Archives tagged: ecommerce

dollar general

Dollar General Looks Good Today. Will Tomorrow Be Different?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD March 26, 2018

From a business strategy standpoint, Dollar General has positioned themselves to avoid direct competition with Amazon and Walmart, having successfully demonstrated a way to deal with the duopoly’s increasing presence in the retail market.

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Strategic Movements: March 2018

By Tim J. Smith, PhD March 26, 2018

In his book Pricing: The Third Business Skill, EJ Bouter made the case for pricing to become its own department, right next to finance, marketing, sales, and operations in chapters 14-16.

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Strategic Movements: January 2018

By Tim J. Smith, PhD January 28, 2018

The future may not become a dystopian duopoly of just Amazon and Walmart. There will be competition, but which and who? In dirt one can find gems.

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Future of Internet at Stake if FCC Abandons Net Neutrality

By James T. Berger December 22, 2017

By the time you read this article, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will have voted on a FCC proposal to revoke “net neutrality” and stop regulating Internet service providers (ISPs), like landline phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon.

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Strategic Movements: December 2017

By Tim J. Smith, PhD December 22, 2017

The Federal Aviation Administration is contemplating an $8 increase on domestic round-trip ticketing fees.  In response, Delta Air Lines Inc. claims that for every $1 increase in facility charges, passenger demand declines by more than 1%. That would imply a primary demand elasticity of about three. Seems right. So, an $8 facilities charge increase would decrease flight travel by 8%.

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Strategic Movements: September 2017

By Tim J. Smith, PhD September 14, 2017

Wendy’s achieved another quarter of same store sales growth.  Was it their sassy social media campaign that reminds detractors of the existence of refrigerators?  Was it their new menu items?  Or was it the fast food chain’s competitive pricing? Of the three, I think it was their social media campaign that propelled otherwise strong product and pricing strategy to outperform.

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Who Will Survive the Retail Revolution?

By James T. Berger June 16, 2017

In The Future of Shopping, a 2011 article by Darrell Rigby—a partner in the Boston office of Bain & Company—sees retail today as part of a 50-year cycle. Rigby writes 150 years ago, the railroads promoted the growth of big cities and the rise of the department store. One hundred years ago, the automobile made possible the shopping center and 50 years ago, we saw the rise of the Big Box category killers.

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B2B and B2C Ecommerce Trends Witnessed at Internet Retailer 2016

By David Dalka August 3, 2016

Adrienne Hartman, Director of Ecommerce & Customer Insights at J.J. Keller & Associates talked about how B2B Ecommerce cannot be solved only by software alone. (I agree with her) She also talked about using Google Manufacturing Center. She encourages you to ask, “How well can buyers use your site?” It is clear that her words come from an employee of an organization with a strong culture.

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Trends Observed at the 2016 International Home and Housewares Show

By David Dalka June 7, 2016

One of the most interesting booth visits I had was with Starfrit. Founder Jacques Gatien started selling kitchen gadgets at trade fairs in 1965. Over the past several decades, they’ve created many new categories. They showed me The Rock, a frying pan with a unique non-stick surface using what they call RockTec. It comes with a generous 10-year warranty.

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Why Retail Has Reached an “Inflexion Point”

By James T. Berger August 10, 2015

Alvarez says that if you have two or three mall anchors of tenants driving traffic, this affects the entire mall. This creates a domino effect that reached down into the community through the lowering of tax base. “One major trend that Retail Revolution (the book) points out is that retailers will reduce store count and also reduce the size of those locations as online commerce begins to satisfy more and more demand….”

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