How Retailers Leverage Social Media
27 Apr 2012 / By: Mike Paglia -

It’s no surprise to say that social media has changed the way we interact with each other and the world around us.  Shoppers now have a host of new ways, such as Facebook, Twitter, and the like, in which to connect with brands and retailers.  These changes have enormous implications on the retail landscape and on how we connect with shoppers.

Earlier today, we conducted a brief promotional webinar exploring this topic and what it means for suppliers.  Specifically

Will Laox Win Where Best Buy Failed? A visit to Laox in China.
26 Apr 2012 / By: Kristin Graham -

Best Buy’s failed attempt at penetrating the Chinese market proved that a business model of managing inventory and operating a high-cost, premium shopping experience for buying consumer electronics does not work in China. Consumers remain very price-sensitive when it comes to electronics and the low-cost model at local retailers such as Gome and Suning results in unbeatable prices. 

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Balancing Brands and Big-Boxes As Boomers Back Off
05 Apr 2012 / By: Laura Kennedy -

Today Sears announced it has appointed an exclusive global licensing agent to broaden the reach of its venerable appliance and home-improvement brands—Kenmore, Craftsman, and DieHard--“both within Sears Holdings and externally” around the world.

The announcement makes more public Sears’ low-key moves to extract more value from its tool and appliance brands’ considerable equity: already, a small selection of Craftsman products appears on shelves

Have vs. Have Not Worries
19 Mar 2012 / By: Frank Badillo -

The latest ups and downs in consumer confidence measures would seem to reflect the competing impact of an improving job market versus worsening gasoline prices.  But Kantar Retail’s spending intentions measure suggests something more may be at work.

The spending intentions of lower-income households—i.e., Have Not households—ticked higher in February, suggesting that an improving job market may be helping them more than rising gasoline prices are hurting them. 

Forecasting Change in 2012
06 Mar 2012 / By: Ray Gaul -

In February, Kantar Retail's analyst teams around the world focused on some of the economies hardest hit by the latest recession: France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. With this latest round of new forecasting we also focused in on three global key customers—Casino, Carrefour, and Walmart. Our premise: Efforts by Casino and Carrefour to reorganize in Europe and Walmart to reorganize in the USA may have an adverse effect on their overseas investments—particularly in Latin America where

Getting Ready for the Next Wave of Growth in China
01 Mar 2012 / By: Kristin Graham -

Lower tier cities represent a new growth frontier for retailers in China.

Today, many retailers have started introducing stores in China's Tier 3, Tier 4 and lower tier cities.  Is it working?  How will this new audience react to modern trade?  How is your company preparing for the next wave.

Kantar Retail's Market Insights team in China recently answered these questions in an article titled, "China’s Next Biggest Consumer:

Target's Data-Driven Attempt To Change Your Habits, And Why It's Important To Everyone
17 Feb 2012 / By: Bryan Gildenberg - Greetings everyone!  Great to return to the conversations blog after a long absence.

Read last night one of the most interesting pieces I've come across - a masterpiece by Charles Duhigg called "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" which will feature in the NY Times Magazine this Sunday (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all"" MORE

Kantar Retail's Top 50 Global Retailers, 2011
23 Jan 2012 / By: Alexandra Mansfield -

Kantar Retail proudly presents its Top 50 Global Retailer Ranking. This list ranks the top 50 global players by 2011 sales estimates, and provides a five-year growth outlook for each retailer.

Highlights

Global retail growth gained traction in 2011, despite uncertainty in Europe. The euro area debt crisis, natural disasters and political unrest in oil countries peppered the global scene,

Kantar Retail's Top 50 US Retailers, 2011
23 Jan 2012 / By: Alexandra Mansfield -

 Kantar Retail proudly presents its Top 50 U.S. Retailer Ranking for 2011. This list ranks the top 50 U.S. retail players by Kantar Retail’s 2011 sales estimates, and provides a five-year outlook for each retailer.

Highlights

Retail growth was steady in 2011; and it was a successful year for retailers that were able to effectively control costs and boost profits. Despite high

The Job Market’s Positive Signs
06 Jan 2012 / By: Frank Badillo -

Don’t be too quick to count on strong retail sales gains to follow December’s strong job numbers.  The pickup in job growth was not a surprise given the improving trend in initial unemployment claims we’ve been tracking.  While encouraging, the benefit to retail depends on whether a positive trend in job and income growth can be sustained.  And the trend can quickly fade, as we know just by recalling the events of last Spring. 

Last Spring, three straight

Where Will the Express Script Customer Go?
06 Jan 2012 / By: Jessica Campbell -

Pharmacy sales account for anywhere from 60-70% of total retail sales for drugstores such as CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, and scripts are the primary driver of front-end traffic. With the recent expiration of the Express Scripts contract with Walgreens, effective December 31, 2011, where will the customer go… what will the impact be on front end sales? Walgreens is doing its best to keep those customers, but the competition is moving in for the kill.

Although any store with a pharmacy

Why Mobile Promotional Codes Don't Work in Most Retailers
02 Jan 2012 / By: David Marcotte -

There has been a lot of writing and talk on mobile couponing.   On the smart device, go to the site and download the offer along with the bar code.   Then when you buy the product in a store, scan your device at the POS and redeem the offer.  The digital world meets the brick-and-mortar store to advance all forward for the consumer...except it doesn’t work.

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Target.com Out-of-Stocks Bounce Guests Straight to Amazon
12 Dec 2011 / By: Amy Koo -

With the happiest season of them all approaching fast, it’s exactly the wrong time for retailers to disappoint shoppers. But with dedicated online inventory out-of-stock at significant rates for heavily gifted categories (with OOS hitting almost 50% in toys for Target from a recent Bloomberg News study), that’s exactly what retailers at risk of doing. For Amazon, it’s a perfect opportunity to solidify its lead online.  If last year was about catching shoppers on price and

China Exporting a Retail Brand
30 Nov 2011 / By: Kristin Graham -

In an interesting turn of events, Chinese retailers are starting to launch plans to expand out of China. While foreign retailers finding limited growth opportunities in their respective home countries are fighting to compete for a piece of China’s rapidly growing consumer market, Chinese retailers are envisioning further success out of it.

But as we’ve seen with the flops of various foreign retail banners entering China, expansion into unknown territory is easier said

Indian Retail’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ as FDI Norms Relaxed
25 Nov 2011 / By: Himanshu Pal -

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.” –