and others "are fighting back against...

Have you ever shopped in a pop-up shop? Econsultancy.com explains what they are: “Pop-up shops are temporary outlets, which allow brands to have a presence on the high street, or to extend their existing offline presence into new areas for a short time.” Larger brands in the United States have been using pop-up shops since the late 90’s. What is...

We are reminded from time to time how retail store owners are wise to keep an eye on real estate investing trends. As an example, consider this recent article in National Real Estate Investor (NREI) titled, "What Retail Estate Investors Need to Know About the Transforming Retail Supply Chain." E-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores, once competing sales channels, are now seen as each...

Columnist Herb Caen once referred to the Mid Market, a neighborhood in San Francisco as “le grand pissoir.” The neighborhood is well known for its homeless inhabitants. But, it looks like it might be making a turn around. An article by the San Francisco Business Times  titled “Mid Market retail starting to catch up”, discusses the change that is coming...