Browsing: small business

There are cave gift shops from California to New Hampshire, with yearly attendance ranging from a couple of thousand people to hundreds of thousands. Some cave gift shops have a handful of items for sale, and others have huge gift shops filled with thousands of items. Cave gift shops also differ because of their location. One may be right outside a major city, while another is hours away from the nearest town.

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Annual sales for men’s grooming products reached $3 billion in 2012, and are projected to grow to $6.1 billion by 2017. For the first time in history, men spent more cash on male-specific toiletries in 2013 than on shaving products. Retailers big and small are taking notice, and are betting big that the trend will only continue to grow.

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After years of relentless pressure, experts in the toy and gift market are finally beginning to see signs of a revitalized market for small to midsize retailers. However, they warn, it’s not a simple story. The market that’s emerging post-recession and post-Internet is a very different market than retailers have grown accustomed to. In fact, it may be more like the one their grandparents would recognize.

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Every industry evolves, and some even do it at Mach speed. It wasn’t too long ago that consumers used the Yellow Pages to find local business information, Blockbuster brought commercial-free movies into the home, six-disc changers played music in cars, and spare change was handed to toll booth workers.

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In today’s mobile world, consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to do almost everything. They use phones to make purchases, bank, read their news, to work while on the go, and even while watching TV. Despite the convenience of mobile technology, many brands are missing the mark when it comes to mobile customer care.

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Within five years 75 percent of retailers plan to identify customers when they walk in the store according to Boston Retail Partners 1st Annual CRM/Unified Commerce Benchmark Survey. Previously you could rest easy knowing your brand had a presence in multiple channels, both online and offline. Those days are long gone. As the customer’s decision-making process has become the epicenter of retail strategy, unified commerce has emerged as the medium for a holistic customer shopping experience.

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The National Federation of Independent Business announced its Small Business Optimism Index increased 1.4 points to 96.6 last month, the highest reading since September 2007, when the economy was about to slide into recession. The index has increased for three consecutive months.

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