Bill Bittner's RetailWire Blog
August 31, 2010
This is an interesting call on the part of J.Crew. I don't think anyone can really predict what will happen, but the bigger picture is that we all have to learn to live with greater uncertainty. Whether it is because things are moving faster or the world is ...
August 27, 2010
I think retailers who own brick and mortar outlets have to rethink the role these physical outlets should provide in their overall effort to reach consumers. No physical environment is going to replace the expanse of the Internet. You could spend a fortune training employees about products and a ...
August 20, 2010
This idea brings back images of my teen years (many, many years ago). I don't think you're going to find discriminating pallets in the dollar stores. I don't know if the old standbys of Ripple and Schlitz are still around. I am sure they have researched it, ...
August 19, 2010
I believe many consumers are simply becoming smarter in their shopping. With all the news about the economy, they understand how they can get the benefits while avoiding the hype. The challenge for private label is to maintain the quality while continuing to offer a lower price point. ...
August 18, 2010
The labor versus management pendulum is constantly swinging from one side to the other. Rarely do we see it settle in the middle, where both sides feel they are receiving their fair share of the profits. I believe the pendulum had swung too far in favor of labor ...
August 16, 2010
Looking at this question from strictly a technical perspective, I am expecting a real renaissance for independent retailers. As technology becomes more "Cloud" oriented, allowing users to plug into service providers as necessary, the advantage large retailers have had by maintaining their own services is disappearing. The challenge ...
August 12, 2010
The coupon POS process consists of three steps: presentation; validation; and valuation. Presentation is how the coupon is identified: a piece of paper, a barcode on a phone, an electronic coupon tied to the customer's frequent shopper ID, etc. Validation is the step that confirms the customer has ...
August 10, 2010
Online grocery shopping faces three hurdles which other retail categories do not: critical cold chain requirements, the perishable nature of "fresh" products and extremely low gross margins. Curbside pickup has the potential to address the cold chain issue. Customers may still have to be convinced to let someone ...
August 3, 2010
I think everyone would agree that competition is good and the idea of an electronic charge method that bypasses the existing network fees is appealing to everyone (except the current providers). What I don't understand is why a cell phone is necessary to achieve this. So the advantage ...
July 27, 2010
The interesting thing about the Kroger announcement is that there is no mention of a service provider. It appears Kroger has developed the IT services for presenting coupons to their customers and integrating selections with the checkout process themselves. Many other companies have implemented similar capabilities
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