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| Dec 22, 2023 | Business owners look for more than just profit | article-article-body
I’ve had an interesting week meeting and talking with directors of private companies. A real mixture of small and medium-sized businesses: retailers, manufactures, brand owners, financiers and service providers.
And the... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | At what cost? Why IT pricing differentials can make sense | article-article-body
There is a lot written about the difference in the price of software, hardware and online services between here and the US. IT companies, Apple and Microsoft included, come in for a pretty hard time from many IT journal... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Be bodacious with your mistakes | article-article-body
Massive visual repetition is a boon when you need to sell a lot of discounted stock fast, but it should also be part of your everyday merchandising DNA.
There’s an old adage in retail that you ‘sell your mistakes’. What... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dick Smith makeover shows early promise | article-article-body
It was good this past week to see the new public face of an iconic Australian company re-emerge. And it’s part way through a serious makeover. At the end of this transformation there’s little doubt that shoppers, and th... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | What Click Frenzy reveals about our risk averse enterprise culture | article-article-body
It was interesting, though not unsurprising, to see the media coverage on the launch of Click Frenzy last week. Click Frenzy Australia was an idea hatched in less than eight weeks to harness the groundswell of enthusias... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Borders disappear, opportunities appear | article-article-body
This sometimes throws up similar issues and opportunities, but in very different geographies.
I spent some time with my CEO counterpart from CROSSMARK Canada, Chris Terio last week. We were talking about the similaritie... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Valuable lessons from the US recovery for Australian business | article-article-body
There was much disagreement from two of the major US banks on the recent announcement that the US Treasury would pull back on its stimulus package early in 2014.
The view of the two largest banks was that the US isn’t y... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | How cost shortcuts can damage brand reputations | article-article-body
There is always the temptation by brand owners to improve profit by lowering quality whilst maintaining price.
Moving to a lower cost factory or country of production, decreasing the pack size or lowering packaging or p... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Aussies will get more for less this Christmas | article-article-body
We are now firmly into the Christmas holiday and gift giving season. Billboards, giant Santas, Christmas decorations, websites, catalogues and heaps of Christmas stock is now starting to flow into stores. This is always... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The gift of a close shave leads to growth | article-article-body
Most growth comes from new shoppers trying (‘trialling’ in marketing speak) new products or services, or indeed new stores. If they like the product, price and experience, they’ll buy again and your new baseline lifts a... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | As the UK’s high street suffers, online retail entrepreneurs emerge | article-article-body
Whilst driving around the UK this month looking at stores and meeting with companies operating in the retail technology sector, I heard a news story which claimed that 15 independent stores a day were now closing in the... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Flagging retail confidence | article-article-body
A few weeks ago I wrote about the lead up to the Christmas and New Year in Australia, New Zealand and the US, and the real sense that this holiday season will be much better than the last.
At the time we had US retail s... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The state of play in regional and rural retail | article-article-body
Things in retail remain tough. The ‘light at the head of the tunnel’ hinted at in RBA Governor Glenn Stevens’ ‘The Lucky Country‘ address two weeks ago sometimes appears like false dawn in stores and boardrooms across A... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Groundhog Day! | article-article-body
One of the great things about writing for SmartCompany is that the blogs you have written over many years, almost five in my case, are there to be referenced quickly, easily and from anywhere on the planet.
So, having r... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The retail caterpillar | article-article-body
I often refer to Australia as having a caterpillar relationship with Europe and the US in respect to parts of our retail sector.
Sometimes we are the head of the caterpillar, stretching out innovatively two or three yea... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The value of real-time, shopper-tailored docket offers | article-article-body
Global trends always move from market to market, country to country. The “category creep” I have written about before, where retailers with a core offering begin to introduce adjacent offerings – food into Target in the... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | How Oscar de Vries is taking on the razor business one clean shave at a time | article-article-body
We do love an Aussie battler. Even if he’s a Dutchman who’s made Australia his home.
