Retail Done Right

 If craft is having a heyday, and the numbers confirm it is, why did the store built to serve makers go bankrupt twice in one year? The craft store died, but the making didn’t. In fact, one of our featured voices in the opener notes that she mourns the loss - delivered by her unprompted. There really wasn't - and still isn’t - anything like it for some guests. We explore this with Chris DiTul...

Episode 2 of Season 5 argues that Trader Joe’s built the most durable loyalty in American grocery retail by doing the opposite of what every retail loyalty playbook prescribes. Our thesis: they didn’t design a loyalty program. They designed a place that generates belonging. And belonging is what loyalty programs are trying to buy but cannot. Our special guest, Mark Gardiner, author of Build a Bran...

Guests include Randi Howard, Tim Howard, and Tonya Welker   Send us Fan Mail RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at jeff@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Email Cristene at cristene@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Follow us on Instagram @retaildoneright Tweet us @RetailD0neRight Michael Cooke is our brilliant sound e...

The people who shape this approach for both of us are not retail analysts. They are people who talk about store experiences and who feel those emotions quite personally. As Simon Sinek said, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. and I love it, but we take Simon Sinek seriously this season. That's a lot of S's. Every episode begins with the why and works outward becau...

In a follow up to our final Retail Trend, Retail Media Networks, we share a rich conversation with Francisco Larrain, CTO at Topsort , an innovative tech company that enables retailers and marketplaces to quickly launch, scale and intelligently optimize ad businesses with AI-based retail media infrastructure. We couldn’t ask for a better way to follow up on this incredibly relevant topic in the Re...

The sixth, and final, episode of our mini-series is titled, Retail Media . We discuss this new frontier. These brand or company-specific networks allow a brand to create media experiences across the customer journey (online and offline) while creating an entirely new high margin revenue stream via advertising. RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at...

The fifth episode of our mini-series is titled, Talent . We discuss all things talent and talent management where new thinking is required. RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at jeff@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Email Cristene at cristene@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Follow us on Instagram @retaildoneright T...

RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at jeff@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Email Cristene at cristene@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Follow us on Instagram @retaildoneright Tweet us @RetailD0neRight Michael Cooke is our brilliant sound engineer and editor Jade Siriswad composed our theme music Let's go shopp...

The third episode of our mini-series is titled, Tech Debt as Business Risk .   While it’s called tech debt, it’s really about business strategy - and the ability of the business and the ability of all its systems to respond to customers and changes in the market.  Here are a number of articles that provide detailed explanations:  Technical Debt Skeletons and Tech Debt: Reclaiming Tech Equity and T...

This is another trend we saw come up through the WARDLEY maps. Supply chains came to the breaking point during the pandemic but they were stressed beforehand. As complexity increased  - distance, currencies, intermediaries - new ways of working, rapid changes in communications modes. The systems designed to run “lights out” were completely opaque which made understanding, and then changing them ve...

Omnichannel has nothing to do with the customer. Customers don’t see channels. They see tasks and transactions. Why can’t we? (It’s because we are tied to staying in old lanes; because it’s easier to measure and we think we know the metrics.) INTRODUCTION We’re kicking off Season 4 with our own mini-series – Retail trends that are the result of a tremendous amount of research, data, data mining, e...

Consumers continue to demand change from retailers and brands. They are shopping their values. But has this become simply a marketing message for brands and retailers today? Or are we making real progress on the sustainability front?  What’s missing today is a simple framework, or a set of principles, that retailers and brands can implement quickly and efficiently.  We discuss 4 pragmatic principl...

We welcome Doug Stephens , Founder and CEO of the global advisory firm Retail Prophet to Retail Done Right . Doug is a retail futurist and best-selling author of 3 books, including his newest, “Resurrecting Retail.”  His perspective is grounded in fact, yet far reaching. And we cover a lot of ground in this interview. From people to product, and especially experience, from online lessons that bric...

It’s a mad world when the Holiday season starts so early. We look into the Holiday season – that we’re already in. Woven into the season, which is not just topical but extremely important, we are talking Sustainability – or I should say, the customer is telling us sustainability matters. RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at jeff@retaildoneright.n...

What’s a natural extension to the platform Amazon has built that we discussed in detail during Episode 3? Healthcare. Why? It serves Amazon and their network of employees while also being another service they could offer to their broader network of marketplace members and business partners and possibly directly to their incredibly large customer base. Amazon has unquestionably changed how we shop....

Amazon is a platform. Though we are starting to see others following this business model, Amazon offers a scale unrivaled. But if you’ve created a great brand and want to extend your offering, there’s clearly an opportunity to leverage your brand equity and customer base to create a network and ecosystem that supports services or products.  We discuss the real opportunities Amazon has found.  Ther...

This episode begins our short series discussing Amazon it their impact on Retail. Our series comes at this from a physical retail, online retail and shopper behavior perspective by looking at the offering, tools and services Amazon has introduced and offered their customers, including the end-user customer and retailers in their marketplace. This episode focuses on how Amazon has changed Retail, e...

To kick off Season 3, we’ve invited back our first 3-time guest, Shelley E. Kohan. As we leave Summer behind and look toward the 4th quarter and the Holiday Season, consumer outlook seems dark. Is there a storm ahead? Is the outlook possibly a bit better than consumer sentiment would suggest? We will talk about the state of the retail industry today. Shelley E. Kohan is the Chief Strategist at The...

We close out Season 2 with our point of view on retails heroes, villains and change makers. Yes, we’re naming names. RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at jeff@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Email Cristene at cristene@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Follow us on Instagram @retaildoneright Tweet us @RetailD0neRigh...

Two of the current trends in our post-pandemic world that are driving the resale/reclaim/recycle retail boom are inflation and sustainability. These two trends warrant a deep dive individually, but how they are impacting and helping to drive the resale retail boom is worthy of inquiry. Martin Peers briefing for The Information highlighted Rent the Runway’s recent performance – and I quote, “The co...

There is real value in physical retail. But it can be expensive, slow to develop and risky.  There’s a solution out there… Pop-Ups.  You aren’t locked into a long-term lease. The CapEx can be minimal. You can get open quickly. You can test and learn new ideas, assortments, experiences. You can be seasonally relevant.   Why aren’t we seeing more Pop-Up shops? There’s still a fair number of empty st...

A human tragedy is happening before our eyes. Today, we discuss Ukraine. It’s a human tragedy that’s occurring in front of our eyes via our screens.  Our hearts go out to all those who are living through this - the brutal reality is on the ground. We focus our attention on how retailers and brands are responding.  And what a response!  This is something I don’t think we have ever witnessed at such...

We dive into a great new study on retail and consumer brands, “2022’s New Normal for Retail,” from IBM’s Institute for Business Value. This rich report clearly states that retailers and brands need to be present on all fronts and show consumers they share their values.   CONSUMERS HAVE BEEN THROUGH THE WRINGER But they’ve been resilient. They’ve found creative ways to adapt to extreme circumstance...

Private label, white label, owned brands. What are the differences? Why do they exist? What value to they bring to the customer as well as to the retailer?  We explore all these questions and just how a retailer should approach creating their own owned brands with our special guest, Juli Lassow, Owner and Principal of jhl solutions. PRIVATE LABEL, WHITE LABEL & OWNED BRANDS According to our gu...

It doesn’t seem right to end the year without sharing a recap from our perspective. Plus, though it’s not without reservation, we will share a few predictions for 2022.  RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz Email Jeff at jeff@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Email Cristene at cristene@retaildoneright.net and connect on LinkedIn here Follow us o...