The Other Singularity

I recently saw designer and technologist Jared Ficklin speak at FITC Toronto, introducing a concept he called “The Other Singularity”. I mentioned his talk briefly in my overview about FITC Toronto, but his presentation and thoughts on technological innovation left my wheels turning so much so that I felt it deserved a little more attention here. What left me thinking was this: “What kind of products would one see in a Skymall catalog from the Starship Enterprise?”

Read More

Why Omni-Channel Retailers Will Win

There is an interesting trend that is increasingly taking hold – the marriage between the physical store and the digital world. Industry term alert: Omni-Channel.

Read More

Content Marketing for E-commerce

While content marketing has traditionally been embraced by B2B sellers who market intangible products and services, retailers are increasing realizing the benefits of investing in content to increase sales.

Read More

Canadian Shopping Apparel Trends

While the US gets a lot of flack for being an overly consumer-oriented culture, you may be surprised to learn that Canadians actually out-shop Americans at the mall…which raises some interesting questions:

  • Is this because it’s really cold in Canada and all there is to do in winter is shop indoors?
  • Is this a sign that we will we see more American chains trying to win the spendthrift Canadian consumer?
  • Should American retailers even bother setting up a physical store and just appeal to the Canadian online consumers by offering FREE shipping to Canada?
  • Is online shopping destined to change all this?

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Read More

Why Checking Out is Best When it Feels like Stealing

Paying for goods in your favorite store will be a much different experience in the coming few years. As this article in The Atlantic points out, we are on the cusp of a revolution powered by the internet of things, where small, inexpensive chips placed on every piece of merchandise will allow you to grab items off the shelf and walk out of the store. Your smartphone will then tie you to the specific items via a preregistered account. A version of this is already happening in Apple stores, which require an Apple ID for you to scan an item via an iOS app.

Read More

5 E-commerce Statistics from Early 2014

We’ve started a new mid-week blog called Retail Stat Tuesdays; We all love numbers and how they make us feel, especially if they are supporting what we’re already thinking. We also know a lot about retail so we decided to combine 2 things that we know and love. It always feels great noticing an online trend or perhaps something you thought was an original idea and then having it confirmed with real numbers.  Enjoy our collection of stats, and Happy Stats Tuesday!

Read More

The 4 Drivers of Retail Profits

With the plethora of new technologies and tactics available to retailers, it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees when planning your marketing programs. I like to start any discussion of promotional tactics with a simple model that looks at the four drivers of retail revenue – essentially the fundamental levers we have to affect sales. They can also help us diagnose the weak links in our strategy or execution by comparing statistics in each area to direct competitors and industry standards.

Read More

A Look Inside FITC Toronto 2014: Highlights from the Conference

I was extremely excited to attend this year’s FITC Toronto technology and creativity conference. Excited and grateful, as I won a contest FITC held giving women in the field an opportunity to create an original work for their #WomenAtFITC initiative in exchange for a conference pass.

Read More