Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.

Bill, Walmart IS in the search business, just doing an incredibly poor job of it.

What is going on in the retail space is much larger than these questions about Amazon, and now Google. Let's drop back and consider that "retailing is the cutting edge of social evolution, always has been and always will be." The reason for this is first that people absolutely...

There is just as much reason for Amazon to open bricks stores as for bricks stores to have e-commerce. I've been writing about the Convergence of Online, Mobile and Bricks (COMB) retailing for some time. Of course bricks has some added capital and management costs, but I personally believe...

I think "undermining" is the wrong word. We're talking SELF-service stores, and as shoppers continue to become more connected, those connections are becoming increasingly valuable sources of casual and formal information they use for EVERYTHING, including shopping. It's nice to have staff around the store, but it is an...

Coupons, daily deals -- the whole mess is based on the mistaken assumption that lowering the price raises sales. It can. But raising prices can increase sales, too. There is a reason P&G made a serious attempt to discontinue coupons years ago. ("No, the Customer is NOT...

Sounds like a lot more Apple stores are in the offing!

As long as retailers continue to "hide" the few items shoppers want, and BUY most, in indiscriminate walls of merchandise, there will be HUGE opportunities in limited selections stores. Then, these stores will ALWAYS begin adding SKUs because a wider selection will ATTRACT more shoppers, even though they may...

"The customer is always right" is a very good PR stance, but not very intelligent for a rational retailer. I wrote on this some time ago, "No, the Customer is NOT Always Right!"

Behavior is pretty much the only thing that matters, and behavior is largely a matter of habit, not thinking. No wonder Neale Martin says that habit is the 95% of behavior that marketers IGNORE! Of course they ignore it, because they are THINKING about it, and assume customers are...

I'm with Bob Phibbs on this, and note the comments on suppliers funding couponing. I wrote about P&G's efforts to abandon couponing some time ago in "No, the Customer is NOT Always Right!" The general rule is that paying customers to buy is evidence of a lack...