We regularly hear about the constant and combative relationship between big retailers and big suppliers. It appears to be an unending ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Curation and display the key for online retailer | article-article-body
I’ve heard Howard Saunders from ECHO Chamber talk on several occasions, most recently at a retail conference in Melbourne. He’s now in New York working on the retail elements of the reinvigorated “Ground Zero” site bein... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | In the game of jobs creation, Kiwis win the grand slam | article-article-body
A few weeks ago I wrote about the positive impacts of any free trade agreement (FTA) to Australia for the shopper, specifically noting and welcoming the drop in new car prices for cars made in Japan under the new FTA wi... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Cyber Monday, and some frustrations of shopping online from Australia | article-article-body
Cyber Monday continues to grow around the world. It’s the largest online shopping day in the US, being the first working day after the US Thanksgiving long weekend. It’s a day also known as “Black Friday”, when the majo... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The pop-up stores turning into long-term retail businesses | article-article-body
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about ‘pop-up stores’, and have had conversations with people running and managing pop-ups. One of the key discussions to emerge is the reason for the location, and the longevity of the sit... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | We built this city on retail | article-article-body
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the 2011 Melbourne Retail Strategy Year Five report card. I highlighted that I had always thought of Melbourne as a great retailing city by dint of a good gene pool, or serendipity. It jus... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Singapore takes a gamble and wins big in global retail and tourism | article-article-body
I have spent the last two weeks traveling through Asia and the Middle East, looking at retail trends and meeting with local business people. As always I find myself looking for trends that have applicability to Australi... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Why JB Hi-Fi keeps defying analysts’ predictions | article-article-body
I was in Melbourne on business last week so took the time to catch up with my stockbroker, Charlie. Good bloke Charlie, known him for more than a decade.
We always talk about retail shares and what’s happening in retail... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Eclectic retailers deserve to succeed | article-article-body
I walked through small independent stores this week, trend spotting in advance of two friends of mine coming to Australia for speaking engagements, Howard Sanders and Paco Underhill.
Both Howard and Paco founded and run... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Retailers swimming in the great blue ocean | article-article-body
Whenever we launch new business models or “new mousetraps”, as management consultants say, we tend to have only a short period of time during which our “newness” has value to shoppers and better margins for the business... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Building a successful business in the school of hard knocks | article-article-body
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in planning sessions with several grocery clients in Australia and New Zealand. These clients are manufacturers and retailers alike, so we’ve been looking at growing both branded and ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | A little less tax, and a little more care: Two positives from the budget | article-article-body
With my small business chairman hat on my head, as well as my chairman of a large business hat on too, I read the outcomes of the federal government’s budget with interest.
I’m not going to look at the “what could’ve be... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Vibrancy and innovation behind the Melbourne shopping scene | article-article-body
I first visited Melbourne in late 1997 and went to the Melbourne Grand Prix in March of 1998. I have been hooked on the city ever since, and have been fortunate enough over the years to have opened offices in Melbourne ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | What’s in store for retail in 2013? | article-article-body
At the end of each year I write to the top 20 CEOs and leaders in the CROSSMARK client base. I’ve been doing it for almost a decade.
In my message, I recap on the prediction I made for the year just finishing and predic... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | What’s hot on Christmas lists this year | article-article-body
So December is finally here, and we’ve passed our Click Frenzy, New Zealand’s Click Monday and into the two major online and bricks-and-mortar “super sales days” in the US – Cyber Monday and Black Friday.
These last two... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Laying the foundations for being a successful small retailer | article-article-body
Flying up and down the east coast of Australia this month, and talking with property developers, real estate agents and financial advisers, it’s really brought home just how big our east coast building boom is.
