Gene Hoffman

Sometimes a company determines its goals before it hears the cash register ring. E-commerce and B&M retailing flourish best using their own languages. When interspersed without expert translation, they can send conflicting signals.

Projected success is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

It seems like I answered this question in the first subject. There is a growing sales impact in the social media world. Today's college graduates -- and many dropouts too -- know how to influence customers conversations across a range of platforms in real time. Those conversations on Facebook...

In the current world where more and more customers "Google" buying information and trust their friends on Facebook for brand recommendations, companies need to reposition their professional sales teams in the field or expect more strikeouts in their increasingly expensive brick cottages.

This generation's grasp of social networks drives...

More than once in its competitive retail story,
The path of booty was the way to Tesco's glory.
But duty is what is now expected of Tesconians,
So its a stiff-upper-lip for the non-harmonians.

A manager asks: "When are decreased sales my fault?
I worked just as...

The business of retailing will change in much the same way as have professional sports and restaurants. For mass merchants, both brick and mortar and e-retailers, the assortments could get larger and wider with multi-faceted presentations.

Question: Will each consumer group wish to stay self- contained or will they...

Ron Johnson's optimism that his plan would quickly turn JCP around implies that he believes that everything can be beautiful, including what is not.

The biggest hurdle was that JCP's customers liked the "chase" to find some possible bigger deal. Mr. Johnson squashed their ecstasy of anticipation. That seems...

There's a dichotomy in this issue. Consumers want to support locally-made goods but they also seek out low prices that are usually affordable due to cheaper labor outside of the U.S. Nonetheless this movement will likely occur in other cities. People like to be associated with the best side...

That wonderful era when people actually wanted to assist other people just because it was a nice thing to do ... when filling station people gladly filled your gas tank, wiped your windshields, checked your oil and tires for 25 cents a gallon and then thanked you for coming...

By opening a single store such as C9 Active Apparel in a trendy city (San Francisco) with products made exclusively for Target, it could appear that this is a classic test marketing of a new retail concept. But Target insists that isn't the case and claims they have no...

Every sustaining retailer either grows or it gropes. There is no choice between importance and impotence.

Having already achieved the lead dog position in club retailing, Costco wants to further capitalize on consumer trends and be successful doing that better than anyone else could do it. To accomplish that...