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Volume 4 - Issue 2
1/19/2010
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The NRF Mood Ring
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
Remember the mood ring? Along with the Pet Rock, it was one of the biggest fads of the ’70’s. Maybe it’s time for a comeback. After all, it’s hard to tell from any of the rational evidence what a “better” 2010 will look like for retailers. For example, the NRF announced on 1/14: “After a year that saw holiday sales decrease by 3.4 percent, retailers bounced back in 2009… retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) for December rose 2.3 percent unadjusted year-over-year…. As a result, preliminary 2009 holiday sales… rose 1.1 percent to $446.8 billion….” On the other hand, on the very same day the Wall Street Journal reported: “U.S. consumers defaulted on store-branded credit cards at near-record levels during the holiday season, and the trend is likely to continue this year, according to Fitch Ratings. During the November collection period, about $1 of every $8 of receivables was written off as uncollectible….”
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NRF Goes Mobile, but Where Does Mobile Go from Here?
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
I don't know about you, but counting them all up, I think I saw no less than 5 demos of mobile applications at NRF this year. I think it says a lot for the state of mobile commerce when many of the demos emphasized "Look, there's a 'buy' button!" However, there's a lot more going on under the surface.
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General Big Show Impressions, plus dunnhumby/KSS Update
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
This week, I want to cover two topics: my general observations at NRF’s Big Show in New York, January 10-13, and also to deliver a promised update on dunnhumby’s acquisition of KSS Retail.
First: the general update: at the end of the show, a journalist asked me my impressions. Much to his surprise, there was only one word to say... Read more
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