But funn... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Time to re-shape retail | article-article-body
I lead an exciting life at times – and a rather less exciting one at others. Yet I am always surprised by the way some things appear to be exciting, until you get closer and find out that they aren’t – and of course, vi... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The struggles of a small retailer | article-article-body
From walking small strip malls and high streets this month, it was easy to see the impact of sluggish retail sales on small, independently owned retailers in far North Queensland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and A... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Why moving to New Zealand might be the way to go | article-article-body
My blog last week highlighted the growth disparities in the retail and distributive trades between Australia and New Zealand, with NZ growing and Australia shrinking slowly, or flatlining at best.
I pointed out that our... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Self-employment, the demise of the corporation and job satisfaction for the over 50s | article-article-body
More and more reporting is highlighting the move to self-employment across countries that have similar laws, politics and social structure to Australia. At the same time there are observations about the demise of the “c... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | How to create authentic customer relationships using social media | article-article-body
Writing about growth and working with SMEs has forced me to look harder and more deeply at the relationship between the big and small and the role of social media.
Not just in the superficial, “Ah yes, everybody’s using... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | From sausage dogs to hot hogs: How SMEs can use Facebook to engage with customers | article-article-body
Facebook and small retailers do go together very well, when matched properly. And by that I mean when the use of the tool is authentic.
Here are two examples. I’ve written many times about my wife’s specialist online bu... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The unique retailing experience of island communities | article-article-body
Walking stores in major cities always gives you a good sense of trends that are emerging in different parts of the world. Whether it’s a format change, a product change or how retailers are adopting new technologies, th... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The next generation of stores | article-article-body
The retail sector in Australia continues to reverberate with profit downgrades and restructuring including DJ’s and Solomon Lew’s Premier Retail Group last week.
However, the steps being taken by all major retailers sen... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Merger or not, Myer and David Jones need to play in the global shopping mall | article-article-body
There’s been a lot of speculation and discussion around the potential for a Myer-David Jones merger over the past three weeks. Last week, Bernie Brookes was re-appointed CEO of Myer, and an analyst report stated that th... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Boarding call: You can’t beat forging international business partnerships in person | article-article-body
I’m up in Hong Kong in a few weeks’ time attending the Retail Technology Expo 2014 with retailers and technology suppliers from Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas. I’ll also invest time in walking sto... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Retail maestros reveal their insights | article-article-body
I spent this week speaking at a major conference attended by two international retail experts: one from London, the other from New York. Both were keynote speakers presenting to, and engaging with, some of the top retai... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The impulse shopping revival | article-article-body
I read two completely unrelated reports from either side of the Pacific this week. One was talking about the drop in the instances and value of “impulse purchase” among retail shoppers across North America. The other wa... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Manufacturing home brands in Oz | article-article-body
My son is just finishing a two year advertising degree. He is creative and passionate about the role of the internet in messaging for brands, is media and commerce savvy – and hates writing.
Sadly for him, his second ye... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Good value doesn’t mean cheap | article-article-body
One of the many graphs in the Productivity Commission’s report on retail productivity showed that when it comes to our pay cheques, we are spending less of it each year on “stuff” at retail. “Stuff” refers to everything... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Traditional vs online retailers: Who will win the race for growth? | article-article-body
Last week, Myer CEO Bernie Brookes was quoted as saying that over the coming couple of years the pure online retailers would be successively overtaken by the traditional mainstream retailers.
This would be done because ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Why small high street stores are in decay | article-article-body
I’ve had several calls from journalists around the country over the past month, all with a common thread to their stories. The thread is one of rejuvenation.
It runs something like this. From the Gold Coast highway, Cha... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Christmas 2011: More online than ever before | article-article-body
September is over and we are moving into Christmas 2011 and New Year 2012. So I think it is time for a little prophesising, future seeing and prescience.
Well, educated guess-work at least.
Those of you who have read th... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Retail challenges on a small continent | article-article-body
It’s a tough environment in Australian retailing at the moment. The fact that two CEOs have left their roles mid-way through their contracts is clear evidence that our publicly quoted, traditional, Australian domiciled ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Hong Kong and Macau: A safe stepping stone into China? | article-article-body
Whenever we see with our own eyes something we’ve read about it becomes more real. No shock there.
Having been back up in China over the past week, I have reinvested in my belief that Australia’s, and New Zealand’s, fut... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The rise of retail own labels | article-article-body
When we vote for politicians or pay senior public servants large amounts of money to perform important roles, we expect a level of awareness and knowledge from them in order to be able to perform their duties. We also e... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | How a tiny city became one of the world’s biggest shopping destinations | article-article-body
I was back in Dubai last week looking at stores and meeting with brand owners wanting to export to Australia and New Zealand. I am still amazed at how much the idea of being the best shopping destination in the world ha... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Council parking policies stifling retail opportunity | article-article-body
Last week I appeared on The Big Sell on SBS’s Insight current affairs program hosted by Jenny Brockie, a hugely capable and incisive journalist and presenter backed up by an equally clever and incisive team. It felt a l... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The rise of pantry and sports locker stocking | article-article-body
One of the key areas of promotional activity that drives sales in grocery, or any high volume, low margin retailing, is straight out deep discounting and purchase-with-purchase mechanics.
Mechanics such as “50% off” and... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Why suppliers will continue to do business with companies in receivership | article-article-body
My blog last week on Jan Cameron and Retail Adventures drew a lot of highly-charged feedback, not surprisingly from suppliers unhappy with money they had lost or had at risk when the retailer was put into administration... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Consistent offer-based online communication is critical for sales results | article-article-body
In the first few days of winter, our traditional June long weekend has just passed and we have a new crop of well-deserved Order of Australia recipients following the Queen’s birthday.
The long weekend is also close to ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The darkest hour in Australian retail – and why it may have passed | article-article-body
Despite the cold and dark, I am an early riser; I paddle and train at around 5.30am many mornings and my favourite departure time when I fly is 6am, no matter where I am going to or coming from. This makes me an unpopul... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Scoring the shopper trifecta | article-article-body
The discussion and debate over the good and bad of online retailing continues. Last week Channel Nine and SBS took balanced and thoughtful positions on how the store and online formats are coming together.
In New Zealan... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Scott Galloway’s rapid-fire insight into the future of retail and digital economies: Where next for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon? | article-article-body
In Hollywood they say it takes 16 years to become an overnight success. From my mid-teens to now I’ve always been told that I speak too fast. Whether generally being excited about an issue in a one-on-one conversation, ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Rejuvenating shopping malls: Taking a Roman approach to modern retail problems | article-article-body
Back in 2005 when Paco Underhill wrote his second book, The Call of The Mall, the world of retail and large shopping malls was rosy. However, Paco, the world’s pre-eminent authority on the psychology of shopping, was al... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | High street shopping to make a resurgence with the ‘me generation’ | article-article-body
I am speaking at the Informa Fashion Exposed/Business in Fashion conference at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre this coming weekend.
Whilst researching trends across the US, Europe and Asia as part of the preparation for... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Systemic change and what it means to retailing and wholesaling: Part two | article-article-body
Last week I wrote about feedback from calls I had made to retailers, distributors, sales agents and brand owners taking the temperature of business in and around retail. It was a mixed bag of results across the canvas o... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The retail adventures of Jan Cameron | article-article-body
The news that Jan Cameron and the directors of Retail Adventures, owners of Go-Lo, Sam’s Warehouse, Crazy Clark’s and Chickenfeed stores, have called in the receiver came as a huge surprise to me.
Not so much the timing... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Going for growth with the right mix of government policies | article-article-body
I’ve managed to be in all three eastern state capitals this month, looking at retail and working alongside business owners and CEOs of Australian companies as well as the subsidiaries of multinational companies. So, I’v... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The devil is not in the detail | article-article-body
I was in a small coffee shop in Sydney this week and was reminded why good retailers always talk about detail. Big or small, old or new, retailers, and even those who don’t own stores but sell their products and manage ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Growth, people and funding: Why SMEs are driving economic growth | article-article-body
I was talking with one of the journalists at SmartCompany this week about some upcoming changes in parts of Australian business, and at the end he said: “I know you’ve been blogging for us for almost six years, just wan... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The rise and rise of the convenience store | article-article-body
I’ve been in Hawaii the past two weeks racing outrigger canoes with my club, so I missed a couple of blogs. In Hawaii I came across a chain, more a blanket, of small convenience stores.
ABC is a fantastically buzzy and ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Retailers need better technology, not more staff, to improve customer experience | article-article-body
Roy Morgan Research this week once again highlighted our two-speed trans-Tasman market, with the Kiwis still on fire.
New Zealand consumer confidence up, retail sales up, job vacancies down and, all in all, an almost ex... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Christmas fairs and fares: How they shape our shopping | The busy Salamanca Market in Hobart article-article-body
I was talking with a number of friends about their traditional Christmas shopping habits and whether those habits would change much this year. There was a good mixture of shoppers.
On... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Lower shopper prices deliver higher shareholder profits | article-article-body
Harrison Polites at Business Spectator recently wrote a great article on the relative profit performance of key major Australian retailers, with the graph reproduced below (with thanks) clearly highlighting the power of... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Australian retailers reach world-class heights | article-article-body
It’s always good to see an Aussie make it in the big bad world outside our shores. Even if, at times, New Zealand has a prior claim.
We are happy to describe Crowded House and Russell Crowe as being “ours” when it suits... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Transformation lies ahead for bricks and mortar retailers | article-article-body
It was a busy week hearing from a wide range of retailers, brand owners and global retail industry advisers this week.
The first half of the week I spent at the Retail World 2012 conference in Melbourne’s amazing Conven... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Online price versus offline experience | article-article-body
The raging debate over online shopping continues, and it’s really quite a polarising issue.
Every shopper loves the “wonderful online shopping thing”, as it offers great service, wider choice and lower prices for the th... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Christmas sales are looking healthy | article-article-body
The great thing about the US is access to data. Huge amounts of broadly collected and publicly available shared shopper data that allows people to make decisions on how to talk to shoppers.
Last week I talked about how ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The role of department stores | article-article-body
I have spent much of the past couple of months visiting stores in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and I’ve seen that there is a lot going on in the department store sector around the world, including Harrods, Nordstrom... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Authenticity, colour and noise still keys to getting shopper attention | article-article-body
Walking stores in Singapore, Dubai and major cities in the UK last month highlighted the different approaches major retailers take to balancing their own margin needs with the shoppers’ needs for a great experience in s... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | A six-month update on the refurbishment of US retail icon JC Penney | article-article-body
It’s six months since I was last in a JC Penney, or “jcp”, store in the US. When I was there last week I wanted to see if there was any discernible change at store level another six months into the calm transition that ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Systemic change and and what it means to retailing and wholesaling: Part one | article-article-body
I didn’t spend my week in stores, but on the phone to retailers, distributors, sales agents and brand owners taking the temperature of business in and around retail.
It was a mixed bag of results across the canvas of Au... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | We’ll drink to that: Aldi brands challenge not only price but quality | article-article-body
Whether trading as Aldi, LIDL or Trader Joe’s, the rise and rise of the small product range, high quality, low price, retail-own brand focused stores in the overall “Aldi” family group is impressive.
I shop CBD grocery ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Being your own brand turns retail model on its head | article-article-body
I spent last week in the US on a retail tour with an Australian client. A wise and experienced senior grocery manufacturer exec who, unusually, had run grocery stores in the earlier part of his career.
It gave him an in... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Night-time doesn’t equal shopping time in Australia for tourists | article-article-body
I wrote last week about our need to woo visiting shoppers if the Asian Century was to assist our country going forward. That was before it became clear that our continuing move from mining and manufacturing to a service... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The power of a government employee | article-article-body
I suggested in a recent post that many highly paid government employees should perhaps spend more time in the real world to better understand how the policy they shape and hand down as law impacts on businesses.
I was s... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Kochie and what’s pressing Australian retailers | article-article-body
I am fortunate to be able to talk to small and large business via Smartcompany but also appear on David Koch’s Channel 7 program Kochie’s Business Builders (KBB) from time to time.
From the TV, KBB content flows through... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Retail-friendly local government policy | article-article-body
One of the key issues facing bricks and mortar retailers is the question of how to get you in-store when products are often sold online at better prices and can be delivered straight to your door.
Some store owners are ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | A spiritual experience in retail | article-article-body
The balance between wants and needs in a shopper’s mind before and whilst shopping has shaped how we shop and what we shop for since the dawn of retail. Striking this balance also defines the retail and product winners ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Why Melbourne Spring Fashion Week is such a successful event | article-article-body
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
“Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Why direct-to-shopper retailing matters | article-article-body
With individual small value food items, such as bread, spreads and oils, it’s very difficult to do anything other than sell into retail and work hard to influence the shopper to choose to take you home.
The amount of mo... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Rain clouds pass over retail | article-article-body
There is little doubt it’s been a drab few weeks for retail across the country.
Our public company woes have been played out by major “discretionary retailers” like DJ’s, announcing very poor end of year sales.
The “tou... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Seven trends in retail to fuel growth in 2015 | article-article-body
It has been a slow period of retail growth in Australia as we near the end of 2014, in marked contrast to fast paced growth in US retailing.
Here are seven key trends that will continue or appear in retail – and not jus... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Plenty of bite in pet food | article-article-body
There’s so much talk about the rise of retailer owned brands and a misplaced belief that this is a bad thing for Australians and a bad thing for Australian companies who manufacture here. Yet we have very clear evidence... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Beginning to believe again: Super Retail prove a point to doubters | article-article-body
There are now very compelling signs that things are moving along well in retail. The changes the industry has seen: the restructuring, new suppliers, investment in omni-channel, to name a few, are all beginning to deliv... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Elephants are dancing with mice, how the big end of town helps SMEs | article-article-body
I attended the Sydney leg of an Australia Post roadshow hosted by CEO Ahmed Fahour this week. And it was a “Yep, they’ve got their moment” for me as I saw the fruit of three years of SME-focused digital product developm... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The Aldi, LIDL conundrum: Same, same, but different | article-article-body
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog on Aldi, and it started with “whether trading as Aldi, LIDL or Trader Joe’s, the rise and rise of the small product range, high quality, low price, retail-own brand focused stores in... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Australian retail needs to embrace cashed-up Asian shoppers | article-article-body
It’s been a couple of weeks of optimism in the world of retail both here and in the US as a result of strong sales figures. A major US department store, Neiman Marcus, a favourite among the wives on reality TV show Big ... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | The downside to retailing this Christmas | article-article-body
It’s been a tough year for a number of Australian retail sectors – which means it’s been a tough year for manufacturers, suppliers, freight forwarders, clearing agents, recruiters and employees.
We live in a very connec... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Big business experience doesn’t necessarily mean small business success | article-article-body
A writer who has been instrumental in shaping the minds, and businesses, of perhaps millions of small to medium business owners is visiting Australia next month.
Verne Harnish will be speaking in Sydney and Melbourne in... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Online is key to boosting growth in regional areas | article-article-body
Among all of the feedback on the SBS Insight program’s website, following its “Big Sell” episode was one from Steve who lives and works in Tamworth. He highlighted something that many of us, including John Alexander, ou... |
| Dec 22, 2023 | How Singapore looks after its small business sector | article-article-body
I have spent the last two weeks in Singapore and Malaysia looking at regional and metro retail, meeting local Australian, European and American expat business owners and researching business courses.
However, my greates... |
